Parkersburg High School Big Reds Football

Sept. 20, 2019 Capital Game

Capital Loss Closer Than It Seemed

CHARLESTON – Capital may have defeated Parkersburg in a closer-than-it-seemed battle of seventh-ranked teams by a 35-13 score Friday night at University of Charleston’s Laidley Field but for the want of an inadvertent whistle it could have been a much different contest.
In the middle of the first quarter of a scoreless game, Capital’s Evan Landers completed a pass over the middle to R.J. Taylor and he was hit by Gage Fiore, fumbling the ball away with Potts recovering on the Parkersburg 38.
The Big Reds celebrated, but not for long.
The officials, who combined to call over two dozen penalties in the game, got together and said there had been an inadvertent whistle somewhere around the time of the reception.
Suddenly the fumble recovery was gone and Capital had the ball back on the Parkersburg 49 yard line. A couple of penalties and two plays later Landers found Taylor for a 51 yard touchdown pass thanks to a missed tackle at the five yard line.
The sudden momentum switch may have been only one play but the Big Reds could have made things really interesting had they been able to turn the should-have-been turnover into points. After all PHS trailed just 14-6 at the half, before giving up three touchdown plays of 39, 85 and 62 yards in the second half.
PHS had another turnover chance earlier in the first quarter when Taylor fumbled around midfield with Luke Read recovering only to have his foot out of bounds and thus no possession.
Capital upped its lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter on a 14 yard scoring pass from Landers to Chance Knox. Landers wound up a perfect 14-for-14 passing in the first half and completed his first 16 passes in a row before throwing an incompletion that was caught by Kerion Martin but out of bounds.
The Big Reds then put together a 78 yard, 11-play drive to get back in the game with a 21 yard pass from Bryson Singer to Braeden Mason to the 13 yard line setting up a pass interference penalty to Potts which moved the ball to the six. Two runs by Singer produced the touchdown to close the gap to 14-6 with 6:18 on the clock.
An interception led to Capital’s third score as Joshua Martinez’s pick gave the Cougars the ball on the PHS 34. Three plays later Landers hit Taylor again for a TD from 39 yards away.
The Big Reds tried to answer by driving to the Cougar 11 but Martin intercepted Michael Owen at the goal line and returned it all the way for a touchdown only to have it called back for a live ball personal foul at the 23. That led to an 85 yard touchdown run by Shawn James three plays later to make it 28-6.
An interception by Mason gave PHS the ball back on the Capital 28 on the last play of the third quarter but four plays later the Big Reds ran out of down at the 29.
Capital added a 62 yard scoring run by Tay Calloway with 8:40 left on the clock and the Big Reds scored with 6:39 remaining on a 21 yard run by Singer, who set himself up with an incredible 58 yard run from the Big Reds’ 10 to the Cougars’ 32 on which he ran from one side of the field to the other on a scramble.
The Big Reds final scoring threat ended with 1:10 remaining when Owen was intercepted by Martin on the Capital one.
For the game Singer rushed for 114 yards on 17 carries and completed nine of 23 passes for 127 yards with one interception. Owen was three of five for 36 yards but was picked off twice. Braeden Mason caught the second most passes in a single game in school history with 10 receptions for 142 yards. Despite losing by three touchdowns, the Big Reds were out-gained only 413-402 in total yards and had more first downs, 19-14, but did have four turnovers to just two for the home team.
Landers, like Singer only a sophomore, finished 18 of 21 passes for 197 yards and three touchdowns. He came into the game completing just over 50 percent of his passes. Calloway ran for 122 yards on just 13 carries while Taylor caught eight passes for 130 yards as the Cougars lived up to their big play billing.