MORGANTOWN — Make a play. Find a way.
That’s exactly what the top-ranked Morgantown High football team did on Saturday. The Mohigans simply survived and advanced with a 34-33 double overtime win against No. 8 Spring Mills, at Pony Lewis Field.
Just getting the game to overtime was a monumental accomplishment for MHS (11-1), which advances to host No. 4 Jefferson in next week’s state semifinals. The day and time will be determined Sunday.
Winning the game in double overtime took blocking Spring Mills’ extra-point attempt, after the Cardinals (7-5) had scored a touchdown to make it a one-point game.
MHS ran off the field in celebration, but in the fourth quarter it appeared the Cardinals, who were shut out by Morgantown High, 21-0, during the regular season, were primed for the upset.
With under five minutes to play in regulation, the Mohigans had amounted a grand total of negative (-3) total yards of offense in the second half. They trailed 21-13 and needed an 80-yard drive and a two-point conversion to tie the game.
But good teams seem to manage to rise up when it counts, and MHS quarterback Maddox Twigg stepped up when it mattered most. First, he connected with teammate Isaiah Thompson for a 10-yard TD pass with just 53 seconds remaining and then found Jayden Smalls with another pass for the two-point conversion.
On the day, Twigg accounted for 254 of the Mohigans’ 263 total yards. He passed for 144 yards and three scores, while adding 110 yards and two more touchdowns on the ground.
Spring Mills quarterback Rylan Swartz was just as impressive. He finished 23 of 30 – completing passes to six different receivers along the way – for 226 yards and three TDs. He also rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown on 16 attempts.
On the tying drive in regulation, Twigg found Thompson free on a swing pass, and the senior swooped down the left sideline for the score. On the do-or-die two-point try, Twigg rolled left, then patiently waited for Smalls to come open in the corner.
That sent the game to a first overtime, when special teams became the focus of the game.
Swartz got the Cardinals on the board first with a 5-yard pass to Xavier Anderson. When the extra-point try was missed, the MHS sideline and fans went berserk, especially when Carter Cooper scored from the 15 on an almost identical swing pass to tie the game.
MHS kicker Aiden Petsko saw his extra-point attempt sail wide, which sent the game into a second overtime.
On the Mohigans’ second drive in OT, they were hit with a personal foul and false start penalty, which set up a third-and-forever. Twigg danced around the pocket and found Smalls, who picked up enough for the first down. Twigg then grinded in behind his offensive line on third-and-goal from the 6-yard line for his second rushing touchdown of the game. Petsko nailed the point after, putting the pressure back on Spring Mills.
The Cardinals answered when Swartz bulled his way in on a scramble from the 9-yard line, but the extra point was booted low and into the line, followed immediately with a mad rush of Mohigans to mob the special teams unit.
“We practice our special teams every day, maybe more than other teams do,” MHS head coach Sean Biser said. “Which is why we were so pleased with our start, and then so frustrated with some of the misplays and mistakes we had through much of the rest of the game. But it’s certainly good for those units to step up and do their jobs and secure the win.
“We knew Spring Mills was a very good football team with a very elusive quarterback and elite skill position athletes. They did a good job of taking us out of some of the things we were successful with in our first meeting, and I didn’t think we played complementary football most of the afternoon.”
Then, maybe for the first time all day, Biser got a chance to take a breath.
“But, good teams find a way to win when they aren’t playing their best, and we made the plays we needed when we needed them most,” he said. “In the end, we survived, and it’s a tribute to our kids and our program that we never gave up.”
Box score
Spring Mills 7 7 7 0 6 6–33
Morgantown 7 6 0 8 6 7– 34
SCORING SUMMARY
MHS–Maddox Twigg 25 run (Aiden Petsko kick)
SM–Blake Sanders 1 run (Landon Stanley kick)
SM–Douglas Mayer 37 pass from Rylan Swartz (Stanley kick)
MHS–Zaiiden Lockett 58 pass from Twigg (kick blocked)
SM–Xavier Anderson 24 pass from Swartz (Stanley kick)
MHS Isaiah Thompson 10 pass from Twigg (Jayden Smalls pass from Twigg)
SM–Anderson 4 pass from Swartz (kick missed)
MHS–Carter Cooper 15 pass from Twigg (kick missed)
MHS–Twigg 6 run (Petsko kick)
SM–Swartz 9 run (kick blocked)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING: Spring Mills–Rylan Swartz 23-30-1 226 3TD. Morgantown–Maddox Twigg 9-14-0 144 3TD.
RUSHING: Spring Mills–Swartz 16-63 TD, Tavon Jones 2-0, Sanders 22-51 TD, Zane Wipf 1-16, Javon Jones 1-(-4), Kheelan Curry 1-(-2). Morgantown–Twigg 20-110 2TD, Lockett 1-2, Carter Cooper 2-1, Isaiah Thompson 6-6.
RECEIVING: Spring Mills–Javon Jones 5-25, Kheelan Curry 1-2, Xavier Anderson 5-68 2TD, Mayer 5-90 TD, Sanders 3-7, Wipf 4-34. Morgantown–Lockett 1-58 TD, Cooper 4-18 TD, Tanzer George 1-28, Owen Young 1-10, Thompson 1-10 TD, Jayden Smalls 1-20.
