Ohio high school playoff football: Wyoming falls short in state semifinal

PIQUA - Back in a state semifinal for a third straight year and minus an Ohio Mr. Football, Wyoming High School nearly pulled it off Saturday night. Five seconds into the fourth quarter they scored to break a tie at 14, but the extra point was missed.

Quickly Van Wert responded with a score and conversion to go up 21-20 and the Cowboys couldn't add anything from there.

Owen Treece had a late touchdown that put the Cougars up 28-20, and a final Cowboy drive ended with Van Wert's Connor Pratt picking off quarterback Brennan Pagan.

Van Wert went to the victory formation and Wyoming went home with its first loss of the season, 28-20.

"We fought 'til the end and that's all you can do," Wyoming coach Aaron Hancock said. "I'm proud of this group and proud of the way they overcame a lot of adversity this year. Not just with the COVID issues, not just with the quarantine issues, not just with the political issues that tend to drag on the field. It's just a strange 2020.

"The one thing that kept us together and the one thing that will continue to keep us together is football."

Pagan played courageously in his final Wyoming start, completing 15 of his 26 passes, including eight  to his long-distance companion Joop Mitchell, who finished with 132 yards receiving. Sophomore C.J. Hester, who had 176 yards last week against Clinton-Massie, was held to 52 on 25 totes.

For victorious Van Wert, quarterback Treece was 13-of-22 passing and also ran for 55 yards and a score. 

Wyoming came up with a fourth-down stop on the opening series of the contest, stifling Van Wert at the  5-yard line. From there, Pagan directed a 14-play 95-yard drive culminating with Pagan diving in from the left for the early 7-0 lead.

To start the second quarter. Van Wert's Owen Treece got the Cougars near the goal line with Nate Jackson plowing in to tie. Wyoming responded with another long drive helped by a second long completion from Pagan to  Mitchell.  Hester scored from three yards out with 5:30 left in the half for the 14-7 lead. 

Alas, the elusive Treece would get the Cougars in scoring position again with Jackson plunging in from a yard out once again for the 14-14 halftime tie.

Wyoming dominated possession in the third quarter, running 22 plays to Van Wert's three. To start the last quarter, Pagan hit Mitchell for a score but the extra point hit the crossbar so the lead was 20-14.

That left an opening for Van Wert and Treece responded with a 46-yard scoring pass to Dru Johnson who scampered down the left side and scored. Damon McCracken's extra point was good and Van Wert led for the first time at 21-20.

The lead held until Treece scored again in the final minute to provide for the 28-20 final.

It was Wyoming's first loss since last Nov. 30 when they also fell in the Division IV semifinal. They haven't lost a regular-season game since 2015.

"No one was counting on us to be here," Hancock said. "Every single week we had all these questions and no respect for this team. This team became a final four team. Flat-out, they proved a lot of people wrong. We're going to continue to surprise some people in the following couple of years."

Van Wert had knocked out the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in their region to get to Piqua. The least amount of points they had scored coming in was 29. They had scored 90 points in their previous two playoff wins. Wyoming's defensive effort was the best the Cougars had seen.

Van Wert now moves on to play Mentor Lake Catholic Sunday, Nov. 22 at noon at Fortress Obetz in Columbus for the Division IV championship.

Wyoming will regroup and with a young squad should never be counted out on returning according to Coach Hancock.

"This is a young team and we'll have a lot of experience for the following couple of years," Hancock said. "I truly believe the sky's the limit for this program."

VAN WERT   0   14   0  14  28

WYOMING    7    7    6   0   20

W - Pagan 2 yard run (Gonzalez kick)

V - Jackson 1 yard run (McCracken kick)

W - Hester 3 yard run (Gonzalez kick)

V - Jackson 1 yard run (McCracken kick)

W - Pagan 9 yard pass to Mitchell (extra point missed)

V - Treece 46 yard pass to Johnson (McCracken kick)

V - Treece 15 yard run (McCracken kick)