IRONTON, Ohio (WOUB) — One of Southeast Ohio’s biggest high school football rivalries concluded the Ironton Gridiron Classic tripleheader Saturday night, which featured teams from Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia and Canada. While the Ironmen fought hard against the Tigers, Ironton’s offense was ultimately too much to handle for Jackson’s defense, winning by a final score of 35-14.

The scoring began late in the first quarter when Ironton drew first blood on its second drive of the game. Shaun Terry broke a pass open and took off toward the end zone with no one even close to tackling him, going up 7-0.

Jackson’s second drive of the game would include all sorts of emotions, as it began with star running back Cade Wolford going down with an injury early on. The Ironmen led a methodical drive that ate up a good portion of the second quarter, which was long enough to allow Wolford to return to action deep in the red zone. The drive was capped off with a converted fourth-and-goal run from the goal line by Nolan Johnson, tying the game at 7-7.

Ironton would respond right away. The Tigers wasted no time in finding the end zone again, this time via a perfect pass from Bailey Thacker to Tatum Moore in Jackson territory. Ironton took the lead back, 14-7.

The score stood 14-7 well after halftime, but Ironton found the end zone first in the second half. The Tigers took advantage of a short field, as Zayne Williams took one to the house from 39 yards out. Ironton took the largest lead of the game to that point, 21-7.

Jackson needed to move quickly in order to not let this game slip away from them, and it did on its next drive. After a long kickoff return, the Ironmen found the end zone for the second time this game, getting into the end zone on another Nolan Johnson run. Jackson cut the deficit to 21-14.

The fourth quarter was the Shaun Terry show. Terry broke a couple of tackles to turn a broken play into a massive touchdown run to increase the Tigers’ lead to 28-14.

If there was any hope for a Jackson comeback, it was dashed away by Terry once more. Terry scored his third touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter on another long touchdown where his speed beat everyone in sight.

That would put a capper on this game, as Ironton improved to 2-0 with a 35-14 win over the rival Ironmen.

Ironton will be back in action next week against Fairland, while Jackson will face another sizable early-season test against Wheelersburg.