In a game in which each defining moment was swiftly topped by an even greater one, the crescendo of Friday’s Class-AA State Championship game at Wheeling Island Stadium was a goalline stop on a two-point attempt by the Fairmont Senior defense, a play which secured the Polar Bears their fourth championship in six years in a 49-48 victory.

“We’ve had a couple come down right to the end but for a state championship game, I don’t know, with 14 seconds left in the game, to get a two-point stop in the championship game, no I don’t think we had to do that,” Fairmont Senior head coach Nick Bartic said.

Fairmont Senior’s Dylan Ours had a title game-record six rushing touchdowns in the final game of his career, also collecting eight tackles on defense.

“That’s what he does, he’s the most versatile player in the state,” Bartic said of Ours.

The Fairmont State Polar Bears, pictured celebrating with the championship trophy after narrowly defeating the North Marion Huskies, 49-48, in a dramatic matchup.

North Marion’s Aaron Hoffman was finished with 233 rushing yards and four touchdowns in a title game that seemed to always find a new gear to shift into.

“He’s obviously got next-level speed,” North Marion head coach Daran Hays said of Hoffman. “He was phenomenal tonight, he sees it well, and I don’t know how, because he only had one eye about halfway through the game. That’s what he came out for, his eye was all swollen, got poked in the eye pretty bad. I thought we moved people around all night, thought we were pretty good.”

The two teams were tied at 21 at the half, Ours and Hoffman each scoring twice, while Fairmont Seniors’ Brody Whitehair connected with Cannon Dinger for a score and North Marion’s Casey Minor had a touchdown run of his own.

Either team’s defenses could not stop back-and-forth explosive plays which kept a packed stadium on their feet.

“What a back-and-forth battle that was,” Bartic said.

“There’s not doubt that these were the two best teams in double-a this year,” Hays said.

When defenses did stand up, it was with big plays of their own, North Marion’s Josh Holden and Fairmont Senior’s Logan Canfield coming down with first-half interceptions.

Offenses kept the train rolling into the third, and neither team was able to stretch a lead farther than one score, the score knotted at 28 at the end of the period.

As the fourth quarter started up, and a steady mist began to descend onto the field, Friday’s blockbuster still had its best saved for last.

Minor raced in a 14-yard rushing touchdown to put North back ahead, 35-28, but Fairmont Senior marched down the field, despite an injury to Whitehair mid-drive which relegated the Polar Bears to direct snaps to Ours, who cashed in a four-yard touchdown to tie things at 35 with 8:17 to play.

North’s offense flamed out, and they faced a fourth and three from their own 27. The Huskies set up for a rare punt- only to fake it, Brock Martin taking the long snap around the edge for an immensely gutsy fourth-down conversion. Hoffman went 43 yards the next play to the Fairmont Senior 25, and needed just one more touch from there, bursting up the middle for a 25-yard score. North Marion led 42-35 with five minutes to play.

Ours continued to stack up yardage on Fairmont Senior’s next drive, and a personal foul for a late hit out of bounds helped the Bears get into the red zone and find the end zone, Ours powering in from two yards out to tie the game at 42 with just under four minutes left.

North Marion fumbled the ball early in the ensuing drive, and Fairmont Senior’s Gavin Michael recovered at North’s 25 yard-line with two minutes to play.

Fairmont Senior proceeded down to the goal line, and Ours scored his sixth touchdown of the game with 51 seconds remaining, the go-ahead score putting Fairmont Senior ahead 49-42.

Working with little time, North Marion started the next drive with a Minor throw to Noah Hess on a pass to the sideline. The Huskies were the beneficiaries of a personal foul on the play, a late hit out of bounds tacking on 15 more.

A pass to Brock Martin netted 14 yards to the Fairmont Senior 35, and the next play, Minor launched a pass to Landon Frey in the end zone. The big-bodied target caught the moon shot with one hand, and got one foot inbounds, but the officials ruled the pass incomplete. The Huskies were afforded a review though, and the play was overturned to give North the touchdown they needed.

“He does that every day,” Hays said of Frey. “His ball skills are phenomenal, and how he doesn’t have three or four D-2 offers is beyond me. I know he’s not as fast as people want, but my goodness can he go up and get the ball. He’s a competitor, I love him, I’m so glad he’s on our team and there’s a reason he wears 13. I give that to my dudes because that was my level.”

Then, they tried for two.

“The decision to go for two was probably made when I was 23 years old and got the job,” Hays said. “We don’t play to lose, we weren’t playing for overtime.”

The snap to Minor out of the shotgun was low, and the senior had to gather it off the ground, burning precious moments before he could burst ahead. After a collision along the goalline in which the entire stadium was holding their breath, the Fairmont Senior defense won out, a defensive play making the difference in an offensive lightshow.

“We had our goal line defense, we practice it all the time,” Bartic said. “Anytime we’ve ever won a state championship game, we tell our guys every time, there was a goal line stop that had to be made. This time it happened to be for the win.”

“Those guys are a championship-caliber football team so we had to be focused and we had to overcome a lot of adversity. Just very proud. Championship effort.”

“We told them beforehand, I told them last night that it’s all about perspective,” Hays said of his team. “I know we’ve already won because I know what kind of kids they are. If they played together and if they played as hard as they could, then they could never disappoint me. There is not a shred of disappointment in my mind, they left it all out there, just weren’t’ able to execute flawlessly for two. Don’t regret a thing.”

North Marion finishes the season 12-2, Fairmont Senior 11-2. The Class-A Championship, pitting Greenbrier West against Williamstown, is set for Saturday at noon, while the Class-AAA title game will be between Princeton and Martinsburg at 7 p.m., both games at Wheeling Island Stadium.

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