WHEELING — It wasn’t pretty but when you are fighting just to sneak into the playoffs, you will take a victory any way you can get it. That’s what Wheeling Park coach Chris Daugherty was thinking following Friday night’s 35-28 victory against Parkersburg South at Wheeling Island Stadium. “There were times where I felt we could have taken over this game, but we didn’t and that seems to be our M.O.,” Daugherty said. “For whatever reason, it seems like we have been in situations where we are going to take over a game and then we let people back into it. “But at the same time our kids rose to the occasion and got the stops that we needed. We got the offense going a little bit and scoring when we needed to to put the game away.” Wheeling Park (5-4), wearing gray jerseys for the first time as part of its TWBAI Against ALS tribute to former coach Mark Nardone, jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, before allowing Parkersburg South to storm back with two touchdowns in the second quarter to tie it. The game remained that way until Donnie Evans broke the deadlock on the first play of the fourth quarter with a 6-yard run. Parkersburg South (3-6) answered with an impressive 12-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a Nick Yoho 1-yard touchdown run to tie the game for a second time. Getting the ball back with 7:53 remaining, Wheeling Park ate nearly six minutes of clock, scoring on a Rennie Clark 10-yard run to put Wheeling Park back in front. Parkersburg South had two minutes to work with to drive for the tying score, but the much-maligned Wheeling Park defense came up with what might have been its biggest stop of the season. South quarterback Brayden Mooney threw an incomplete pass on first down, and Yoho had runs of 4 and 1 on second and third down, respectively. Mooney’s fourth-down pass was in the grasp of Dylan Day, but the sophomore wideout was unable to bring it down with a Park defender playing solid coverage. “We were going with what we were doing well, picking up 8, 9, 10 yards at a clip running those same plays earlier and they were perimeter plays so if you don’t get much, you are near the sideline and stopping the clock,” Parkersburg South coach Mike Eddy said. Four plays later, Evans ran it in from 3 yards out for an insurance touchdown to put Park up 35-21 with a minute remaining. It was needed. Parkersburg South marched 59 yards, helped by a roughing-the-passer penalty and culminating in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Mooney to Brett Hearn to cut the deficit to seven with 21 seconds left. Ahmed Ali’s onside kick was recovered by Wheeling Park’s Jack Stakem and quarterback Cross Wilkinson took a knee to escape with a victory and clinch a playoff berth. “I was proud of our kids and we had a rocky season and we aren’t the team we thought we could be,” Eddy said. “This was probably the most complete game we’ve played all year. They fought for each other and gave themselves a chance to win right up until the end. You can’t ask for anything more from these kids. We were able to claw back in it and realize we could win this football game. Earlier in the season, we may not have responded in that same way.” Wheeling Park, coming off a shutout of Princeton, allowed 305 rushing yards to Parkersburg South, led by Yoho’s 160 yards. “We have one more week to get it fixed and it is going to be an important week,” Daugherty said. “At times you see it offensively and defensively that we can be pretty good. We just have to learn to play every down. “We definitely took a couple steps backward this week after taking two steps forward the past two weeks. Their schemes gave us fits and we have to fix that. But at the end of the day, we got enough stops, the stop that we needed and enough points to get a win.” Wheeling Park opened the game scoring in five plays as Wilkinson found Stakem with a perfect throw to the end zone from 30 yards out. Clark added a 2-yard scoring run later in the quarter. South tied it in the second quarter on touchdown runs from Zane Hinzman (37) and Yoho (5). Wilkinson finished with 215 yards passing to become the 10th player in Ohio Valey history with more than 6,000 career passing yards. Evans led all rushers with 172 yards. Stakem had six catches for 82 yards.