MORGANTOWN, W.Va — The state’s longest losing streak in high school football ended Saturday when the Hundred Hornets defeated Hannan 42-26.
Hundred had not won a varsity game since the 2010 season finale.
“They took it real well — they didn’t go wild after we won,” said second-year Hundred coach Shayne Minor. ” They were real humble. Maybe it is because they are not used to winning.”
The Wetzel County town of Hundred lies on the border of southwest Pennsylvania. For many years, Hundred has been the smallest public school in the state with a football program. In 2014, the Hornets were unable to field a team due to a low number of players. Just one week into preseason practice, their season was canceled.
The reboot of the program began the following fall. Hundred played a schedule comprised of junior varsity opponents. The team returned to varsity status in 2016, but went winless.
In the summer of 2017, flooding caused major damage to Cosgray Field, forcing the Hornets to play their entire schedule on the road. With home games were staged at nearby Clay-Battelle High School, the Hornets once again failed to win a game.
Years of waiting for a victory came to an end on Sept. 15th. The Hornets broke their 50-game losing streak at Hannan.
“I congratulate my seniors for sticking it out,” said Minor. “This is their fourth year and they haven’t felt that victory. They keep showing up. They keep coming out for the team every year and we keep telling them, ‘We can do this, we can get over this hump, we can break this streak.'”
Skylar Goff and Andrew Zedell combined to rush for 338 yards.
“Those kids are athletes, and when you are a small school you only have a few of those guys,” said Minor. “They put in the hard work in the offseason. It was well deserved for those two.
“They have been putting in some good numbers coming into this game and we finally had a breakthrough on some plays. The defense broke down a little bit and those guys took advantage.”
After a three-hour bus ride back to Hundred, the Hornets were greeted by throngs of fans. “We had heard on the bus that there was going to be a fire truck bringing us back to the field,” said Minor. “So we were trying to keep it a secret.”
“Then we get back into Burton, which is about two miles outside of Hundred, and there were about five fire trucks there. As we get to the field, the lights are on, there are about 75 people there. It was really emotional.”
With 17 healthy players on the roster, the Hornets hope to start a winning streak Friday as they visit county rival Paden City.
“I just say to them, ‘Do you like how this feels? Do you want it to end? Because it doesn’t have to,'” said Minor.
“We can put in the work and we can step up our game another notch because we have a lot of guys that are probably playing at seventy percent of what they can do. We are trying to get them all to put in one hundred percent. If we can get that effort, the future looks good.”