Day-Middleton combo, opportunistic defense help DeSales escape St. Charles
Friday, October 9, 2026
By Steve Blackledge
sblackledge@cbussports.com
Dax Middleton, a Dayton commit, scored two touchdowns for DeSales in their home win against previously-unbeaten St. Charles Friday. Photo: John Hulkenberg
COLUMBUS – The history books will tell you that the DeSales-St. Charles football rivalry, dating all the way back to 1963, has been perhaps as one-sided as any in central Ohio. After their latest triumph, the Stallions now own a 51-4 series lead, with 49 wins in the past 50 meetings.
Those figures say plenty about the tradition of perennial power DeSales, which has three state titles, six-runner ups, 12 regional championships and 26 Central Catholic League/Ohio Catholic League titles on its impressive resume.
By contrast, St. Charles has posted just seven winning seasons since the turn of the century and is still in quest of a first playoff win after eight chances.
Taking all of this mind-numbing data into consideration, Friday’s Homecoming game at DeSales produced maybe one of the most exciting matchups of them all, with the Stallions escaping with a 28-20 win on an interception in the end zone by Kaleb Johnson with two seconds remaining.
“I’m happy with the win but this shows me that there’s a lot of work yet to be done,” Stallions 20th-year coach Ryan Wiggins said. “We didn’t close the game out well and we did some things very atypical of us in terms of penalties and mistakes. But we did make plays when we needed them and, fortunately, that probably decided the outcome.”
CJ Wells was one of two DeSales backs who ran for 75 yards Friday in the Stallions 28-20 win over St. Charles. Photo: John Hulkenberg
“I think the trust in our preparation and game plan paid off tonight and led to some of our success,” Day said. “I’ve been playing with Dax for as long as I can remember and we have great chemistry together. I can’t give enough credit to my offensive line tonight. We really set the tone with our run game in the second half and opened up some of the big pass plays.”
The Stallions amassed 247 yards on the ground, well over its season average of 85.6 yards per game. Sophomores CJ Wells (son of former Ohio State standout running back Beanie Wells) and Jonah Jenkins had 75 yards each, Johnson 54 and Day 36.
“We made an adjustment at halftime when we saw them dropping into coverage on almost every play to stop our passing game,” Wiggins said. “We haven’t been known as a great rushing team but you’ve got to take what they’re giving you and our O-linemen and backs did a nice job taking it to them and opening things up for us.”
Plucky as the Cardinals were, they were never able to seize the lead.
Day capped the game’s six-play opening drive with a 5-yard TD run.
Early in the second quarter, Beyer hit Trey Davis with a beautiful 17-yard tightrope TD connection on the sideline to make it 7-7l.
Just before halftime, Day found Middleton on a perfectly executed fade play for a 7-yard TD.
Quarterback RJ Day, who led the Stallions to a 28-20 home win over St. Charles Friday, goes in for a touchdown against the Cardinals. Photo: John Hulkenberg
A 1-yard TD plunge by Michael Zarick midway through the third made it 14-all.
Peddling out of bounds under heavy pressure, Day found Karhoff, a 6-foot-5, 235-pounder, on a jump ball in the back of the end zone late in the third quarter.
Day and Middleton later hooked up on a 29-yard TD pass to make it 28-14.
Zarick got into the end zone for a second time on a 5-yard run at the 8:50 mark, but after a DeSales penalty went for a two-point conversion and came up inches short.
St. Charles had other chances to rally, but turnovers on its final three series thwarted those attempts.
With just 2:19 remaining, Beyer drove the Cardinals from their own 28 deep into Stallions territory, but DJ Davis made a crushing hit on receiver Liam Allwein at the 4 to prevent a potential touchdown. Then on third-and-goal, Bayer threw an off-balance lob into the end zone that Johnson picked off to seal the hard-earned win.
“We knew what (Beyer) was going to do there because they kept running the same plays over and over,” Johnson said. “He’s a dangerous quarterback who kept them in the game and our scheme was to always watch his receivers and spy him so he couldn’t make big runs.”
Carter Clark had two of the four interceptions for DeSales.
Beyer passed for 266 yards. His five turnovers were uncharacteristic as he entered the contest with 1,367 yards passing with 19 TDs and just three interceptions.
“We had a lot of chances, but we didn’t end up executing in a lot of spots where we should have, and give DeSales a ton of credit for that,” Beyer said. “Their defense played a very good game. At the end of the day, it comes down to making plays and they made them and we didn’t.”
Sophomore quarterback Nolan Beyer kept St. Charles in the game until the end, but DeSales came away with a 28-20 win Friday. Photo: John Hulkenberg