TWINSBURG, Ohio – No. 2 Archbishop Hoban knew that to beat No. 1 Walsh Jesuit – and Mother Nature – in the Division II Region 5 final on Friday, the Knights would need to run the ball.

And that was just fine for Hoban, which handed the ball to sophomore running back Brayton Feister 38 times for 262 yards and three touchdowns in a 21-7 win.

The Warriors beat the Knights seven weeks ago in the regular season, 19-14. That ended their 11-game losing streak to the Knights. Now the Warriors (13-1) are done, and the Knights advance to the state semifinals against Avon on Friday, Nov. 29.

On his second carry of Friday’s game, Feister found the end zone with a 2-yard run just one minute into the game to give the Knights a 7-0 lead.

The Knights (12-2), who finished the regular season ranked No. 4 in the cleveland.com Top 25, had the ball because on the second play of the game, their defense forced a fumble from Walsh quarterback Keller Moten, who had spun away from one defender before getting hit by Payton Cook and then Tylan “Juice” Boykin, who knocked the ball out.

“I loved it man,” Feister said. “To see our guy Juice make that play that was incredible.”

Senior defensive back Owen Turner fought through the rain and grabbed the ball on a bounce and took it to the Walsh 5-yard-line.

“I don’t even see it as bad weather out here,” Turner said. “I’m just playing football, backing up my team, doing whatever I can to get better.”

The first drive of the second half went 71 yards in 13 plays and took 6:21 off the clock, ending with a Feister run from 8 yards out for a touchdown to make it 14-0 midway through the third quarter. The drive consisted of 11 runs from Feister.

“We knew it would be smashmouth football,” Feister said. “We knew that we had to come out, we had to punch them in the mouth, and we have to make sure we get 14 on this board.”

Walsh (13-1) put together a drive that spanned the last two minutes of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, getting the ball to the Hoban 4, where on fourth down, Moten took the snap and ran to the left, broke out of a tackle and was able to beat the Hoban defense to the pylon for a touchdown to cut the led to 14-7 with 10:09 left.

And then after a defensive stop for the Warriors, they blocked a punt and had the ball at the Hoban 26 with 5:56 remaining. Moten seemed to score a touchdown on the first play, but a holding call nullified it and Hoban was able to stop Walsh on a fourth down just four plays later to get the ball back.

Feister then put the game on ice with a 68-yard touchdown to make it 21-7 with 1:25 remaining.

The Hoban defense held Walsh to just 133 yards of total offense and harassed Moten when he was forced to pass, holding him to just 3 of 14 passing for 39 yards and an interception.

“The defense was unbelievable,” Hoban coach Tim Tyrrell said. “I think they showed what they had.”

The entire game was played in a sideways rain, with the temperatures dipping into the 30s with the wind chill. But that was no problem for the 6-foot-1, 227-pound Feister, who bounced off tacklers all night long when he wasn’t running away from them.

“It brings you back to your childhood moments,” Feister said. “Playing out in the snow, playing out in the heat, the rain. You’re just having fun playing football. You know, that’s every kid’s dream is to come out on a stage like this.”