Staff photo / Brian Yauger West Branch quarterback Dru DeShields works his way into the end zone Saturday evening at Niles’ Bo Rein Stadium. The Warriors fell to Jefferson Area 41-37 in the Division IV, Region 13 title game. It was their second straight loss in a regional final.

NILES — In dramatic fashion, the West Branch Warriors weren’t able to come away victorious in the Division IV, Region 13 final against the Jefferson Area Falcons.

Coming into the game, the Warriors were led by senior quarterback Dru DeShields who averaged just over 290 yards passing per game. Saturday night, however, DeShields was contained and could only complete a handful of passes.

“He’s a terrific player and he’ll have great success in college. You can’t say enough about him,” head coach Tim Cooper said. “(Jefferson) brought pressure the whole night and challenged us. We weren’t able to make the plays we usually do. Hats off to them, their game plan and the success they had.”

DeShields also came into the game with 46 passing touchdowns on the season.

In his first year at the helm, Cooper led his team to a 12-1 regular season record heading into the regional final. After dropping the first game of their season to Canfield, West Branch strung together 12 consecutive wins and outscored its opponents 567-253.

“We have great kids. It helps when you have talented players as well. It’s a special place to be,” Cooper said of his team.

The Warriors were holding onto a five-point lead heading into halftime on Saturday, but Jefferson came out of intermission and caught fire.

The Falcons scored three times, all on big plays.

The Warriors also had a number of PAT attempts go awry. On all but one of its six touchdowns, West Branch was unable to get the extra points. Four times, the two-point conversion was unsuccessful and one extra-point kick was missed.

West Branch opened up the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run by Boston Mulinix, one of his three touchdowns of the night.

“(Mulinix) is a great player. He’s explosive and we’re really proud of him and happy to have him. We’re really excited about the growth he had this year. Hopefully he continues to work in the offseason and continues to get better,” Cooper said.

Despite a 30-19 lead following the Mulinix touchdown, West Branch gave up a 57-yard touchdown pass and a big punt return to give Jefferson its first lead of the night with 5:50 left to play in the third quarter.

DeShields called his own number and got the Warriors the lead back on a three-yard touchdown run, but the Falcon offense was able to cash in on a 64-yard touchdown run by Grant Hitchcock.

Midway through the final frame West Branch was threatening to score following a long pass completion that put them in Jefferson territory, but the Warriors were unable to gain a first down and inch closer to the endzone.

“It’s not the result we wanted, but (I’m) still proud of the season we had,” Cooper said.

Leading the offense for West Branch was Mulinix who scored three times. DeShields also added three touchdowns.

Both Mulinix and DeShields were the top rushers for West Branch in the 2022 campaign. Before Saturday’s game, Mulinix averaged roughly 88 yards-per-game and totaled 1,154 yards on 174 carries and had 16 touchdowns. DeShields ran the ball 100 times for 642 yards and 13 touchdowns.