No. 1 MHS makes quick work of Wheeling Park, 47-7
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WHEELING -- In the span of a trip to the concession stands, the game got out of hand Friday for the Wheeling Park Patriots against the visiting Morgantown Mohigans, rated atop WVSSAC Class AAAA coming into the night.
With four minutes to play in the first half, Wheeling Park trailed 19-0, and were faced with a fourth down in their own territory. The Patriot punt, though, improbably bounced off the back of the helmet of the personal protector on the play, with Morgantown recovering at Park's own four yard-line. Two plays later, Morgantown's Rudy Carillo crossed the goal line on a two yard end-around run. It all led to the Mohigans walking out of Wheeling Island Stadium with a 47-7 victory.
Park got the ball back and marched down to Morgantown's red zone, taking up much of the quarter's remaining clock, only for a fourth-down pass attempt from the Mohigans' 13 yard-line to be picked off in the end zone by Landon Cook. Cook raced down the field 100+ yards for a pick-six, and suddenly, Morgantown led 33-0 with 20 seconds until halftime.
But the Mohigans were not done yet. Morgantown sent out a surprise pooch punt on their ensuing kickoff, which Wheeling Park had trouble recovering. At the bottom of a dogpile, it was Morgantown ball with 17 seconds left. The Mohigans needed only one play to score yet again from Park's own 37 yard-line, junior quarterback Maddox Twigg scrambling out of the pocket and finding his running back Lyric Blake in the middle of the field. Blake burned up to the Park goal line and muscled into the end zone through a wall of Park defenders.
Anyone returning to the stands, popcorn in-hand, would've been surprised to see the Morgantown lead had leaped to 40-0 as both teams retreated to the locker rooms.
"We’re just playing hard," Morgantown head coach Sean Biser said of his team's manic final minutes in the first half. "I mean, that [pick-six] just comes down to playing hard. You
don’t give up just because they got the ball down close to your end zone. Our guys just kept playing hard, and when you do that, good things happen. And that’s all that was.
"Then, we just weren’t going to kick it deep to them. They had a nice little return on their last kickoff. We were of the mind, ah, we’re not going to kick it deep. We just happened to get out and get the ball."
The second half was largely played with a running clock in Morgantown’s victory.
Twigg, last year's J.R. House Award recipient, threw three touchdowns and ran for another, and the Mohigans defense seriously limited Wheeling Park in a standout two-way day for Biser's squad.
"I don’t know, as a coach you’re ever really happy unless you get a perfect game," Biser said of his team's day. "I was just glad we came up, we executed, kids played hard, did what they needed to do, and it is always good to come up here and get a win.
"They just played hard," he said of his defense, who shut out Park until both team's second-string were playing in the fourth quarter. "I mean, our guys played hard and we did a really good job on the back end. Just played team defense. We just played complementary football-- offense, defense, and special teams."
Twigg ended the day with 234 passing yards and three scores, while adding 36 yards and another touchdown on the ground, a one-yard plunge that first got Morgantown on the board to cap the Mohigans' opening drive.
Twigg threw a 54-yard touchdown bomb to Cook late in the first quarter to put Morgantown ahead 13-0, and Lyric Blake ran in a nine-yard touchdown early in the second for a 19-0 Mohigan advantage.
Blake finished with 60 yards and the ground, 37 through the air, and two total touchdowns.
Carillo had three catches for 78 yards as well as his short touchdown run.
Brooks King had a multi-sack day for Morgantown, and Alex Harris also came away with a sack.
In the second half, Morgantown's Tanzer George ran in a 13-yard touchdown, and Wheeling Park's Maxx Taylor threw a 30-yard score to Logan Wilson over the middle in a fast-moving half where the clock ran.
For Park, senior quarterback Jay Bordas completed 13 of 24 passes for 104 yards, Michael Neider finishing as his leading receiver, catching five passes for 33 yards.
The late second-quarter misfortunes put the Patriots too far behind the eight ball the rest of the way. Park has hit a bit of a skid, losing three straight after Friday's defeat.
"Ultimately we played better football today," Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. "We lined up, we executed better-- on defense especially. We just had some mishaps. What was it, 21 points they had, between a punt being blocked, and then an interception, then-- we just can’t do those things, not to Morgantown. They're going to make you pay. Prior to that moment, that two-and-a-half minutes of a 21-point swing, I thought our guys were playing pretty good.
"We had an opportunity to make it 21-7 at halftime. All in all, we just got to keep plugging away. I thought our defense did a lot better than the previous two weeks. We just have to build off of that and continue to keep working."
Morgantown's next date is a big one-- a home tilt against No. 4 Martinsburg (5-0). Wheeling Park will remain at home, hosting Canfield (OH) (2-5).
BOX SCORE
Morgantown 13 27 7 0 - 47
Wheeling Pk 0 0 0 7 - 7
SCORING SUMMARY
MT-Twigg 1 run (Petsko kick)
MT-Cook 54 pass from Twigg (run failed)
MT-Blake 9 run (pass failed)
MT-Carillo 6 run (Petsko kick)
MT-Cook 100 interception return (Petsko kick)
MT-Blake 37 pass from Twigg (Petsko kick)
MT-George 13 run (Petsko kick)
WP-Wilson 30 pass from Taylor (Tipton kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Morgantown–Blake 10-60 TD; Keeling 6-23; Twigg 5-36 TD; Turner 2-5; Carillo 1-2 TD; Lenhart 1-(-1). Wheeling Park–Miller 6-12; Taylor 3-33; Pilkington 3-23; Bordas 3-1; Burton-Jackson 2-(-3); Donaldson 1-1; Team 2-(-27).
PASSING: Morgantown–Twigg 11-20 234 3TD; Lenhart 0-1. Wheeling Park–Bordas 13-24-1 104; Taylor 1-2 30 TD.
RECEIVING: Morgantown–George 4-42 TD; Carillo 3-78; Cook 1-54 TD; Blake 1-37 TD; Keeling 1-15; McCutcheon 1-8. Wheeling Park Neider 5-33; Wetzel 3-22; Heatherington 3-18; Wilson 1-30 TD; Justice 1-30; Neal 1-1.