MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two weeks after beating Morgantown 14-3 in the regular season finale, No. 6 University (10-1) edged the Mohigans (8-3) again on Saturday night in the opening round of the playoffs, 9-3.
“It was a tremendous high school football game,” said University head coach John Kelley. “My guts are chewed up and spit out and everything else. We had big plays on our part, but an inability to move the football. We could have probably won the game by three touchdowns, but we had the inability to move one yard. The difference between this one and that one was they won the line of scrimmage. But our big plays got us going.”
University got on the board early in the first quarter on a blocked punt that went out of the back of the endzone for a safety by Tristan Lucas. That safety came after University, on the previous possession, couldn’t score on four straight plays from the MHS two-yardline.
“That was big, the only thing is I wish we would have got seven out of that instead of two,” Kelley said. “That was looming large, because at 9-3, if they scored, they were going to win it.”
Morgantown played, for the most part, without all-state running back Chazzy Thomas who has been hampered late in the season by a high-ankle sprain. Thomas had just a handful of carries on Saturday for the Mohigans.
“He did everything we asked him to do,” said Morgantown head coach John Bowers. “He tried and went as long as he could. He’s a warrior.”
The Mohigans also played most of the game without lineman Amanii Brown who suffered a knee injury on Morgantown’s second drive of the game. Sophomore quarterback Zayne Hern also started in place of senior Ethan Goldcamp who got banged up late in the year.
Regardless, University shutdown the Mohigans two games in a row, holding Morgantown to just a combined six points.
“We shut them down to six points in two games – two field goals,” Kelley said. “That might have been the best performance I’ve ever seen by a defense. They just shut them down completely. I tell you, if you play like that, you can win a championship.
“Even though I know they didn’t have Chazzy, they still have a lot of weapons,” Kelley continued. “I thought that young quarterback did a nice job.”
A crew of Morgantown backs stepped in for Thomas, finishing with just over 160 yards on the ground in the loss. University, meanwhile, finished with 260 yards on the ground, led by quarterback Travis Renner and junior Jace Neville.
Renner scored University’s lone touchdown on a 35 yard scamper – he finished the night with 125 yards on 18 carries. Neville added 127 yards on 11 carries, including a 44 yard run late in the fourth quarter.
“I thought both of them were terrific,” Kelley said. “Morgantown took our passing game away from us, they really did a nice job. What an effort – that was just about as best as it could be.”
Morgantown had a couple of potential game-winning drives in the fourth quarter that stalled around mid-field – a deep ball thrown in the final minute was intercepted by Jack Armstrong, sealing the win for the Hawks.
University moves on to face No. 3 Capital in the quarterfinals.
HIGHLIGHTS AND VIDEO BY ANTHONY SPARKS