MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Three different running backs found the end zone for No. 7 Morgantown and their defense did not allow a point in the second half en route to a 35-10 win over No. 10 Woodrow Wilson in the opening round of the Class AAAA playoffs.
The postseason win is the first for the Mohigans since the 2016 Class AAA quarterfinal round.
“Anytime you can win one here at Pony Lewis at home, and we earned the home game,” said Morgantown head coach Sean Biser. “Now we’ve earned the right to move on and that’s huge. The kids can always have that with them. We’ve got to get ready and get better this week.”
Morgantown senior running back AJ Thomas opened the scoring for the Mohigans with a three-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter. Thomas was dinged up on a special teams play in the second quarter and his snaps were limited the rest of the way.
Senior Remington Hawkins had a 15-yard touchdown run in the second quarter while junior Isaiah Thompson scored on runs of one, two and one yards. Freshman quarterback Maddox Twigg led the Mohigans in rushing with 85 yards on nine carries.
“You can’t beat the game experience. You have to have live bullets flying at you like that. Our kids jumped in when they really weren’t expecting to. We were expecting to feed AJ tonight because of the weather. Everybody else did a great job stepping up.”
After allowing an 80-yard touchdown pass from Gage Price to AJ Thomas in the second quarter, Morgantown shutout the Flying Eagles in the second half while allowing just two first downs.
“I thought we played really well up front. We continued to get pressure and our kids tackled really well. We had a mishap on the one pass but I thought our defense played lights out all night long. Our defensive staff did a great job getting the kids ready. That’s tough after a three-week hiatus.”
Morgantown (8-3) will travel to face No. 2 Spring Mills (10-1) in the quarterfinal round next weekend. Beckley’s season ends at 6-5.