While Wheeling Park entered Friday rated seventh in the 16-team playoff field of the WVSSAC’s Class AAAA, John Marshall was holding onto a spot in Class AAA, rated 16th coming into Friday.

“Let’s give ourselves a chance, that’s what we said at the beginning of the year,” John Marshall head coach Mark Cisar said after the game. “Let’s give ourselves a chance to get in. And we did. We got outplayed tonight. Sometimes that’s how life is, but our kids battled, we showed grit. Super proud of them. Super proud of the seniors. A lot of them did a lot of good things this year. And really proud of our younger kids stepping up with all the injuries we had and making good contributions to us and buying into the system and just, you know, making it fun.

“It was– even though, you know, we might not end up where we want to be tomorrow– still a fun year for us.”

Final playoff seedings for all classes will be released Saturday evening.

Wheeling Park quarterback Jay Bordas slung it for 292 yards and three touchdowns in the rivalry win– the victory made 15 straight for the Patriots in their annual battle against the Monarchs, giving them a 36-15 all-time advantage– while running back Brennan Wack rushed for 218 yards and two touchdowns. The two touchdowns set a new school record at Park, as Wack reached 51 TD’s in his career Friday.

With the points coming fast and heavy, the final result had Patriots head coach Chris Daugherty of two minds.

“I’m sure it was fun for the fans, but it wasn’t fun for the coaches,” Daugherty said of Friday. “We’d like to get more stops than we did, but, you know, we gave up some big plays, gave up a kick return. But at the end of the day, we know we have to play a little bit better defense than we played tonight. We executed when we had to, you know, both offensively and defensively.”

‘Big plays’ summed up Friday, with the fireworks coming quicker and quicker as the game went on.

The score stood just 7-0 after the first quarter, a 20-yard strike down the sideline from Bordas to Tatum Justice the only touchdown in the opening frame. Isaac Sands ran in a seven-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, after reeling in a 38-yard pass earlier in the drive.

Wheeling Park opened up a 21-0 lead with 9:34 to play in the second on the most novel play of the entire night- and the one which opened the flood gates for the up-and-down action to come.

On an attempted short pass by John Marshall, 320-pound Wheeling Park nose tackle Akeem Davis reached up and snatched an interception at the line of scrimmage right at midfield, barrelled forward in a crowd of Patriots and Monarchs– and just kept going.

With all 22 men on the field swarming around him, Davis plowed on and on down the field, a true rugby scrum developing on the field as Davis was propelled down past the 40, the 30, the 20, the 10, and into the end zone in a rarity of a defensive touchdown.

“Yeah, that was fun for the kids, it was fun for Akeem,” Daugherty said. “He’s a strong, powerful kid. And so, yeah, you got to tackle him. He doesn’t get the ball at nose guard, but when he got his hands on the ball, he made the best of it. He knew that was his one touch and he was going to make it go.”

On the following kickoff though, John Marshall answered back, Xavier Wells housing a return straight up the gut and into the end zone to put the Monarchs on the board.

Dalton Cooper broke the plane on a one-yard touchdown run with three minutes ’till halftime, and Wheeling Park led 21-12 at the break.

Wheeling Park scored 21 points in each of the third and fourth quarters. Brennan Wack raced for touchdown runs of 26 and 32 yards in the third, and Bordas connected with Owen Dobrzynski-Hines for a 32-yard touchdown in the quarter too. Dobrzynski-Hines finished with a team-high 120 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

He’d score again in the fourth quarter on a 40-yard bomb. Isaac Sands notched his second touchdown of the game on the ground with an eight-yard scamper, and Nolan Yanchak had the last score of the night with a 19-yard touchdown run.

“It’s a rivalry game, you know what you’re going to get with John Marshall,” Daugherty said. “They’re going to throw everything at you. Coach Cisar did a great job calling plays tonight and their kids did a nice job executing. And now it’s over and we’ve got to go play. We’ve got to get ready for our home playoff game.”

John Marshall threw haymakers too, scoring 14 points in either quarter of the second half. Cooper ripped up the middle for a 44-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter, and Landen Snyder scored on a 40-yard touchdown pass down the sideline after the DB in coverage fell down. Snyder had a banner day to end his junior regular season, catching nine passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns.

He caught a 64-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter, and finished off another drive with a 12-yard screen pass touchdown too.

“We knew it was going to be a shootout,” Cisar said. “I mean, they made more big plays than us. We made some big plays. We couldn’t get any big stops in the second half and get off the field. We were in pretty good shape at halftime. They just made big plays. Bordas back there threw the ball well. Wack obviously ran well. You know, just too many points to chase, when you’re chasing points it makes it awful hard at the end. But I’m really proud of our kids. I thought we played our butts off. We never gave up. We kept on battling the whole game.”

If John Marshall’s season did come to a close Friday, then it will still stand as the first Monarchs squad to post a winning record since 2021. Cisar was proud of what this year’s departing seniors have left behind.

“Last year, the seniors last year kind of got us going in the right direction. These guys continued it. You know, there’s only like 10 of them, 11 of them. Just an outstanding effort. We had so many injuries this year, and guys stepped up. Just an unbelievable year when nobody thought we’d be here.”