ASHLAND — With a trip to the state semifinal on the line, St. Paul and Bucyrus Wynford traded big play after big play.

But it was St. Paul’s big plays that mattered the most.

The Flyers used a big special teams block by Brian Griffin on an extra-point kick that would have tied the game, and 40 yards worth of second-half penalties by Wynford, to pull out a 28-21 win over the Royals in the Division VI Region 21 final played at Ashland Community Stadium.

The win advanced St. Paul to the state semifinal next week against Grove City Christian, who defeated Malvern last night at Findlay Donnell Stadium. The state appearance is the school’s sixth all-time, and first since 2006.

“It’s a credit to the senior class and all the kids, they played their hearts out (tonight),” St. Paul coach John Livengood said. “You gotta give Wynford a lot of credit, they have a lot of talent over there. Their coaches do a great job preparing them. This was a great football game.”

Wynford was down 22-15 midway through the third quarter when Kentucky recruit Tyler Brause ran up the middle for a 20-yard touchdown. Griffin then came up with a big block on the extra-point attempt by Teven Eatmon that would have tied the game at 22-22. Instead, St. Paul held on to its momentum and a 1-point late third-quarter lead.

“You never give up,” Griffin said. “No matter if they score and it’s a big play, you know they gotta come back and kick it. I got a piece of it and I knew it was a big play, you gotta give 100 percent on every down.”

St. Paul then drove 68 yards on 12 plays, on all runs by quarterback Eric Schwieterman and Justin Wilde, to the Royals’ 3-yard line. But on a fourth-and-2 Griffin was stuck by a wall of Royal defenders for a no gain to turn the ball over on downs.

St. Paul’s defense then stopped Wynford on three-straight plays to get the ball back on its own 33-yard line and used 29 yards worth of penalties to get the ball to the Wynford 4-yard line. Griffin then punched it in for a 4-yard TD scamper, but Jim Roth’s extra-point kick hit the uprights and St. Paul’s lead stayed at 28-21.

“It’s disappointing to get stopped on a fourth down,” Griffin said. “But it’s redemption to come back and score twice. That’s what matters most. It’s redemption.

“It’s a great feeling to pull it out. To go out as seniors and make it back to state, it feels awesome.”

St. Paul had a chance to add an insurance score when the Flyers drove 46 yards to the Royals’ 19-yard line, but Schwieterman threw an interception in the end zone as Wynford’s Nate Glowaski came up with the pick with 5:35 left in the game.

St. Paul’s defense then was able to get another stop of Wynford’s potent offense as the Royals couldn’t get anything going. Brause’s pass on a third-down-and-24 hit Zach Chatlain’s hand, but went incomplete, forcing Wynford to punt.

St. Paul wasted some clock, but had to punt back to Wynford with 1:49 left in the game. The Royals only made one first down as the Flyers defense halted any chance of a last-minute Brause heroics.

“It feels real good to be able to do it as seniors,” said Schwieterman, who made it to state as a freshman, but didnt play much. “We just had to do what we did. We had to make plays and we made them. We were just doing whatever what was working. We were able to open up running lanes so we went with the running game late in the game. It feels great. It’s fun to be back and play with all my friends again.”

St. Paul was down 12-7 early in the second quarter when Brause threw a pass intended for Chris Brown, but Justin Wilde jumped in front, intercepting the ball and taking the ball to the 15-yard line. The 41-yard interception return set the Flyers up nicely. They cashed it in three plays later on a Darren Smith 15-yard touchdown pass from Schwieterman. After a Roth extra-point kick, the Flyers led 14-12.

Wynford then used its longest scoring drive of the first half and capped it off with an Eatmon 27 yard field goal to give the Royals a short-lived 15-14 lead.

St. Paul then used most of the last 3:45 of the half to drive 77 yards in nine plays, capped off by a 7-yard touchdown run by Brian Griffin. Schwieterman then ran in a two-point conversion and St. Paul went into the half leading, 22-15.

Wynford scored first after a great defensive stop by Luke Miller, who tackled Brian Griffin for a one-yard loss on a fourth-down-and-two play from the 12-yard line. The stop halted a 10-play, 66-yard drive by the Flyers to start the game.

Wynford went three-and-out, but used another defensive play when Chris Brown intercepted a pass intended for Dan Tracht. Brown jumped in front of Tracht and took the ball down to the 17-yard line. Brause capitalized on the turnover with a 8-yard touchdown run. After Eatmon botched the extra-point, Wynford held an early 6-0 lead.

Big plays were the tale on the next two scores as St. Paul hit the big pass on a 42-yard touchdown reception to Tracht from Schwieterman, while Eatmon caught a 73-yard bomb from Brause to give Wynford its second lead of the game, 12-7.

“You have two great teams that battled for 48 minutes and it came down to the end,” Wynford coach Travis Moyer said. “The big difference is they made a few more plays than we did. I thought it was really critical to come out after halftime and answer their score and we were able to do. But we were unable to execute in the second half and put ourselves in the hole. We had some dropped passes and penalties that hurt us.”