Fetty’s late touchdown lifts Cabell Midland over Capital, 26-21

Cabell Midland’s Jakob Caudill moves ahead after taking a handoff.

 

ONA, W.Va. — Having come out on top by one score each of the last two weeks, Class AAA No. 1 Cabell Midland had proven its will to win entering Friday’s showdown against No. 4 Capital.

The Knights were at it yet again against the Cougars, using a Jackson Fetty 12-yard touchdown run with 17 seconds remaining to overcome a late one-point deficit for a 26-21 win.

“Fetty hasn’t played tailback since middle school and he scored the game-winner. I put him in there because I knew he’d hit the hole hard,” Knights’ head coach Luke Salmons said. “It’s a team effort and that’s what’s fun coaching this team.”

With the victory, Cabell Midland improves to 5-0, while Capital fell to 3-2. Halfway to an unbeaten regular season, the Knights have won their last three games by a total of 16 points.

“They just find a way. They went 98 yards last week to win the game,” Salmons said. “To me, it’s a matter of being a team and they’re close knit and care about each other. They want to fight together and it’s important to them.”

Cabell Midland’s game-winning drive covered 60 yards in 11 plays and featured a fourth-and-1 conversion on a play where J.J. Roberts plunged ahead just beyond the sticks, and six plays later, Fetty finished things off by reaching the end zone.

Cabell Midland went for 2 in an effort to take a seven-point lead, but the Cougars stopped the Knights short on a run.

After getting the ball back at its own 18 with 16 seconds to play, the Cougars threw four straight incomplete passes.

“That’s the way it goes. Some days you get it and some days you don’t,” Capital coach Jon Carpenter said. “Our kids fought and that’s all you can ask for. In this conference, you’re going to have some tough ones. We usually get it turned around and we’ll be fine.”

The Knights took the opening kickoff and marched 63 yards, scoring the game’s first points on Roberts’ 21-yard TD run. Cameron Grobe knocked home the point-after kick to make it 7-0 at the 8:27 mark of the first quarter.

Capital came back with an impressive 72-yard drive that featured three third down conversions and ended with Evan Landers’ 3-yard TD pass to Kerion Martin on fourth-and-goal. Spurlock’s PAT tied it at 7.

Although Logan Spurlock recovered a fumble for the Cougars in Cabell Midland territory on the next series, Capital was unable to capitalize and ultimately punted.

But later in the half, after Josh Martinez recovered a Roberts fumble at the Knights’ 28, Capital took its first lead on Tay Calloway’s 3-yard touchdown run 1:54 prior to halftime.

That lead didn’t last long, however, as the Knights got even at 14 on Jakob Caudill’s 4-yard TD run 14 seconds before halftime.

“That killed us. That was a backbreaker,” Carpenter said. “That turned the game around.”

The Knights recovered a Calloway fumble early in the third quarter and take over at midfield, and went back on top four plays later when Caudill broke free for a 30-yard TD run.

The point-after try was no good, leaving Cabell Midland with a 20-14 lead at the 8:14 mark of the third quarter.

Just thirteen seconds later, Capital took a 21-20 lead when Landers hit Martin in stride down the sideline for an 86-yard touchdown pass.

“Capital is a really good football team and one of the best in the state,” Salmons said. “To overcome what we’ve overcome shows a lot of heart and character from our kids.”

Calloway came up with a defensive fumble recovery in the red zone halfway through the third quarter to keep the Cougars up by a point, and the score stayed 21-20 after Grobe couldn’t hit a 48-yard field goal with 7:12 to play in the contest.

Capital got one more first down, before Zach McCoy came up with a key tackle for a 13-yard loss that allowed the Knights to get the ball back before they marched for the winning score.

“Our kids are tough and they’re in good shape,” Salmons said. “They didn’t flinch.”





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