It was a memorable return to the state playoffs for West Liberty-Salem’s football team Saturday.
The Tigers, back in the postseason for the first time in three seasons, held on to beat visiting Madeira 21-14 in a Division V, Region 20, playoff opener at Tiger Stadium.
“I’m just excited and proud of these guys,” said WL-Salem head coach Dan McGill. “It wasn’t pretty. It seemed like we made a mistake every third or fourth play.
“At the same time, these guys held together and overcame some adversity. Some of that adversity was caused by Madeira, and hats off to them because they are a good football team, but some of that was self inflicted and those are things we have to fix.”
WL-Salem jumped out to a 14-0 lead at halftime, but saw Madeira outscore the Tigers 14-7 in the third quarter to close within a touchdown.
The fourth-seeded Tigers (10-1) move on to the regional semifinals where they will face top-seeded Cincinnati Taft (10-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Miamisburg High School.
“I don’t know a ton about them,” said McGill. “I know they are athletic. I’ll turn on the tape (Sunday) and find out more, but we’re going to enjoy this one right now.”
While the final score of Saturday’s game may have been close, it was lopsided on the stat sheet. WL-Salem outgained Madeira 376-138 in total yardage. The Mustangs were limited to just 11 rushing yards. The Tigers also forced three turnovers on defense.
“That is a good offensive team, and it was especially good on our part to hold them to just two scores,” said McGill. “We gave them a short field on one of those scores. So, our defense was huge tonight. They have some talented players over there and our guys didn’t back down.”
WL-Salem senior quarterback Trevor Woodruff was again rock solid, completing 18-of-26 passes for 205 yards and a touchdown, while running in another score.
Senior tailback Holden Nease had a big game on the ground for the Tigers with 150 rushing yards and a score.
“It was a good mixture of guys getting involved,” said McGill. “Honestly, we didn’t play our best. We made enough plays at key moments to get the win.”
After forcing Madeira to a three-and-out on the game’s opening drive, WL-Salem struck quickly for its first score. The Tigers went 60 yards on just five plays to reach the end zone.
WL-Salem faked a punt on fourth-and-two at its own 49-yard line and saw Isaiah McGill race to Madeira’s 25-yard line. Woodruff then found Nick Burden on a 25-yard TD pass with 8:15 remaining in the opening quarter. Ethan Cole kicked the point after for a 7-0 lead.
A similar drive helped the Tigers score again in the second quarter. WL-Salem went 55 yards on five plays to reach pay dirt. The Tigers capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by Woodruff. That put WL-Salem ahead 14-0 with 4:43 left in the half.
The Tigers attempted to extend their lead with a 37-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the second quarter, but it fell short and sent them into halftime ahead 14-0.
Madeira grabbed some momentum during the third quarter when Cannon Shafer picked off a deflected WL-Salem pass and returned it 66 yards for a touchdown. That made the score 14-7 with 6:57 left to play in the quarter.
WL-Salem responded on its next drive. Nease broke free for a 35-yard touchdown run to give the Tigers a 21-7 advantage at the 5:20 mark of the third period.
The Mustangs didn’t back down. They put together a nine-play, 55-yard drive that was capped by a 6-yard touchdown pass from Sam Autry to Vincent Englert. That cut the Tigers’ lead to 21-14 with 2:14 left in the third quarter.
WL-Salem was able to chew up a big chunk of the clock after that. The Tigers’ next possession finished off the third quarter and half of the fourth quarter. A 22-yard field goal attempt failed when the snap was mishandled. It gave Madeira the ball back at their own 5-yard line with about six minutes left in the game.
The Mustangs had two more possessions but could not get anything going against the Tigers’ defense.
Nick Burden contributed 80 receiving yards on six catches for the Tigers and Trenton Douthwaite had 48 receiving yards on three catches.
Defensively for the Tigers, Douthwaite led with eight tackles, Eli McGill and Kyle Wolfe each had five tackles and a sack, Burden had two interceptions and Jake Wilcoxon had one interception.
WL-SALEM 21, MADEIRA 14
Mustangs 0 • 0 • 14 • 0 – 14
Tigers 7 • 7 • 7 • 0 – 21
TEAM STATISTICS MD • WL
First downs 13 • 20
Total net yards 138 • 376
Rushes/yards 17/11 • 35/171
Passing 127 • 205
Comp-att-int 21-40-3 • 18-26-1
Punts/avg 4/30.5 • 2/37.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 • 1-0
Penalties-yards 6-50 • 6-80