MORGANTOWN – Last season, the Morgantown High football team exited the Class AAAA postseason with a 14-7 defeat to eventual state runner-up Spring Mills in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
Now-sophomore quarterback Maddox Twigg was just a first-year player for MHS at the time, and while the loss hurt at the time, he and his team have grown from the defeat and return in 2025 as the top seed in the bracket after a 9-1 finish in the regular season.
Twigg led MHS with 2,239 total yards of offense and 26 touchdowns in the regular season. The sophomore completed 67% of his passes and averaged 7.6 yards per carry on the ground. He’s also contributed on defense and has three interceptions (including a pick-six) to his name.
MHS will host No. 16 Buckhannon-Upshur in the opening round of the 2025 postseason, and Twigg says he and his teammates are focused only on taking one game at a time.
“We always enter every game ready to give 120%,” Twigg said. “Our mindset is to continue to do that, while keeping our focus on our opponent and staying in our lane. We know what got us to this point, and that will continue to carry us forward. We know where we want to be and what our ultimate goal is, and that’s to play for and win a state championship.”
Morgantown hosted its first home playoff game since 2016 last season, coming away with a victory over Woodrow Wilson before falling to Spring Mills on the road.
This season, as the No. 1 seed in the bracket, the Mohigans hold homefield advantage through the semifinals as long as they advance to the following round each week.
“Homefield advantage is huge for us as a team and as a school,” Twigg said. “It means we will have a great atmosphere and our fans will have our back throughout the playoffs. Of course, other teams having to travel to come to us helps too.”
MHS has been one of the top teams both offensively and defensively. Twigg says the offense needs to continue doing what it has all season, while trying to be slightly more disciplined.
“I think we just need to stay focused on the current opponent in front of us, starting this week,” he said. “As long as we keep working hard and do the right things, making the right reads, calls, executing on mismatches, we will be hard to beat.”
MHS has earned shutouts in its last two games, 21-0 over University and 45-0 over Musselman, and will continue to try to do so on Friday night in the opening round of the Class AAAA playoffs.
