By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

DARKE COUNTY — Here are the scores and stats from the second round of the high school football playoffs from the teams around the county.

Division VII, Region 28: 2 Ansonia 34 vs 10 Mechanicsburg 8

The Tigers grinded their way to a win to move on in the playoffs. Head coach Adam Hall said the team came into this one with a lot of injuries and had some guys go down during the game.

That didn’t matter as the team won their 12th game of the season, the first time in school history.

“To beat them period is a win. To beat them without some of our guys the way that we did is a testament to how hard our guys worked,” Hall said. ““We have great kids. They worked hard all year long. We’ve never had a team here have a 12-win season. It couldn’t happen to a better group.”

Ansonia had a 28-8 lead at half. Mechanicsburg scored their lone touchdown of the game right before halftime on a two-yard touchdown run.

Senior Keegen Weiss had 299 yards rushing on 46 carries and three touchdowns. Junior Zane Henderson scored the first touchdown of the game on a five-yard touchdown run. Senior Nick Burns also had a 20-yard touchdown run.

The Tigers will take on the 14th seed St. Henry Redskins on Nov. 10 at Piqua High School at 7 p.m.

A full game recap can be found on our website, dailyadvocate.com

Division VI, Region 24: 5 Tri-Village 50 at West Liberty-Salem 29

Behind senior Reed Wehr’s seven touchdowns, the Patriots won on a playoff game on the road. Head coach Matt Hopkins said Wehr showed why he is the best player in Southwest Ohio.

“I’ll die on this hill, that kid is the best player in Southwest Ohio. I’m telling you that right now. It’s a shame he didn’t get player of the year in the league. I’m almost glad because now he’s got a chip on his shoulder and he’s playing to prove people wrong,” Hopkins said.

After stopping the Tigers on the game’s opening possession, the Patriots scored on their first offensive play. Senior Braden Keating found Wehr for a 60-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-0 early.

The team then started to struggle with penalties and special teams mistakes. A misplay on a punt return led to the Patriots being close to their own goal line. On fourth down, Wehr was tackled on the punt attempt and West Liberty took a 9-7 lead. The Tigers then scored on the next possession.

On the kickoff after being down 16-7, Wehr returned the kick for a touchdown to only be down 16-15. West Liberty senior Gabe McGill kept the Tigers out front as he had three rushing touchdowns in the first half and scored just before the first half ended to go up 23-15.

Hopkins said after a bad first half coaching and a bad first half from his team, the team came out and had a great second half.

It was the Reed Wehr show. He returned another kickoff, the opening second half kickoff. Wehr said while he knew the Tigers were trying to avoid kicking to him, he still wanted to make a play on special teams.

“I realized they weren’t going to kick it to me, so I told my pals Paul and Tanner, ‘Back off, let me get this. I’m going to go house this.’ I saw a hole and I cut up and left them in the dust,” Wehr said.

During the second half, Wehr scored four rushing touchdowns to bring his total up to seven for the game.

The only time West Liberty scored in the second half was off a 21-yard interception return touchdown. Hopkins said the defense rose to the occasion during the second half and shutdown McGill.

“All 11 of them played just mean, nasty. We got after people and tackled better. That was what we talked about all week long. We had to tackle, we had to tackle 21 (McGill). We did a really good job of that in the second half,” Hopkins said.

The Patriots will take on eighth seed Anna on Nov. 10 at Lima Senior at 7 p.m.

A full game recap can be found on our website, dailyadvocate.com

Division VI, Region 24: 2 Versailles 41 vs 7 Twin Valley South 8

The Tigers put up 21 points in the first quarter on their way to an easy win over the Panthers. Seniors Joel Gehret and Lane Bergman each had two rushing touchdowns. Senior Aaron Bowlin and sophomore Brandt Patton each had a rushing touchdown as well.

Versailles had two interceptions in the game and held Twin Valley South to 135 yards rushing. Senior Cais Kingsley had the lone touchdown for the Panthers.

Senior A.J. Griesdorn came up with an interception on the Panther’s first possession of the game.

Versailles will take on third seed Cincinnati Country Day on Nov. 10 at Xenia at 7 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]