PHILIPPI, W.Va. — Jacob Kusich caught two touchdown passes and his second of two interceptions with 1:24 to play sealed an impressive victory for North Marion, 28-23 at Philip Barbour.
Kusich, a multi-sport standout who stars on the NMHS soccer team, reeled in touchdown tosses of 33 and 18 yards for the Huskies’ final two scores in the contest. Kusich finished the game with 7 receptions for 124 yards.
“Jacob is a really talented player, man,” said North Marion head coach Daran Hays. “It would really shock you if you knew he probably scored five goals for our soccer team throughout the course of this week so far. He is a really good competitor and a really good athlete.”
Philip Barbour (2-1) opened the game with a 6-yard touchdown run from Landyn Carpenter to take a 7-0 lead. Carpenter rushed 27 times for 133 yards.
The Huskies immediately responded when Kolson Brown connected with Brian Poindexter on a 69-yard touchdown reception to even the score at 7.
“Brian coming back and making a really big play, I think he broke one tackle after about a 3-yard gain, kind of took that one out and got into a footrace, in-and-outed the guy and topped it off with an explosive run.”
Poindexter added a 2-yard touchdown run to give North Marion their first lead of the game in the second quarter, 14-10.
Brown and Kusich combined on their first touchdown connection late in the second quarter to give the Huskies a 21-10 cushion. With six seconds remaining in their half, Carpenter found Mason Jones on a halfback pass covering 26 yards to pull PB within four points at the half, 21-17.
Brown completed 12 of 19 passes for 238 yards.
“It is not fair always to assess Kolson right now because of the way his curve has come along. He was a knee injury kid last year that didn’t get to play much JV. We played with two quarterbacks, so he was never a backup. He played three JV games at the end of the season. We knew going into this thing that he was going to be a little behind the 8-ball. We just try to really stress to him to play within the system and be on time. When he does that, he is pretty solid.”
With 4:30 to play, PB pulled with five points when Jones found Tristen Price on a 65-yard touchdown connection. Price also had two interceptions for Philip Barbour.
After a 3-and-out, the Colts drove into North Marion territory with 1:30 to go. Kusich stepped in front of a pass for his second interception to effectively seal the game.
Now at 3-0, Hays acknowledges his Huskies haven’t yet put their best performance on display.
“I just told them that I am tired of giving them the same speech. I am tired of beating my head against the wall. I thought Tuesday was our best practice that we have had at North Marion High School in ten years. We were physical and we got after it. We didn’t kill each other, but we were really physical at the point of contact.
“And then the next day, we had a couple of guys come down with the flu, a couple of other guys are a little sick and a couple of guys have little ailments and stuff like that.”