MASSILLON, Ohio (AP) — Delphos St. John’s reached its ultimate goal a year early on Friday with a big boost from quarterback Wes Ulm.

The junior rushed for 198 yards and one touchdown on 24 carries to lead the Blue Jays (13-2) to their fifth Ohio Division VI high school football championship with a 34-14 win over Bascom Hopewell-Loudon.

Coming off a disappointing 2-8 season, loaded with underclassmen and unranked in the final regular-season polls, the Blue Jays entered the playoffs considered a year away from being a true championship contender.

“We left no doubt that we’re not a year away,” said Ulm, who also completed 3 of 8 passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns.

With the win at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Friday, the Blue Jays earned their fifth consecutive playoff win over a higher-seeded team. Delphos St. John’s, seeded third, improved to 5-0 in state title games under coach Todd Schulte. They went unbeaten in 43 games while winning three consecutive titles in 1997-99 and added another championship in 2005.

This title was especially sweet for Schulte.

“Every time somebody told us ‘no,’ we got a little stronger, a little more motivated,” Schulte said.

Hopewell-Loudon (14-1), ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press regular-season poll, came in averaging 40 points, but again was denied its first state title. A year ago, the Chieftains also were unbeaten and top-ranked but lost to Newark Catholic in the title game, 28-14.

“The best way to stop our offense is to control the ball against us,” Chieftains coach Brian Colatruglio said. “It’s worked twice in our last 30 games — unfortunately both times for the title.”

Ulm gained big yards with nifty broken-field running, including a scramble early in the third quarter when he appeared trapped well behind the line of scrimmage on a third-and-10 pass play. Instead, Ulm picked his way through and around the Chieftains’ defense for a 24-yard gain.

“My only thought was don’t get tackled,” Ulm said. “Otherwise, I can’t explain what I was doing.”

That set up a 5-yard TD run by Jordan Leininger on fourth down to cap a 16-play, 77-yard drive that consumed nearly nine minutes and gave the Blue Jays a 27-14 lead.

“In my wildest dreams, I never thought we’d have such a long drive,” Schulte said. “I’ll scratch my head over that one for awhile.”

Ulm and Leininger combined for a 53-yard TD pass that made it 34-14 in the fourth quarter.

Leininger gave the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead the first time they touched the ball, running 9 yards up the middle to score.

Hopewell-Loudon came right back with a 65-yard drive to tie it. A 30-yard pass from Tyler Brown to Jay Yost put the ball at the St. John 9 and Aaron Kapelka burst up the middle to score on the next play.

Brown found Yost with a 12-yard TD pass for a 14-7 lead, but Ulm ran 26 yards to tie it early in the second quarter. Ulm then threw 26 yards to Jay Leininger 50 seconds before halftime for a 21-14 lead.

“That was a big swing,” Colatruglio said. “We shanked a punt, gave them great field position and they scored. Then they got the ball to start the second half and went on that long drive. We just never had the ball.”

Brown, a first team All-Ohio selection, went 14-for-27 for 182 yards, but had two passes intercepted.

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