Fort Frye’s Ella Dowler, left, positions herself in the paint as Shenandoah’s Brenna Leach defends during Saturday’s district final matchup at John Glenn. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

NEW CONCORD — A little more than one full year ago, the then-No. 6 seeded Shenandoah Zeps almost upset the top-seeded Fort Frye Cadets in a District Final at Caldwell High School before eventually falling to the Cadets, who went on to make it all the way to the Final Four.

One year later, the two would meet once again in the district title game Saturday afternoon at John Glenn High School. This time, the No. 3 seeded Zeps downed the top-seeded Cadets 45-33 to claim the district crown and advance to the Sweet 16.

While last year would have been a major upset had the Zeps pulled off the win, this year was much different as Shenandoah came into the game riding a nine-game winning streak with a 22-2 record overall against a very tough schedule.

“We’ve thought about this for about 365 days since being in that game and watching them walk off the court,” said Shenandoah head coach Roman Thompson. “We had game planned for them and we knew this was a team we would have to beat to get out of the districts and our girls did it.”

Early on it looked like the Zeps might have their hands full with the Cadets as Fort Frye canned three triples in the first quarter alone to take a 13-6 lead.

Fort Frye’s Rae Morgenstern (21) looks to pass as Shenandoah’s Molly Van Fleet defends during Saturday’s district final matchup at John Glenn. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Cadet junior Ella Dowler canned a pair of threes and fellow junior Ellie Casto knocked down the other as Fort Frye scored 11 unanswered points.

Shenandoah freshman Emma Dailey and Fort Frye junior Ava Huffman traded field goals to begin the second quarter before the Zeps began to find their way.

A pair of free throws from Brenna Leach, the D6 East District Player Of The Year, got them to within five before back-to-back triples by juniors Kendal Snyder and Emily Moore gave them a 16-15 lead.

Later in the quarter, a pair of freebies by Cadet freshman Jantzyn Huck cut the lead to two, but Shenandoah closed out the half with a two-pointer by Dailey and a pair of free throws by Moore to take a 24-18 lead into the break.

Thompson and his staff knew full well that defense would be the key to pulling out the win. After allowing the 13 first-quarter points, the Zeps played shutdown D the rest of the way.

“Defense won this game no doubt about it and after that first quarter ours was phenomenal,” said Thompson, noting his team allowed five, eight and seven points over the final three quarters. “We went through the walk-thoughs the last three days down to the finest details and the girls executed it perfectly.”

Huffman got the second half started in the right way for the Cadets with a three-ball, but the Zeps answered with six in a row, including a pair by Leach to push their lead to nine.

Casto connected for her second triple of the game for Fort Frye to close the lead back to six, but the Zeps answered once again with a 5-0 run to push their lead into double-digits for the first time in the game.

Khoen Courson closed out the third for Fort Frye with a two-pointer to keep them within striking distance, but the Zeps scored the first five points of the final quarter to open up a 14-point lead. They cruised the rest of the way to their biggest victory in years.

A huge number of Shenandoah fans made the short trip from Sarahsville and witnessed an outstanding defensive performance that saw the Zeps allow just 20 points over the final three quarters of the game.

“Our girls were a little nervous early on but we settled in,” said Thompson. “I told them before the game that Fort Frye is a great team and they are ranked No. 4 in the state for a reason. They were going to come out and punch us in the mouth and to take the punch but stay the course. We did and I thought our physicality throughout the game wore them down.”

Leach led a very balanced Shenandoah attack with 11 points while also yanking down 12 rebounds. Moore and Dailey added 10 points apiece.

Junior Molly Van Fleet was solid underneath, especially late in the game as she finished with eight points and nine rebounds.

Dailey had the responsibility of guarding Dowler, who led the Cadets in scoring with 11 while Casto added eight.

The Cadets shot just 21% (6-of-28) from behind the arc and just seemed to fall out of rhythm after the great start.

“I thought we came out in the first quarter and played really strong and they came at us after that and I didn’t think we fully responded like we have,” said Fort Frye first-year head coach Cathy Borich. “You can’t take anything away from them — they played a great game today and unfortunately someone has to lose and it was us today.”

Fort Frye’s season comes to a close with a 20-5 record and a bright future ahead as they didn’t have a single senior on their 2025-2026 roster.

“We have everyone coming back and we are still very young,” said Borich. “If we can keep everybody together and everybody back for next year and working hard I think there are a lot of good things in our future.”

While the Cadets season comes to a disappointing end, Thompson hopes his team has a few more wins left in them as they prepare to begin regional play after surviving such a tough district.

“There can’t be a tougher district in the state than the one we just won,” said Thompson whose team will open regional play on Wednesday night at Pickerington North High School against Federal Hocking. “Four teams in the top 10 in the state in our district and we knocked off three of them so we are ready to move on to the next one.”