SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — In a game where Nicholas County senior Devin Nash rushed for 482 yards and seven touchdowns, perhaps his most consequential play of the game came on defense. Nash recovered a fumble midway through the fourth quarter to provide a needed defensive stop as the Grizzlies prevailed over Lincoln, 63-48.
Leading by 15 points, Nash, who rarely came off the field on offense or defense throughout the game, stopped a quarterback sneak and recovered a fumble at Nicholas’ two-yard line. The Grizzlies were able to chew up the rest of the fourth quarter clock, bringing an end to a game that featured 16 combined touchdowns.
“I knew it was going to be a sneak,” Nash said. “They were on the one-inch line. I am sitting down there ready and I saw them sneak it in. I jumped the center and ripped it out of the quarterback’s hand.”
“The way the game was going, we needed just one or two stops,” said Nicholas County head coach Matt Morriston. “If we could just get them, it happened and that’s the way it went down.”
Nash scored four of his seven touchdowns in the first half on runs of 24, 30, 23 and 46 yards. He added third-quarter scoring runs of 21, 72 and 10 yards.
“Devin has worked so hard. He is the hardest worker we have, for sure. He runs the ball extremely hard. They had trouble tackling him. They couldn’t bring him down,” Morriston said.
“I got tired. But it is all about pushing through,” Nash said. “And my line, if you saw the holes I had, it wasn’t all me. I was making kids miss and running over kids but I wasn’t getting touched until the second level. That’s a lot of respect to them.”
“He’s the man,” Morriston said. “He stays on the field and that is why we do all the conditioning we do. Since he was a freshman, he has pounded the weight room. The results were what you see.”
The teams traded touchdowns throughout the first half without either team taking more than a seven-point lead. Trailing 35-28 with six seconds left in the second quarter, the Grizzlies used a flea flicker to pull even on the final snap of the half. Coleton Hellems connected with Spencer Keiper on a 62-yard scoring strike.
“We felt like we needed it at the time. We kept going back-and-forth,” Morriston said. “We had that in our bag of tricks and we decided to call it. And it worked.”
After consecutive losses to start the season to Oak Hill and Chapmanville, the Grizzlies (2-2) enter their bye week back at the .500 mark.
“It is huge. With the schedule we have coming up — we’ve got [Midland] Trail, Bluefield, Independence, Roane County and we finish up with Ripley,” Morriston said. “Getting back to 2-2 right now, it was a must-win for us.”
Lincoln (1-3) received a five-touchdown effort from senior quarterback AJ Bart. He tossed a pair of touchdown passes to Jacob Bart (12 and 18 yards) and also had scoring strikes to Cade Riley (11 yards) and Colton Edwards (39 yards). AJ Bart also rushed for a score. Connor Rice rushed for two Lincoln scores.