“Once we got the stars out of our eyes in the first half and just played football we were fine,” Troy head coach Troy Everhart said. “I’d like to play them like we did in the third quarter for a full four quarters and see what would happen.”
Both teams featured notable defenses.
Troy, which was riding a seven-game win streak, had allowed just 75 points this season and only three teams had reached double-digits. The 15 points posted by Lima Senior in last week’s regional quarterfinal was the most Troy had allowed in a game all season.
Withrow was riding an eight-game win streak since its lone loss — a 14-10 setback to St. Xavier in Week 4. The Tigers had allowed 57 points all season and only two teams — St. Xavier and Springboro — had reached double-digits. In the last eight weeks, Withrow had allowed just 27 points.
The difference was the Tigers’ explosiveness.
Kentucky defensive back recruit Terhyon Nicholas started the scoring with a 76-yard punt return. Luke Dunn’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Quinton Simmons made it 14-0 after the first quarter. Two more touchdown passes from Dunn — a 12-yard toss to Chris Henry Jr. and another 30-yard strike to Simmons — rounded out the first-half scoring.
Defensively, Troy’s Logan Ullery thwarted a Withrow drive with an interception (his sixth of the season) in the end zone.
The Trojans managed three first half first downs.
“At halftime we had a talk about heart and giving it everything we had,” Ullery said. “We showed up in the second half and left everything out there.”
Said fellow senior defensive back Antonio Gonzalez: “We had a different mentality coming out. Win or lose we were just going to come out and play with heart. It was all about pride.”
Sophomore quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick led Troy’s third-quarter charge. He finished the game with 92 yards rushing on 12 carries and completed six-of-10 passes for 81 yards. Kirkpatrick accounted for both Troy touchdowns on 1-yard runs.
“For a 10th grader he did pretty good,” Everhart said. “I feel really good about our future. But, I’m extremely sad for our seniors.”
Demetrious Howard led Withrow with 154 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, while Dunn (a transfer from Moeller) was 16-of-23 for 269 yards and four touchdowns. Henry Jr., a five-star recruit who is committed to Ohio State and the country’s No. 4 overall 2026 prospect, caught eight passes for 135 yards and a touchdown.
Dakota Manson rushed for 46 yards on 21 carries and caught four passes for 35 yards for Troy.
Senior linebacker Kaden Zimmer led Troy with eight tackles, while Ullery had seven. Sophomore Aidan Gorman added an interception.
Withrow outgained Troy 484-230 in total yards.
“They do have some weapons and we did make some plays,” Everhart said. “What we didn’t do is set an edge. Their pass game looks pretty and they do have some weapons there, but it was the run game that kicked our tail.”
Said Ullery: “They had athletes. We tried to execute, but we had some miscues and they got some big plays.”
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