MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — University collected one of the marquee wins on Friday night in Week 4 of the high school football season as the Hawks cemented their return to the upper half of Class AAA with a 28-19 win over defending champion Wheeling Park.
Gallery: University pushes past Wheeling Park for 4-0 start
The win improved University’s record to 4-0, a far cry better than last year’s two-win season that was dominated by freshmen and sophomores in prominent roles. Still relatively young overall, the Hawks have emerged this season in contention for a strong playoff seed – at the very least.
The No. 3 Hawks led 21-6 early in the third quarter on Friday, but held off a Wheeling Park (2-2) rally after the Patriots closed to 21-19 in the fourth quarter.
Highlights, radio calls: University 28, Wheeling Park 19
“It was just a phenomenal high school football game,” said University head coach John Kelley. “When it was 21-19, with (Wheeling Park QB) Cross Wilkinson over there and their coaching staff over there, with the way they were playing, the momentum changed. But our offense pounded one in to pretty much put it away and then we had a defensive stand.”
University sophomore receiver Amir Richardson collected two touchdowns in the win — a 25 touchdown run and a 34 yard touchdown catch from junior quarterback Clay Bailey.
Winfield wins wild one, erases 24-point deficit to beat Herbert Hoover
Winfield (2-1) rallied from a 41-17 third quarter deficit to beat Herbert Hoover (3-1) 51-48. Generals’ quarterback Andrew Huff completed the game winning touchdown pass with just 17 seconds to go.
“I’ve never quite been involved in a game like that,” said Winfield coach Craig Snyder. “It was a pretty exciting football game. We were able to slow Hoover down a little bit in the second half and got a little bit of a beat on the option. It was one of those games where we had the ball last, so we won. We were fortunate to win, I feel like we were both pretty evenly matched.”
Huff totaled 227 passing yards in the win, to go along with 85 rushing yards as well.
“Andrew is just a really good quarterback,” Snyder said. “This is his third year as a starter and on the game-winning touchdown, we knew we had to throw it in the end-zone, we didn’t have any timeouts left. He got flushed from the pocket and it looked like he was going to run, but (Farha) got open in the back of the end-zone.”
The Generals had scored 27-straight points in the second half to take a 44-41 lead, prior to needing another rally in the closing minute to take the win.
Capital drops Cabell Midland to 1-3 with strong second half
AAA No. 6 Capital trailed No. 15 Cabell Midland 17-13 at the break, but dominated the game’s final two quarters for a 42-23 win over the Knights.
Silas Nazario rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Kerry Martin added 132 yards and a touchdown through the air. Ivan Vaughn finished with 199 yards rushing in the loss for Cabell Midland.
Capital improved to 3-1 on the year, with another big matchup looming against unbeaten Huntington next week. Cabell Midland dropped to just 1-3 on the season with the loss.
Safford, Payne power Point Pleasant past Logan, Early in top 10 matchup
Class AA No. 4 Point Pleasant (4-0) dominated No. 8 Logan (3-1) 41-12 as senior running back Grant Safford rushed for 182 yards.
“Grant Safford had his coming out party tonight and had that work-horse running back effort for us, I was just really proud of him,” said Point Pleasant coach David Darst. “They do a good job at Logan of throwing that ball around, but by the second half, our secondary just did a great job.”
Highlights: Point Pleasant 41, Logan 12
Big Blacks’ quarterback Cason Payne, just a sophomore, was pretty good himself, throwing for 141 yards and rushing for another 152 yards in the win.
“Cason (Payne) has put on almost 20 pounds of muscle in a year and has made a true commitment of wanting to be a good football player,” Darst said. “I’m liking this team. We knew we had some question marks defensively, but they’re starting to grow up. I saw the Point Pleasant defense tonight, especially in the second half, against a good quarterback.”
Williamstown takes down Class A early season favorite Wheeling Central, St. Marys stays unbeaten
Wheeling Central entered the year as preseason No. 1 in the MetroNews Power Rankings. But after Friday, there will be some shuffling as the Maroon Knights fell on the road to Williamstown 36-27. Wheeling Central had led at the half 27-19.
Williamstown quarterback Trenton Tallman rushed for 285 yards and four touchdowns in the win, while throwing for 99 yards as well.
“This was a huge win tonight,” Tallman said. “In the first half, we weren’t able to stop (Wheeling Central) very much – they’re fast, with a high-powered offense.
“But we made some adjustments in the second half with some adjustments and our offensive line just carried us home,” he continued. “We came together throughout the week in practice and decided we were going to get the job done this week – but we’re not done.”
Also not done would be St. Marys, the No. 2 team in those MetroNews Power Rankings this week. The Blue Devils Friday defeated Marietta (OH) 51-36 (the same Marietta team that handed Williamstown a loss last week) as Jaiden Smith tallied 189 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the win.
Keyser, Gilmer County, Clay County with key wins
Keyser (3-1) entered the week No. 9 in the power rankings, but outside the top 16 in the SSAC playoff ratings. Needing a big win, the Golden Tornado went on the road and pulled away from Weir (3-1) for a 28-14 victory.
Keyser quarterback Brady Ours accounted for four total touchdowns in the win (two rushing, two passing) as the Golden Tornado put the game away late in the fourth quarter.
Class A No. 11 Gilmer County, meanhwile, entered the week with a 3-0 record for the first time in 30 years. In search of its first ever playoff appearance, the Titans took down visiting Sherman (3-1) 36-6.
“It wasn’t as easy as that score looks,” said Gilmer County coach Steve Shuff. “Our defense was special tonight, we had them down for 73 yards on 32 carries.
“I was extremely proud of our defense, we won the turnover battle and our kids put some points on the board,” he said. “We had a great crowd tonight and our kids responded. It was a huge win for our kids, our community and for our football program. I’m just so proud of everyone involved.”
Another key win on Friday night saw Clay County beat Valley (Fayette) 13-0 for its first victory of the season – the Panthers have been battling through adversity from the June floods.