Injuries and a challenging schedule derailed the Upper Arlington High School football team this season.

The Golden Bears finished 5-5 overall and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2004. They finished 10th in Division I, Region 3 as the top eight teams qualify for the playoffs.

This season also marks the first time since 1998 that a team coached by Mike Golden missed the playoffs.

"I'm disappointed we're not in the playoffs, but I'm satisfied that (the players) never quit," said Golden, who completed his fifth season at UA and 20th overall. "They kept trying the whole way through, and that's all you can ask kids to do. If they do that now, then they'll do that in life. They'll get up in the morning and go to work when things get tough. And that's really what (athletics) is supposed to be about."

In addition to missing the playoffs, UA didn't defend its OCC-Central Division championship. UA was 2-3 in the league to tie Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne for third, behind Dublin Coffman (5-0) and Hilliard Davidson (4-1) and ahead of Hilliard Darby (0-5).

The Bears lost three of their first four games. They opened with a 52-7 loss to Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas, the 2008 mythical national champion and No. 1-ranked team in the country, in the Kirk Herbstreit Varsity Football Series on Aug. 29. After defeating Beechcroft 28-20 on Sept. 4, they lost to Findlay 24-7 on Sept. 11 as six starters were suspended for off-the-field actions and Thomas 17-9 on Sept. 18.

UA then won four in a row, despite missing several key players because of injury. They defeated Kilbourne 22-21 on Sept. 25, Darby 10-7 on Oct. 2, Newark 52-6 on Oct. 9 and Olentangy Orange 21-16 on Oct. 16, before closing out the season with back-to-back losses, falling to Davidson 19-0 on Oct. 23 and Coffman 21-12 on Oct. 30.

"It shows the character of our team," linebacker and fullback Daniel Botomogno said of the Bears' four-game winning streak. "When we were down in the middle of the season, we kept fighting hard and turned things around. It shows that we never gave up."

Orange (Division II), Davidson (Division I) and Coffman (Division I) advanced to the playoffs, and St. Thomas Aquinas was a lock to make the Florida Class 5A playoffs, which start Friday. Heading into last weekend, the four teams were a combined 41-4.

Only two of UA's opponents finished with losing records -- Darby (3-6) and Newark (0-10).

Among the starters who missed significant time because of injury were offensive and defensive lineman J.J. Blevins (knee), quarterback Kyle Cassady (broken collarbone), running back Drew Karram (concussion), tight end Will Jones (knee), safety Mark McClain (leg) and offensive lineman Peter Scriven (knee).

"I've never had anywhere close to the number of injuries that we had this year," Golden said.

UA loses 33 seniors, including 19 who were starters or saw significant playing time in Blevins, Botomogno, Cassady, Jones, McClain, Scriven, Sam Ailabouni (OL/DL), Andrew Badea (WR/LB), Michael Badea (WR/DB), Gerrit Hobson (LB), Phil Jaskot (WR/DB/P), Drew Klamar (OL/DL), George Schooley (DL), Brady Siddall (OL/DL), Jonathan Staker (DB), Jack Varanese (LB), Nick Viau (OL/DL), Mac Wilcox (WR/DB) and Tim Yuhas (LB).

Cassady completed 16 of 36 passes for 160 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions before being lost for the season in the win over Kilbourne. Jaskot led the team with 128 yards receiving on seven catches.

Wilcox also had seven receptions for 119 yards.

Varanese led the team in tackles with 81. Botomogno was second with 77, including a team-high four sacks, followed by Jaskot (72), Andrew Badea (71) and Yuhas (66).

Among the players expected to return are juniors Drew Dakin (DB), Ben Grindle-deGraaf (LB), Jake Johns (QB), Michael Losacco (OL/DL), Andrew Mariotti (WR), Damon Rothgeb (DB), Alex Sherer (OL), Kyle Vesper (RB), Job Welling (OL), Alex Whitcomb (K) and Karram and sophomores Frank Epitropoulos (WR), Ryan McSheffery (RB) and Francis Wilamosky (RB). Many of those players likely would not have gotten significant playing time if not for injuries.

McSheffery led the team in rushing with 793 yards and seven touchdowns on 133 carries. Karram ran for 577 yards and four touchdowns on 119 carries. Johns completed 33 of 76 passes for 469 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.

"We're going to miss our seniors," Golden said. "They provided a lot of leadership when it got tough, but we've got a lot of kids who got experience coming back. That is a silver lining in all the injuries we had. The future looks very bright. Our freshman and (junior varsity) teams were good, and we have a lot of kids with experience coming back. We feel very good about next year."