Ohio high school football playoffs Division IV roundup: Napoleon, Indian Valley, Urbana among winners in first round (10/27/2023)

The first round of the OHSAA football playoffs kicked off on Friday; here are the results in Division IV

The Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs began Friday night with 448 teams vying for a state championship across seven divisions, with 64 teams in each divisions broken into 16 teams per region.

In Division IV, the 14 of the 16 top four seeds in each region - Canton South, Lake Catholic, Poland Seminary, West Branch, Perkins, Glenville, Shelby, West Holmes, Steubenville, Sheridan, Bishop Hartley, Clinton-Massie, Taft and Archbishop Alter all advanced to the next round with home wins and will host again in the second round.

Meanwhile, No. 13 Indian Valley upset No. 4 Logan Elm in Region 15 and No. 15 Urbana defeated No. 2 Unioto in Region 16.

Division IV first round scoreboard

First round games of note:

Napoleon 41, Bellevue 24

Napoleon, the No. 10 seed in Region 14, scored 20 straight points to take a 34-12 lead early in the third quarter and then added a touchdown late to ice the game.

The lower seed never trailed and will now play No. 2 Glenville, the defending Division IV state champions, in the second round.

Indian Valley 48, Logan Elm 27

Grady Kinsey ruched for three touchdowns and Kolten Thomas ran for a pair of scores as Indian Valley, the No. 13 seed in Region 15, scored a road upset win.

Indian Valley never trailed in the game and took a 28-7 lead into the half before extending it to 35-7 in the third quarter.

Indian Valley will be back on the road in the second round for a game against No. 5 Bishop Ready.

Urbana 56, Unioto 21

Austin Hill ran for four touchdowns and Will Donahue threw three touchdown passes as Urbana, the No. 15 seed in Region 16, upset No. 2 seed Unioto.

Urbana scored the first two touchdowns of the game but Unioto was able to tie the game by the end of the first quarter.

And then Urbana ran off 35 straight points to pull away to set up a game against No. 7 Shawnee in the second round.

Division IV playoff brackets:

Division IV, Region 13

Division IV, Region 14

Division IV, Region 15

Division IV, Region 16

>>Division IV playoff brackets, predictions, upset alerts<<

>>Statewide playoff brackets<<

-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh

(Feature photo: Glenville running back D'Shawntae Jones runs the ball against Dinwiddie (Virginia) on Saturday, August 19, 2023. Photo credit: Jeff Harwell)