Southern Local running back Landen Heffner follows lineman Steven Homan (50) during Friday’s game against Shadyside. (The Review/Ron Firth)

SALINEVILLE–Southern Local might have had the explosive Landen Heffner on its side on Friday night, but the Shadyside Tigers had an Ace in their deck.

Ace Nelson led a balanced Tiger effort with 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns to lead Shadyside to a 36-22.

It was the first meeting between the schools.

Heffner, who had 155 yards on the ground on 18 carries, helped the Indians overcome a 6-point halftime deficit by returning the opening kick in the second half 86 yards for a touchdown and then adding a 44-yard rushing touchdown a short time later to give Southern a 22-14 advantage.

The Indians (0-2) could not keep it together however. With the starting center playing with an injured hand and the backup also struggling there were plenty of missed exchanges between the quarterback and center which put the Indians in difficult situations for the remainder of the game. The most serious blow came when the Tigers recovered a fumble on a punt attempt deep in Southern territory at the end of the third quarter. That allowed Tiger quarterback Jayden Johnson to get the game-tying touchdown on a 3-yard run with 10:33 left in the game.

Southern could not turn on the jets again as Shadyside added a Johnson touchdown pass and Nelson rushing touchdown to seal the game in the fourth quarter.

“We have to get good at playing after a sudden change that doesn’t go our way,” first year Southern coach Zack Almy said.

Shadyside was coming into the season after winning three games last season. The Tigers thought they would have fared better against Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference member East Palestine in the first week but the Bulldogs used an air attack to dominate the Tigers 40-7.

“They put in so much work in the offseason and we so upset and disappointed after last week they just flipped a switch,” Shadyside coach Mike Kernik said. “It’s all them. They get all the credit. They have done everything we asked them to do and more. I’m beyond thrilled for our boys.”

Heffner showed why he’s probably the most dangerous threat at any given time in the EOAC when he rushed four times for 76 yards in Southern’s 10-play, 80-yard opening scoring drive that was capped off by a Logan Mettenberger 11-yard touchdown run with 2:59 left in the first quarter to give Southern an 8-7 advantage.

Shadyside was able to recognize the threat more clearly for the rest of the first half as it limited Heffner to 9 yards rushing the rest of the first half.

“That kid is a great player,” Kernik said about Heffner. “He’s not a very big kid, but boy does he run hard. You’ve got to wrap him up and drive through him.”

The Tigers, which scored on a 40-yard Johnson to Michael Hendershot pass on their opening drive, snatched the lead back with a 14-yard Nelson touchdown run in the second quarter.

After an interception by Southern’s Ayden Gardner early in the third quarter, Southern’s 6-foot, 5-inch 283-pound lineman Aiden Davis went down with an injury and was on the field for several minutes before play resumed. Davis never left the sideline and was encouraging his teammates the rest of the game.

“I’m not sure what happened,” Almy said. “He said he got hit in the head and he didn’t play the rest of the game. That’s all I know for now.”

Shadyside expected East Palestine to play more in the style of Southern, but admitted it was caught off guard.

“East Palestine threw the ball more than we thought they would,” Kernik said. “We thought they’d want to get more on the edge with their quarterback and up the middle with their running back, kinda like what Southern did. East Palestine got over the top of us a little bit more.”

Southern, who was beat by Toronto 34-0 in the opener, will try to get back on track with a home game against Edison next Friday.

SH: 7-7-0-22–36

SO: 8-0-14-0–22

SCORING

SH– Michael Hendershot 40 pass from Jayden Johnson (Hunter Ramsay kick)

SO–Logan Mettenberger 11 run (Landen Heffner run)

SH–Ace Nelson 14 run (Ramsay kick)

SO–Heffner 86 kick return (run failed)

SO–Heffner 44 run (Heffner run)

SH–Johnson 3 run (Nelson run)

SH–Trent Marling 14 pass from Johnson (Ramsay kick)

SH–Nelson 10 run (Ramsay kick)

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SH SO

First downs 12 10

Total Yards 236 184

Rushes-yards 36-154 43-184

Passing 82 0

Comp-Att-Int 3-7-1 0-4-0

Punts 0-0 1-31

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 5-2

Penalties-Yards 4-45 8-70

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INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING–Shadyside, Ace Nelson 20-100, Jayden Johnson 9-36; Southern, Landen Heffner 18-155.

PASSING–Shadyside, Jayden Johnson 3-7-82-1; Southern, Chatt Utt 0-3-0-0, Jack Pitts 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING–Shadyside, Michael Hendershot 1-40, Bryce Sloan 1-18, Trenton Marling 1-18.

INTERCEPTIONS–Southern, Ayden Gardner.