North-Central Report: Week 10

 

University (8-1) at Morgantown (4-5) 

Morgantown still has a mathematical shot at the playoffs if it can beat its cross town rival on Halloween night. Morgantown snapped a four game losing streak with a 21-6 win over John Marshall last week.

“We lost our identity along the way,” said MHS coach John Bowers heading into the final game of the regular season. “We are going back to what we know; playing good defense and punching people in the mouth on offense. That’s Morgantown High football.”

Morgantown (4-5) in week nine picked up a must-win over John Marshall (4-4) 21-6.

The Mohigans have turned the offense over to sophomore backs Maverick Wolfley and Jordan Page. Both went over the 100 yard mark in the John Marshall game as they combined for 227 yards on the ground. The old Wing-T look was back on offense for the Mohigans last week.

“I don’t want this season to end,” Bowers lamented. “It’s a great group of kids. I love being around them. We’ve had such bad luck this season. I feel bad for the seniors.”

Morgantown has lost four games in which it held fourth quarter leads. Those leads got away in games against Parkersburg South, Wheeling Park, Martinsburg and Musselman.

“Hopefully they are turning the corner and learning how to win,” Bowers said. “That’s an acquired skill. We’ve been working it out with competitive drills in practice every day. Practices have been tough.

“We’ve gotta try to get into the playoffs,” Bowers concluded. “If we do sneak in, someone at the top half of the bracket won’t be happy staring down at us because we are finally healthy. We’re getting there.”

Morgantown has battled injuries to swingman Shea Campbell, defensive end/tight end Stone Wolfley, leading rusher DaShon Thomas, quarterback Ethan Goldcamp, linebacker Logan Wotring and Page. All, however, should be back in the lineup and ready to go this week.

University stretched its winning streak to six with a tough 29-25 win over Preston. The much-improved Knights led most of the first half. The Hawks went old school in the second half running 260 pound sophomore fullback Isaiah Utt 10 consecutive plays during one stretch. Utt, back from an ankle injury he suffered during week two, had the first 100+ yard rushing game of his career.

“The story of that game was Isaiah Utt and I worked him back in gradually,” joked University coach John Kelley, as Utt had a career high 22 carries in the game. “It became very apparent they couldn’t stop him, so we went with that.”

The Hawks also tightened up defensively as Preston did not score in the second half until the final minute.

Another note with the UHS offense: Senior receiver Tristan Lucas has now caught a touchdown pass in eight consecutive games. Lucas had a 41-yard scoring grab in the Preston win. Lucas has become University’s big play target as his last seven touchdown grabs have averaged 27 yards.

The veteran University defensive unit is playing well. The Hawks start nine seniors on that side of the ball. The Hawks have allowed just 11 touchdowns defensively during this six game win streak. The defense has played especially well early in most of those games as the Hawks have allowed just seven first half touchdowns in six games.

 

Buckhannon-Upshur (5-3) at Preston (5-3) 

The Knights host the Buccaneers in what could turn out to be a playoff elimination game. Both teams are coming off tough losses. Preston led most of the first half before being outscored 15-8 in the second half during a 29-25 loss at University.

The Knights used a late Casey Shrout touchdown and a two point conversion to close the gap. Preston recovered an on-side kick after that score and had a couple of chances to throw the ball down field in the final seconds. Josiah Nuse continued with his fine senior season as he rushed for 92 yards in the first quarter.

Nuse led the way as Preston had a 17-14 halftime lead. The loss at University snapped a four game winning streak for the Knights. Preston has lost to three excellent teams – Lewis County, Fairmont Senior and UHS have a combined record of 21-5.

Buckhannon will try and bounce back from a 35-27 home loss to Fairmont Senior. The Bucs lost that one despite outgaining the Polar Bears 406-305. Buckhannon quarterback Dillon Gaudet threw for 200 yards in the loss. Buckhannon is hoping to get speedster Brandon Mallett back for this one as he left last week’s game after just five carries with an ankle injury.

This has been a very competitive series through the years with a lot of offense. Buckhannon won 50-28 last year. Preston won the 2012 game 39-26. Buckhannon, though, has won seven of the last 10. The winning team has averaged 35 points per game during that stretch.

 

Bridgeport (7-1) at Fairmont Senior (6-2) 

Bridgeport is coming off a bye week as it is prepared for season ending road trips to Fairmont and Preston to wrap the regular season. Bridgeport has won six in a row to move into the top spot of the MetroNews Power Poll in Class AA and No. 1 in the WVSSAC rankings as well. The Indians have allowed just 41 points during the six game streak.

Fairmont Senior comes into the game riding a four game winning streak. The last two wins have come on the road at Braxton County and Buckhannon. Last week, quarterback Dominic Smith threw four first half touchdown passes to Nick Davisson in a 35-27 win at Buckhannon-Upshur.

Bridgeport has won seven in a row in the series by an average score of 36-12. The Polar Bears’ last win over the Indians came in 2006 by a 28-14 score.

 

Clay-Battelle (8-0) at Notre Dame (6-2) 

The Cee-Bees survived their first game without injured quarterback Jarret Hockenberry, winning 20-12 last week following a long road trip to Van. It was, by far, the closest margin of victory this season for the Cee-Bees.

Tanner Bragg took over at the quarterback position as he threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third. Bragg, making his first career start at the position, completed just three passes but two went to senior Cannon Brummage for 21 and 59 yard scores. Bragg also ran for a touchdown and he led the defense with ten tackles.  Brummage had an interception on defense.

The Cee-Bees hope to get through the final two games of the regular season without Hockenberry. He could possibly return for the start of the playoffs in three weeks. Clay-Battelle has two tough regular season games remaining at Notre Dame and at Madonna.

Class A No. 5 Notre Dame (6-2) defeated Gilmer County (3-5) 34-13 in week nine of the season.

The Irish come in hot having won six straight. The Irish will finish the regular season with home games against Clay-Battelle and Tucker County.

Last week, a Santino Cava 94-yard touchdown run propelled the Irish to a 34-13 victory over Gilmer County. That Cava jaunt put the Irish in the lead for good. He would finish with 220 yards rushing putting him over 5,300 yards for his career.

The defensive standout for Notre Dame was sophomore Noah Bohanna who had three interceptions including one he returned 13 yards for a touchdown. The Notre Dame defense forced a total of four turnovers.

Clay-Battelle has won three in a row in this highly competitive series. Two of those three wins by the Cee-Bees were decided by two points or less. Notre Dame’s last win came back in 2010 by a 34-20 score.

 

Liberty (5-4) at Doddridge Co. (7-1) 

Liberty suffered a blow to its playoff hopes with a 26-7 home loss to Sissonville last week. Now the Mountaineers will have to beat a tough Doddridge County team on the road to have any shot at the post season.

The Bulldogs have won six in a row and will play their final two regular season games at home in preparation for the Class A playoffs. The Doddridge County defense has allowed just one touchdown in the last two games and has a pair of shutouts on the season.

 

Robert C. Byrd  (6-2) at Elkins (3-5) 

RCB looks to finish the regular season strong as the Eagles have won four in a row. Their last two opponents are a combined 4-12 on the season so far. Byrd rolled up nearly 600 yards of total offense and had four touchdowns of 50+ yards in a win over North Marion last week. One area RCB would like to clean up before the playoffs is penalties. The Eagles were flagged 12 times for 85 yards in the game.

Elkins got blanked by a very good Lewis County defense last week. The shutout followed back to back games in which the Tigers had averaged 34 points. It’s the final home game of the season for Elkins this week.

 

Grafton (4-4) at North Marion (0-8) 

Grafton snapped a four game losing streak with thrilling 50-49 win over Lincoln last week. Cole Collins fired a 42-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Wagner with no time on the clock. Collins then ran in the two point conversion attempt for the win. Grafton rushed for 432 yards and had 596 yards of total offense.  Nate Moses had 190 yards rushing and an additional 57 yards receiving.

Grafton will close the season with road games at North Marion and Ritchie County. The two teams have a combined record of 3-13.

North Marion has two more opportunities to try and avoid a winless season. The Huskies will host Grafton this week and then close the regular season at Lincoln.

 

Other games around the region:

East Fairmont (2-6) at Philip Barbour (1-7)

South Harrison (4-4) at Paden City (3-5)

Gilmer County (3-5) at Parkersburg Catholic (2-6)

Tucker County (3-5) at Petersburg (0-8)





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