No. 4 Morgantown (9-1) overcame eight fumbles (only one lost to UHS) and eight penalties to beat No. 5 University (8-2) Thursday night at Pony Lewis Field, 27-6.
“That’s the measure of a good football team,” said head coach John Bowers after the game. “To play as poorly as we did and still beat a very good football team by three touchdowns says a lot about our kids.”
When the Mohigans weren’t hurting themselves they were running roughshod over the Hawk defense with their two “wildcat” packages—the Apache and Tomahawk. In each of those formations Chris Glover and Joey Musick take the direct snap from the center and either hand it off or run with it. Musick rushed for 169 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries while Glover carried the ball 12 times for 117 yards and two scores. Glover also tossed a 36 yard touchdown pass to Musick at the end of the first half.
Morgantown opened the scoring with a four yard Musick run, but University answered back after recovering a Musick fumble deep in Mohigan territory. It would be the only time the Hawks would see the end zone on the night.
Morgantown scored two more first half touchdowns—a 67 yard run by Glover and the touchdown pass at the end of the half.
University had its best scoring chance of the second half on its opening possession—a seven minute drive that ended without points thanks to a Sammy Luck interception in the red zone, it was his second of the game.
“Sammy Lusk played out of his mind,” said Bowers. “He deserves it, he’s a great kid, he’s a fine young man. We’re tickled to death for Sammy. Our defense played well once they got the ball in the red zone we stiffened up and that’s sort of our philosophy on defense. We don’t want to give up any big plays and the only time they scored they hit a big play (a 25 yard pass from Travis Maraney to Joe Lane that set up the Hawks at the one yard line).”
After thwarting the Hawks scoring chance in the third quarter Morgantown continued to run the ball with success and was able to add another touchdown in the fourth quarter on a Glover one yard run.
Morgantown is off next week and will host a game in the first round of the playoffs. Their opponent is not yet known.
SCORING SUMMARY
MHS—Joey Musick 4 yard run (Romito kick) 7-0
UHS—Phillip King 1 yard run (kick failed) 7-6
MHS—Chris Glover 67 yard run (kick failed) 13-6
MHS—Musick 36 yard pass from Glover (Romito kick) 20-6
MHS—Glover 1 yard run (Romito kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Passing—MHS–Glover 1-2-0, 36 yards, TD; UHS—Travis Maraney 8-16-2, 91 yards, Deion Cunningham 0-1-0
Rushing—MHS—Joey Musick 28-169 TD, Glover 12-117 2 TDs, Jordan Adams 5-36, Conner Leone 1-3, David Stanton 1-(-1), Alex Watson 1-(-7). UHS—Micah Wilson 18-69, Maraney 9-47, King 5-13 TD, Cunningham 2-2, Jacob Estep 3-3, Tim Kocher 1-2.
Receiving—MHS—Musick 1-36 TD. UHS—Cunningham 4-52, Joe Lane 1-25, Wilson 2-13, Sterling Springgate 1-1.