After a 1-9 season in 2012, Villa Angela-St. Joseph responded with 17 wins over the next two years and consecutive seasons with a Division VI playoff appearance.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, each of the last two campaigns ended with a long bus ride home following a loss on the road in the first round of the postseason.
VASJ rallied to tie host Sugarcreek Garaway in the fourth quarter, but eventually fell to the undefeated Pirates, 35-28, in a D-VI regional quarterfinal on Nov. 7.
The Vikings, who won the outright NCL White Division championship and finished the regular season at 8-2 a year after going 9-1, got a big effort out of senior Marvelle Ross in his final high school game. The All-Ohio running back tied the game on three separate occasions — two on rushing touchdowns and one on a kickoff return. The final score of the game and the season came when Ross took a pitch on an option play and found the end zone with 11:07 left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 28.
Garaway (11-0) broke the tie with almost 10 minutes left in regulation and held on for the 7-point victory. It is only the second time this season the Pirates won by single digits and only the third time this year they scored less than 38 points.
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VASJ fell behind 7-0, 14-7, 21-14 and 28-14, but had an answer each time Garaway jumped in front.
Ross tied the game at 14 with a kickoff return with 8:58 left in the second quarter. The Pirates retook the lead, and again, Ross responded, this time with a run to knot the score at 21 as the teams went to halftime.
Garaway broke the tie with a touchdown just before the end of the third quarter to go back up, 28-21, but Ross evened the score again early in the fourth quarter on a TD run.
The Pirates advance to the regional semis in D-VI, Region 19 where they will face defending state champion Kirtland at a site to be determined by the OHSAA on Nov. 9.
