St. Xavier, Elder got the Bengals' Paycor stage, delivered an epic comeback show in OHSAA football playoffs

St. Xavier and Elder got the stage.

From there, they delivered the show.

The Cincinnati football powerhouses clashed in the OHSAA regional final for Division I, Region 4 on Friday night. The game was moved to the Bengals' Paycor Stadium for space reasons after pushback early in the week.

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More than 22,000 people showed up to watch St. Xavier pull off a wild 42-34 victory in which St. X came from way behind to stun Elder.

Elder opened up a 27-7 victory in the first half, but from there, it was almost all St. Xavier.

Jackson Frey hit Logan Von Holle for one of three TDs to eat into that deficit before the intermission. And then Ja'Kobe Clapper blocked a punt, which Chad Perkins returned for a touchdown, to trail 27-21 at the break.

Elder scored its final TD to open the second half and go up 34-21.

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Frey hit Von Holle for their third TD, and then Daniel Vollmer ran for two touchdowns.

It resembled a bit how Elder had reached the regional final. They'd needed an epic comeback to stun Princeton a week earlier just to create this stage.

On this night, it was St. Xavier with the comeback magic.

They advance to a state semifinal to take on Middletown on Friday, Nov. 29. 

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