Photo Provided Shadyside’s Ben Wach scrambles to elude pressure from the Monroe Central Seminoles defense Friday. Wach threw a touchdown pass, though the Tigers lost 35-12.

WOODSFIELD — Monroe Central head coach Jonathan Calder is trying to bring tradition, pride and winning ways back to his alma mater.

Friday night the Seminoles took the first step toward doing that with a regular season ending victory over visiting Shadyside.

Junior quarterback Tucker Howell accounted for 240 yards of offense and four touchdowns and Monroe Central’s bend-but-don’t-break defense did the rest as the Seminoles rolled to a convincing 35-12 victory over the Tigers to help celebrate Senior Night at Monroe Memorial Park.

The victory caps off a 6-4 regular season for Calder’s squad, its first winning season since 2017, and clinched the school’s first playoff berth since 2014. It also appears Monroe Central will host a first-round Ohio Division VII, Region 27 playoff game next Friday, but those matchups won’t be released until Sunday.

“I can’t say enough about these kids and what they have done this season,” Calder said. “This was really a great night for us. These guys have worked very hard since June and we have already accomplished a couple of our goals.”

On the other side, coach Mike Kernik’s Tigers drop to 3-7 on season and are sitting on the edge of the playoffs and must wait to see if they qualify for the top 16. Shadyside has advanced to the state playoffs 18 consecutive times heading into this season.

After a good defensive stand by the Tigers, who got the turnover on downs at their 35, Seminoles’ sophomore AJ Rutter stepped in front of a Ben Wach push-pass and rambled 32 yards to the endzone for the initial score of the contest at 9:09. Juan Fernandez made it 7-0 with the PAT.

Shadyside answered right back, moving 74 yards on seven plays with a pair of Wach completions making the difference. On third-and-one, Wach hit Dylan Booth with a 39-yard strike, moving the ball to the Monroe Central 28. Just four plays later, on fourth-and-six, Wach lofted a pass towards the end zone which was hauled in by junior Cole Micker with 6:07 showing in the first.

The point-after failed and it was 14-6.

Cooper Howell’s 42-yard kickoff return to the Tigers’ 43 set up a short drive for the ‘Noles with Tucker Howell hitting Carter Knowlton deep down the middle from 39 yards away on the second play. The PAT made it 14-6 at 5:19.

The visitor’s second of three first half turnovers had the hosts on the move again late in the first quarter, which turned into points on the first play of the second chapter. Tucker Howell rolled to the right, picked up a couple of blockers and beat a defender to the goal line to complete a 33-yard scoring run just 10 seconds into the frame to push the count to 21-6.

Shadyside moved to the Monroe Central 15 midway through the second while the Seminoles twice turned the ball over on downs in Tigers’ territory.

Monroe Central added to the lead late in the third quarter when Howell hit Landon Lydick for a 28-yard scoring strike, however, Nathan Booth returned the ensuing kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown. The try for two failed but the score stood at 28-12.

Tucker Howell’s second touchdown run of the contest, this time from 35 yards away on the first play of the fourth quarter closed the scoring.

“We left a few points on the field in the first half, but overall, we were pretty efficient,” Calder added. “Shadyside is a good team with a lot of tradition, and you know you are always in for a fight when you play them. But our defense was able to hold them out of the endzone after giving up some yards. They had some chunk plays, but turnovers really helped us.”

Howell finished with 141 rushing yards and two scores and 99 yards through the air with two scores. Monroe Central finished with 406 total yards, including 305 on the ground, while Shadyside came in with 243.

“We put ourselves in a big hole with turnovers and some bad penalties in the first half,” Kernik admitted. “It’s hard to bounce back from things like that. Credit their defense, we moved the ball up and down the field but they stopped us and we had a few drives stall in their territory. They are a tough, physical team and they were well prepared to play (Friday).”