YORKVILLE - On a cold, clear night in Yorkville, two high-powered teams led by two highly-successful coaches were shooting for just one berth in the Division III Regional semi-finals. The one drawback to sports, someone has to lose.

Unable to answer Canal Fulton Northwest's last touchdown drive, Buckeye Local saw a great season come to an close and with it, the end of an era in Ohio Valley football as the Panthers dropped a tough 28-20 decision to the Indians at Memorial Stadium Friday night.

It was the first time Buckeye Local had the opportunity to host a playoff game and it was the final game for Ron Pobolish. The Panthers coach had announced before the season that this would be his last. Buckeye Local closed the season at 8-3, but it will hang Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class AAAA and Buckeye 8 championship banners in its gym.

Northwest, a regular in the postseason since 2000, will advance into next week's regional semifinal against Dover. The Tornados were 48-0 winners over Harrison Central. The win, Northwest's sixth straight, boosted coach Vic Whiting's club to 8-3 on the season. Whiting, a Fort Frye grad, also picked up 189 career win.

"Dover's a great football team and outside of one overtime loss, they would be undefeated," Whiting said about next week's opponent. "They are fast and we basically run the same offense. We've been fortunate enough to play them three times and we beat them twice. We beat them in Massillon two years ago when we were undefeated."

In a game that would pit the aerial assault of Northwest against the rugged ground game of Buckeye Local, both teams proved that they were anything but one dimensional.

"That was a huge win for us," Whiting said after the win. "We feel very fortunate. That was a very good football team.

"They were very successful throwing the ball," the Indian coach said referring to Buckeye's aerial game. "Their coach did a very good job of calling the game both offensively and defensively. So they have no regrets. Players make plays and our kids made some plays, their kids made some plays. It was a great football game."

"They beat us off the ball and there were things we could have done better," a subdued Pobolish said after the game. "But looking back, we had a good year. We're the OVAC champs. We were Buckeye 8 champs."

"You never like to lose, but they played hard all year," Pobolish added. "A few of our deficencies showed up tonight, but there were things we did well."

Buckeye's opening possession started with four big running plays that netted 28 yards, but the drive stalled and the ensuing punt set up the first Northwest score in the first quarter.

Starting from their own 20, the Indians needed just seven plays, but two were big ones. Quarterback Bryan Jones scrambled before connecting with Cory Hoffman for 43 yards down the right sideline then followed that with a 19-yarder to Joey Demaree. Two plays later, Jones ran in from the 1 with seven minutes showing on the clock. Seth Miracle booted the PAT.

Buckeye bounced back on its nest possession, using big plays on the ground and in the air. Joe Rine connected with Joe Stuart, who made a remarkable catch of 36 yards. Brandon Bartrug followed with an 11-yard gain over the middle. A Bobby Spence burst off the right side added another 34. Bartrug capped the drive with a 4-yard run as 4:54 showed on the first quarter clock.

Midway through the second frame, the Indians put together another scoring drive that showed their ability to run the ball. With Jone and Evan Bach splitting the duties on the ground, the winners worked out a nine-play, 55-yard drive that was capped by a 4-yard Bach run. Miracle booted the PAT with 5:33 on the board.

With Northwest threatening late in the second, Spence intercepted his 10th pass of the season with 10 seconds left in the half at the Panther 4.

In the third frame, a Jacob Hilliard blocked punt set up another Panther score as Buckeye took over on the Indians' 41. A 27-yard Rine to Spence pass and later a 16-yarder from Rine to Nick Piergallini enabled Bartrug to score again from the 1. With 2:21 left in the third, the Panthers cut the margin to 14-12.

Northwest wasted little time retaliating, as the Indians followed the Panther score with a 67-yard, nine-play drive that featured Jones passes of 11 yards to Hoffman, 18 yards to Bach and 9 and 7 yards to Hoffman. Again, they went to the ground as Mitch Lewis scored from the one with 10:53 remaining. Miracle's boot extended the margin to 21-12.

Again Buckeye showed its resiliency as the Panthers bounced back with a quick score of their own. With Rine throwing 11 yards to Piergallini, 41 yards to Josten Dear on a screen and 10 yards to Spence, the Panthers pulled to within one as Bartrug scored from the 10 and Spence added the two-pointer on a Rine pass. Buckeye trailed 21-20 with 9:30 left.

Northwest wasted no time adding another score. Jones ran 6 yards, then scrambled before finding Hoffman for 34 yards to the Buckeye 25. Two plays later the same combo teamed up for 25 yards to the 2 and Bach added the six-pointer with 6:20 on the clock.

"Our kids made a play. They blitzed us and our quarterback avoided it. He was in scramble drill back there and he found a wide open player on the sideline. And actually he went from one sideline to the other sideline, so it was a great play by Cory Hoffman.

"You have to take what people give you. They were taking away a lot of things and what they left open was to run inside and it's a numbers game."

Buckeye continued to threaten as two more possessions went without a score for the hosts. Key to the final minutes was a big quarterback sack by Jesse Calcei of Rine with 2:08 on the clock.