CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. – Isaiah Thompson didn’t hold back on what had just happened to the top-ranked Morgantown High football team over the first half on Friday night.
“We thought it was going to be easy,” the MHS senior running back said. “We definitely didn’t have our heads on straight. We weren’t ready to play.”
That explained how the Mohigans were tied with Connellsville (Pa.) at the half.
Here’s what Thompson did about it: Including his final carry of the first half and then his first three rushing attempts of the second half, Thompson took those four touches and scored four consecutive touchdowns to lead Morgantown High to a 48-21 victory over the Falcons.
“That first one in the second half got us fired up, I think,” Thompson said.
It surely did.
What was once a back-and-forth game turned into a runaway for MHS, which – get this – only needed a grand total of 32 plays on offense to account for six touchdowns. Morgantown’s seventh score came from Carter Cooper’s 87-yard kick return to tie the game 7-7 early in the first quarter.
Much of that was because of Thompson, who was a scoring machine against Connellsville. His final carry of the first half went for a 15-yard scoring run that gave MHS (4-0) a 21-14 lead.
After the Falcons tied the game at the end of the first half on Christian Thomas’ 33-yard scoring reception in the back of the end zone, Thompson came out in the second half and broke free on his first three carries.
The first was a 37-yard run after Cooper opened the half with a 53-yard kick return. The second was a track race up the middle of the field, a 77-yard run in which Thompson was barely touched. His third one was a 14-yard scamper that came after Connellsville botched a punt attempt and the ball was snapped over the punter’s head.
Four touches, four scores.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that,” MHS head coach Sean Biser said.
Who has?
“It was getting to the point where we didn’t have to look at the play card anymore,” Biser continued. “Just keep getting the ball to Isaiah. If they can’t stop him, let’s keep giving it to him. I mean, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?”
In all, Thompson went for 213 yards on 13 attempts, a healthy 16.4 yards per carry.
“I’ve never had a game quite like that,” he said. “It felt good. The holes kept getting bigger and bigger in the second half, but we obviously showed we still have things we need to get better at.
“We’ve got to be ready to play from the beginning. They were more physical than us to start the game and we needed to wake up.”
The Falcons (1-4) scored touchdowns on two of their first three possessions and may have made it a third if not for Cooper’s interception in the end zone on a tipped ball. Connellsville did it through the air, as quarterback Caden Matthews constantly found Thomas for big plays.
Matthews finished with 252 yards passing, while Thomas came away with 227 yards receiving and two scores on eight catches.
“A lot of that stuff can be fixed and will be fixed,” Biser said of the MHS defense. “Some of it, you just have to give credit to Connellsville. (Thomas) is a big guy, 200 pounds. He just went up a couple of times and made some really big plays for them. We had good position, but he just made the play.”
Cooper also had a big night for the Mohigans, who have a showdown with No. 8 Spring Mills next week. He had the two big kickoff returns and the interception that ended a Connellsville drive. He also caught an 81-yard touchdown from quarterback Maddox Twigg and added a 3-yard touchdown run midway in the fourth quarter for the final score.
Twigg finished 5 of 6 for 111 yards and added 22 yards rushing on three carries on a night when MHS didn’t always look like the No. 1-ranked team in the state, but still survived the upset bid.
“When we first got here, their guys were over there hitting the blocking sleds. They were ready to play,” Biser said. “I told our guys they better be ready, but I guess they didn’t listen. They thought they were just going to come in here and win, but that gives us good reason to practice a little harder. A win is still a win, and that’s all we were going for tonight.”
Box score
Morgantown 14 7 20 7 — 48
Connellsville 7 14 0 0 — 21
SCORING SUMMARY
C–Christian Thomas 40 pass from Caden Matthews (Hunter Brown kick)
MHS–Carter Cooper 87 kick return (Clifton Shreves kick)
MHS –Cooper 81 pass from Maddox Twigg (Shreves kick)
C–Matthews 1 run (Brown kick)
MHS–Isaiah Thompson 15 run (Shreves kick)
C–Thomas 33 pass from Matthews (Brown kick)
MHS–Thompson 37 run (Shreves kick)
MHS–Thompson 77 run (pass failed)
MHS–Thompson 14 run (Shreves kick)
MHS–Cooper 3 run (Shreves kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Morgantown–Thompson 13-213 4 TD, Twigg 3-22, Cooper 4-15 TD, Carson Keeling 2-1, Matthew Hennige 1-5, Team 2-(-2). Connellsville– Jayden Mickens 11-34, Matthews 16-6 TD, Wyatt Hall 2-6, Linkon Keller 4-17, Parker Lembo 1-1, Russell Miller 3-12, Team 2-(-28).
PASSING: Morgantown–Twigg 5-6 111 TD, Hennige 0-1. Connellsville–Matthews 15-22-1 252 2 TD, Cooper Wilson 1-3 5.
RECEIVING: Morgantown–Cooper 3-95 TD, Owen Young 2-16. Connellsville–Thomas 8-227 2 TD, Hall 2-7, Keller 1-6, Rocco Farrell 2-6, Geno Farrell 2-6, Lembo 1-5.
