— By Ethan Collins
ELKVIEW, W.Va. — The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many first encounters on the high school sports scene, the latest of which came with Sissonville and Herbert Hoover opening their football seasons on a Wednesday night in October.
In a game where everything felt like a season opener — warmer weather, an abundance of penalties (27 total) and a fair share of turnovers — the Indians held off the Huskies, 28-21.
“There is nothing normal about this school year,” SHS head coach Marc Wilson said. “I have to give a lot of credit to our seniors for being hungry to play and keeping themselves locked in. It’s what got them through to this point and it allowed us to prevail at the end of the game.”
The game’s first drive was a sign of the things to come as the Huskies (0-1) ran a trick play that went for 37 yards, but fumbled on the next play.
After the teams exchanged punts, the Indians (1-0) produced their first points of the year with a pass from Jackson Foster to Dylan Griffith, who went 57 yards for the touchdown.
Just before the end of the first quarter, Foster went 23 yards on a keeper to put Sissonville up 14-0.
After a pair of red zone trips ended in another fumble and turnover on downs, the Huskies got things together and ended a drive with a 34-touchdown pass from Nick Grayam to Christian Buckley to get to within one score.
With Just under 4 minutes left in the half, Griffith put Sissonville back up two scores and made it 21-7.
However, the Huskies marched 64 yards and Grayam kept it on a quaterback sneak to score from the 1-yard-line on the final play of the half.
The third quarter was a battle of the defenses, with the lone score coming when Grayam found his favorite target Buckley for a 10-yard pass to put an end to the Huskies’ red zone woes.
But Sissonville had the only score of the final 12 minutes on a 4-yard touchdown run by Griffith, allowing Sissonville to capitalize on an interception.
Though, Sissonville made its fair share of mistakes as well and threw an interception late in the game, Hoover matched it with an interception of its own that sealed the verdict.
For the Indians, Foster totaled 15 carries for 146 yards and a touchdown. Griffith had a memorable night with 25 carries for 152 yards and two touchdowns to go with two receptions for 67 yards and an additional TD.
Grayam rushed for 48 yards on 15 carries a touchdown but fumbled twice. Grayam was also 10-of-21 passing for 123 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.
Buckley had three catches for 67 yards and the two touchdowns, while Mingo Central transfer Devin Hatfield made two catches for 30 yards.