Springfield blanks Marysville for third straight regional championship

Three also stood for the number of Division I regional championships Springfield has won in the last three seasons. It beat Dublin Coffman 7-3 in London in 2019 to win the first regional championship in school history. A year ago, it beat Powell Olentangy Liberty 19-0 in Springfield.

On Friday, the second-seeded and fifth-ranked Wildcats recorded another shutout in the regional final, beating No. 1 seed and second-ranked Marysville 27-0 in the Region 2 final at Hilliard Darby High School.

As the Wildcats celebrated the victory with the school band behind the end zone, running back Jayvin Norman spotted a camera and looked directly into it and said, “One, two, three,” holding up fingers for each number to symbolize his team’s accomplishment.

With this three-year run, Springfield has matched the total number of state final four appearances by the rest of Clark County. Catholic Central reached the state championship game in 1991 and played in the final four in 2007. Shawnee reached the state championship game in 2011. Now the Wildcats will try to become the third Clark County team to reach the final game and the first to win a state championship in the playoff era.

“We have a lot of momentum going into next week,” defensive lineman Jokell Brown said.

“I feel very grateful,” wide receiver Anthony Brown said. “Very blessed. It’s unexplainable.”

Springfield (12-1) will play nine-time state champion Cincinnati Moeller (11-3), which beat Lakota West 21-17 in the Region 4 final, in the state semifinals Nov. 26. The neutral site will be announced Sunday. Moeller was the top seed in its region and ranked 10th in the state poll.

The other state semifinal will match St. Edward against Upper Arlington.

Lakewood St. Edward, which has won four state championships since 2010, most recently in 2018, beat Medina 41-6.

Upper Arlington beat Pickerington Central 21-14 in triple overtime, ending Pickerington Central’s five-year run of regional championships. Upper Arlington will play in the final four for the seventh time and first time since 2000.

Moeller, which last won the state title in 2013, will be the third straight school from Cincinnati the Wildcats have faced in the final four. In 2019, Springfield lost 31-24 to Elder. In 2020, it lost 12-10 to St. Xavier. Both games took place at Alexander Stadium in Piqua.

This Springfield team has been more dominant than the last two and showed that dominance again on Friday. Two years after beating Marysville 23-0 in the first round of the playoffs, it recorded another shutout, its third in a row in the playoffs, while ending Marysville’s perfect season and its quest to reach the final four for the third time and first time since 2000.

Springfield (12-1) has outscored its opponents 404-76 this season. This was its seventh shutout. The Monarchs had outscored their first 12 opponents 429-85 and had not been shut out since that 23-0 loss to Springfield.

Marysville rushed for 430 yards in its previous game against Toledo Whitmer. Springfield held it to 111 yards and eight first downs. Marysville had one good chance to score in the second quarter, but Springfield blocked its 34-yard field goal attempt.

“We have a lot of team-oriented guys on defense,” Douglass said. “Everybody trusts each other. We just felt they hadn’t seen what we have as far as what we have with our linemen, linebackers and secondary guys. To be the champ, you’ve got to beat the champ. We’re back-to-back-to back. We weren’t given any respect. We haven’t been given any respect all year, and it doesn’t matter. The only people that have to believe are us.”

Marysville attempted only five passes and compiled 12 passing yards. Springfield quarterback Te’Sean Smoot threw for 363 yards, completing 26 of 37 passes. He also rushed for 44 yards on 16 carries.

“(Smoot) did what you would expect him to do,” Douglass said. “This is his third time in this position.”

Smoot got Springfield on the board with 10:42 left in the first half on a 7-yard run. The Wildcats led 7-0 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Smoot threw a 39-yard pass to Anthony Brown to set up his second touchdown run of the game and 21st of the season. He scored from two yards out with 8:24 to play in the quarter.

Springfield put the game away in the fourth quarter. Smoot threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Dominic Turner with 11:11 to play and then a 38-yard touchdown to Daylen Bradley with 1:38 to go. It was Turner’s second touchdown of the season and Bradley’s fourth.

Bradley led the receivers with 10 catches for 155 yards. Brown caught seven passes for 106 yards.

Delian Bradley led the defense with nine tackles and recovered a fumble. Tywan January had seven tackles and a sack and forced a fumble.

All in all, it was a typical dominant performance by Springfield, which hoisted a familiar trophy in the air after the game. Now it has eyes on a bigger trophy.

“All of us have to stick together and work as one,” Brown said.