Parkersburg High School Big Reds Football

Oct. 25, 2019 Spring Mills Game

Potts’ Record-Setting 4 Picks Power PHS Over Spring Mills
Sam Potts set a school single game record with four interceptions, returning one for his second pick-six of the year, to lead 12th ranked Parkersburg to a 27-7win over 10th ranked Spring Mills Friday night at Stadium Field.
Potts broke the record of three interceptions held by five players and raised his total for the season to seven (the record is 10) and pulled to within one of the single season interception return for touchdown record of three.
Now 5-3, the win assured the Big Reds a playoff berth and with two games remaining PHS would secure a first round home game with a pair of wins. Spring Mills, from Martinsburg in the eastern panhandle, drops to 4-4 on the year.
With senior big play man Braeden Mason out for the year with a leg injury, PHS coach Mike Byus decided to stick to the ground and the Big Reds responded with 287 yards rushing and three scores via the run.
The Big Reds could have had another touchdown after getting a first and goal on the one yard line with 90 seconds remaining but Byus elected to have his quarterback take a knee three times in a row to avoid a meaningless touchdown.
Sophomore quarterback Bryson Singer threw just 11 passes in the game but rushed for 119 yards, many from the tailback position, and scored one touchdown. Senior Anthony Craig added 100 yards on the ground in 22 attempts and two touchdowns.
Defensively, with the exception of Spring Mills lone scoring drive in the second quarter (which covered 54 yards in eight plays), the Cardinals never got closer to the PHS goal line that the Big Reds’ 30 yard line and in the second half no closer than the 41.
C.J. Wade had 11 tackles unofficially including his 10th sack of the year while Jim Shrewsbury, Xadrian Snodgrass, Gage Fiore and Justin Waybright all contributed heavily to the outstanding defensive effort. Spring Mills had five turnovers in all and were held to 75 yards rushing with another 102 passing on seven completions in 19 attempts.
The Big Reds started the game by driving from their own 40 to the Spring Mills seven yard line. Craig ran the ball all nine plays but fumbled the ball away after 2:15 to end the opportunity.
PHS got the ball right back when the Cardinals tried a long pass but Potts was there to pick it off at the Spring Mills 45. The Big Reds moved the ball to the 26 yard line but a fourth down pass fell incomplete.
The visitors then had their only offensive success of the night thanks mainly to a 39 yard pass to Jacob Barrick to the PHS 15. After a four yard run Chase Henson found Bernard Newman for the touchdown with 8:59 to give the Cardinals a 7-0 lead.
Spring Mills got the ball back and using the run drove the ball to the PHS 30 before Potts picked off pass number two and ran it back to the Cardinals’ 42. From there Singer took over with his legs, carrying the ball five of the six plays and going around left end from a yard out for the touchdown with 1:40 left in the half.
The third quarter started with Potts picking off pass number three and this time returning it 45 yards for the touchdown with just 1:35 gone in the quarter.
The defense got the ball back again moments later when C.J. Wade forced a fumble which Caleb Frazier recovered at the Spring Mills 41.
Now playing tailback, Singer ran six of the next eight plays to advance the ball to a first and goal at the two yard line. But the Big Reds wound up turning the ball over on downs at the nine after a fourth down fumble.
Spring Mills elected to go for it on fourth down at the PHS 41 but came up five yards short thanks to tackles by Casey Mahoney and Wade. The Big Reds then drove 62 yards on eight plays with Craig coming up with runs of 19 and 21 yards as the big plays before going over the left side of the line for the final two stripes. The kick failed but PHS had a 20-7 lead with 9:45 remaining in the contest.
The Cardinals again tried for it on fourth down from their own 30 and Fiore came up with a tackle for a 2 yard loss and PHS took over just 28 yards from the end zone. Aided by two personal foul penalties, the Big Reds scored on Craig’s four yard power run up the middle with 5:23 remaining to push the lead to 20 points.

#10 Spring Mills vs #12 Parkersburg (Oct 25, 2019 at Parkersburg)
Score by Quarters                  1       2       3       4       -       Total
Spring Mills Cardinals         0       7       0       0       -       7
Parkersburg Big Reds         0       7       7       13     -    27
Qtr Time Scoring play
2nd 08:59 SPRING - Bernard Newman Jr. 11 yd pass from Chase Henson (Hayden Pack kick), 8-54 3:07
01:40 PHS - Bryson Singer 1 yd run (Sam Potts kick), 6-42 1:35
3rd 10:25 PHS - Sam Potts 45 yd interception return (Sam Potts kick)
4th 09:45 PHS - Anthony Craig 2 yd run (Sam Potts kick failed), 8-62 2:42
05:23 PHS - Anthony Craig 4 yd run (Sam Potts kick), 5-28 1:53
..........................................................SPRING PHS
FIRST DOWNS                                        10               19
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)                        37-75         54-287
PASSING YDS (NET)                            102             19
Passes Att-Comp-Int                                19-7-4        11-2-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS    .........56-177       65-306
Fumble Returns-Yards                             0-0             0-0
Punt Returns-Yards                                  0-0             0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards                            5-97           2-42
Interception Returns-Yards                     0-0             4-97
Punts (Number-Avg)                               2-32.5        2-29.5
Fumbles-Lost                                            1-1             2-1
Penalties-Yards                                         4-24           2-11
Possession Time                                       26:36         21:24
Third-Down Conversions                       4 of 14       3 of 10
Fourth-Down Conversions                     2 of 4         1 of 5
Red-Zone Scores-Chances                      1-1             3-6
Sacks By: Number-Yards                        0-0             1-5
RUSHING: Cardinals-Aiden Smoot 19-44; Bernard Newman Jr. 4-16; Jalen Burton 1-10; Chase Henson 12-9; TEAM 1-minus 4. Big Reds-Bryson Singer 18-119; Anthony Craig 22-100; Justin Waybright 4-38; Michael Owen 4-21; Xadrian Snodgrass 4-17; TEAM 2-minus 8.
PASSING: Cardinals-Chase Henson 7-19-4-102. Big Reds-Bryson Singer 2-11-0-19.
RECEIVING: Cardinals-Bernard Newman Jr. 3-33; Jacob Barrick 1-39; Dominic Busky 1-29; Jalen Burton 1-2; Jacob McCarren 1-minus 1. Big Reds-Anthony Craig 2-19.
INTERCEPTIONS: Cardinals-None. Big Reds-Sam Potts 4-97.
FUMBLES: Cardinals-Chase Henson 1-1. Big Reds-Anthony Craig 1-1; Bryson Singer 1-0.
Cardinals (4-4) vs. Big Reds (5-3)
Site: Parkersburg • Stadium: Stadium Field Attendance: 1000
Kickoff time: 7:30 • End of Game: 9:58 • Total elapsed time: 2:28
Officials:
SACKS (UA-A): Big Reds-C.J. Wade 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Big Reds-C.J. Wade 7-4; Jim Shrewsbury 3-6; Gage Fiore 5-3; Xadrian Snodgrass 5-3; Justin Waybright 5-2; Casey Mahoney 0-5; Caleb Frazier 0-2; Zach Howard 1-0; Luke Read 1-0; Bryson Singer 1-0; Sam Potts 1-0; Kyle Hall 1-0; Geoffrey Cousins 0-1.

New Foe Spring Mills Comes To Town For First Ever Meeting

For a school with a football history dating back 119 years there are not very many “firsts” but the Parkersburg Big Reds will have one of those this Friday when PHS hosts the Cardinals of Spring Mills High School at 7:30 p.m. at Stadium Field.
It will be the first-ever meeting between to the two schools but then that should not be too surprising since Spring Mills is in just its seventh year of existence. The eastern panhandle team, coached by first-year coach Chad Williams (who formerly coached at East Hardy High School), will make the long trek to Parkersburg in search of their fifth win against just three defeats – a victory which would probably insure them their fourth straight state playoff berth. However, the Cardinals have yet to win a playoff contest and will be squaring off against a school which has earned 37 state playoff berths and claims 17 state championship honors. Overall, PHS has a 43-28 playoff record.
The Cardinals opened their season with a 29-14 loss to Musselman before winning three in a row against Washington (27-0), Hampshire (28-21) and Jefferson (12-9). Then came a pair of shutout losses to South Hagerstown (MD) by a 38-0 count and a 77-0 whitewashing at the hands of cross-town rival Martinsburg. But last week against Albert Gallatin (PA) there were a lot of last-minute heroics before Spring Mills pulled out a 22-19 victory. Albert Gallatin scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to take a five-point lead with 4:35 remaining only to have Spring Mills pull off the comeback victory.
PHS is coming off a 42-28 victory over Hurricane in a game which saw the Big Reds jump out to a 28-8 first quarter lead and hold a 35-7 halftime advantage only to have Hurricane rally to pull within a touchdown before a late fumble recovery deep in Redskin territory enabled the Big Reds to punch one in and take home their fourth win in seven tries.
Despite having just five regulars coming back Spring Mills had high hopes for the 2019 season with a new head coach and the return of leading rusher and passer Keon Padmore-Johnson (5-10, 155 jr.) from a team which finished 5-6. But the talented Cardinal signal caller was lost for the season with an injury before the first game and Coach Williams had to turn to junior Chase Henson (5-10, 180) to be the signal caller.
Henson has responded by leading the team in passing and rushing. He has thrown for nine touchdowns while scoring five himself and has over 400 yards through the air and another 400 on the ground. His primary target is junior Jacob McCarren (5-8, 155) with 20 receptions and five touchdowns while sophomore Bernard Newman (5-10, 165) is the second-leading receiver.
The Big Reds, who looked unstoppable in the first quarter against Hurricane, hope to return to that form against Spring Mills and if sophomore quarterback Bryson Singer has anything to say about it then that is a very real possibility. The 6-foot-1, 166 pounder came within two yards of tying the all-time single game total offense record with his 412 total against Hurricane and accounted for five touchdowns (four through the air and one on the ground). Singer is approaching a never-before-seen record as he attempts to become the first ever Big Red to pass and rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Right now he stands at 844 yards on the ground and 1,006 through the air. He had ran for four touchdowns and passed for 11.
He has been getting help through the air with receivers like acrobatic speedster Braeden Mason. Mason has caught 39 passes for 616 yards and four touchdowns (one of them a record 91 yarder last week) while also contributing 1,087 all-purpose yards including a kickoff return touchdown.
Sam Potts has contributed four TD receptions and an interception return score while Matt Curry and Carter King have also found the end zone on the receiving end of Singer’s passes (Curry twice). Potts is the team’s leading scorer with five touchdowns, a field goal and 20 of 27 extra points.
The Big Red defense came up with a couple of big plays against Hurricane but must have been tired just watching Hurricane quarterback Austin Womack put up 66 passes and completing 40 of them. C.J. Wade and Gage Fiore continue to pace the prevent unit. Wade has 73 tackles in seven games with nine of them being sacks while Fiore has 63 stops.