Baldwin ? The only thing that could stop Paola High’s Matt Shay on Friday night was his chin strap.

The senior ran for 199 yards on 33 carries and scored three touchdowns, helping his Paola football squad beat Baldwin High, 26-19, at Liston Stadium.

“It’s never easy to win here,” Paola coach Mike Dumfert said. “The last four or five times we have come out here, we can’t seem to put them away.”

Dumfert was referring to a late touchdown scored by Baldwin, keeping the pressure on Paola. On fourth-and-10 with just over a minute to play, Baldwin quarterback Jeremy Wright hit wide receiver Aaron Hannon over the middle, and Hannon did the rest. He streaked by two defenders and was gone for a 61-yard touchdown.

That made the score 26-19 in favor of Paola, which sealed the victory by recovering the onside kick.

Baldwin coach Mike Berg was proud of his team’s effort.

“The Bulldogs never give up,” a dejected Berg said. “Our kids fought ’til the end tonight, and I am very proud of them. Even though we lost, I told them it was a great night to be a Bulldog.”

Shay missed four plays in the third quarter while repairs were made to his broken chin strap. Those plays were the only time he was stopped. All of his carries were for positive yardage.

Baldwin High's Jeremy Wright throws a pass while being pressured by Paola's Jordan Karr (56). The Bulldogs lost, 26-19, Friday at Liston Stadium in Baldwin.

Baldwin opened the game with a 10-play, five-minute drive, capped by a five-yard TD run by Wright. On the ensuing possession, Paola put together an impressive 17-play drive that went into the second quarter. On the drive, Shay had 11 carries for 54 yards, capped by his two-yard TD run to tie the game at 7.

After Baldwin went three and out, it got the ball back when Shay was stripped of the ball by Luke Weaver, who also made the recovery. On the next play, the Bulldogs pulled a trick play out of their bag.

Wright handed off the ball to Hannon on a reverse, but Hannon pulled up and heaved the ball downfield to a wide-open Ryan Jorgensen. He pulled it in for a 47-yard gain.

“They had the ball the whole second quarter, so when we finally got it from them, we wanted to try to get a quick score,” Berg said. “We wanted to try to surprise them a little bit.”

The drive did not end with any points, however, after a critical pass from Wright to Aaron Mills on third-and-19 was ruled incomplete after initially being ruled a completion.

Wright was sacked on fourth down, giving the ball back to Paola.

Paola only attempted four passes the entire game, but one of them resulted in a 17-yard touchdown. Early in the third quarter, Paola quarterback Jeremy Dillard faked a handoff and hit a wide-open Tyleer Ketzner for the score.

Dillard did most of his damage on the ground, however, rushing for 107 yards on 13 carries. Overall, Paola accumulated 363 yards on the ground.

“They average 270 pounds on the offensive line,” Berg said. “We’re about 220, 230. I’m not making excuses, though. There were times when we had the ball-carrier wrapped up in the backfield, and we let go of him. We have to do a better job of tackling.”

Paola 26, Baldwin 19

Paola – 0 – 13 – 6 – 7 – – – 26

Baldwin – 7 – 0 – 0 – 12 – – – 19

B – Jeremy Wright 5 run (Kevin Callahan kick)

P – Matt Shay 2 run (Kalen Kleffaber kick)

P – Tyleer Ketzner 17 pass from Jeremy Dillard (run failed)

P – Shay 23 run (run failed)

B – Klay Garrison 2 run (kick failed)

P – Shay 21 run (Kleffaber kick)