Parkersburg High School Big Reds Football

Nov. 5, 2021 Musselman Game

Incredible Ending Gives PHS Wild 56-52 Win Over Musselman

INWOOD, WV – An incredible ending to the 2021 football season for the Parkersburg Big Reds.
Just when it seemed the season-long run of bad breaks was about to continue for PHS, David Parsons, Carter King, Bryson Singer, Xadrian Snodgrass and Company pulled off a miracle comeback to defeat Musselman 56-52 in as wild a game as anyone has ever seen.
The back-and-forth game appeared to be going in favor of the home team when Tyler Waddell kicked a 20 yard field goal with 1:27 left in the game to break a 49-49 tie and put the Applemen up by three points.
A 30 yard kickoff return by Singer put the ball in Musselman territory at the 48 but the Big Reds had no time outs left, just 1:19 on the game clock and still had to cover half the field.
An incomplete pass was followed by a 14 yard completion from Parsons to Singer. Another incompletion was followed by an 11 yard connection to Casey Stanley to the 23 yard line, putting the ball within range of Stanley’s talented field goal leg.
But the Big Reds weren’t through.
A six yard pass to King took it to the 17 yard line and then Parsons dropped back and found King in the left side of the end zone with a perfect pass that the senior receiver caught in stride, dragging both feet down to make sure he was inbounds for the touchdown with 26.6 seconds remaining.
The extra point kick made it a four-point lead but Stanley had to kickoff to the dangerous Applemen who had already returned one kickoff for a touchdown and was averaging over 30 yard per return. Stanley booted a high kick that was fair caught at the Musselman 38 with still 26.6 seconds remaining.
An incomplete pass was followed by a 15 yard pass to dangerous Ray Adames, who had already had two long touchdown plays in the game. But Singer brought him down just inside PHS territory at the 47 setting up time for one more play. Nathan LaLiberte’s pass was a high arching toss that Andrew Stalnaker leaped to catch at the PHS 20 and the game was over.
The victory avenged a playoff loss by the Big Reds to the Applemen on the same field just two years ago and gave PHS a final 4-6 record while dropping Musselman to 3-7. Despite the win the Big Reds will apparently not advance to the playoffs, finishing just out of the top 16 spots in the ratings.
The eight touchdown night for the Big Reds was led by Snodgrass and his three touchdowns – two short runs and a 70-yard catch and run. Singer had two big plays, a 58 yard run and a 74 yard kickoff return. Stanley had a 72 yard interception return while Andrew Stalnaker joined King with TD catches as sophomore Parsons threw for three scores while completing 18 of 28 passes for 276 yards with no interceptions.
Singer ran for 133 yards on 14 carries and caught four passes for 92 more, returned two kickoffs for 104 yards and one interception for eight yards for a total of 337 all-purpose yards. That raised his career total to 6,508 yards to break Marc Kimes’ record of 6,171.
King finished with six receptions for 42 yards while Andrew Stalnaker caught three for 29, Snodgrass two for 90 and Stanley two for 21. Snodgrass added 37 yards rushing on 15 attempts.
Musselman threw for 399 yards with 25 completions in 40 attempts with six touchdowns and four interceptions. Adames caught six for 106 and Logan Shelton caught five for 103 while Kobe Hayslette caught six for 68 as five different receivers found the end zone. Adames finished with 297 all-purpose yards.
The game started with PHS forcing the first and only punt by Musselman and then the teams traded turnovers before PHS put together a 38-yard drive capped by Snodgrass going over left guard from a yard away with 5:44 on the first quarter clock. PHS then missed its first extra point attempt of the year when the kick was blocked.
Musselman answered with a 31-yard pass and run scoring play with 3:26 on the clock and kicked the PAT to take a 7-6 lead but PHS went back on top on another short run by Snodgrass that was set up by Singer’s 65-yard reception. The two-point conversion pass was from Parsons to King.
Musselman tied the game at 14-all on a 10-play, 75-yard drive aided by a PHS face mask penalty but the Big Reds quickly went back on top 21-14 with 6:27 left in the second quarter on a 58-yard run by Singer, who took it up the middle and broke free to reach the end zone. He had to withstand two attempts by a Musselman player to bat the ball out of his hand as he neared the goal line.
The home team tied it again on a five-play, 75-yard drive with five straight pass completions but Singer took advantage of a high bounce on an attempted onside kick to race 74 yards up the right sideline untouched to make it a 28-21 PHS lead with 1:42 left before the half.
The lead stretched to 35-21 as Stanley picked off a Musselman pass and returned it 72 yards up the sideline for a score with 8.8 seconds left before intermission.
The Big Reds’ only punt of the game came on the first possession of the second half and the home team immediately went 74 yards on six plays to score on a 43 yard pass, cutting the margin to seven at 35-28.
A 66-yard drive by PHS on the following possession ended with a 19-yard pass to Andrew Stalnaker with the big play being an 11-yard run by Parsons.
The natural turf helped Musselman quickly answer when the PHS defender slipped and fell while covering a receiver and left Logan Shelton wide open for a 23 yard scoring catch with 1:43 left in the third quarter.
Twenty-three seconds later it was back to a 14-point lead at 49-35 when Snodgrass took a pass out of the backfield in the right flat and the senior running back raced 70 yards to the end zone.
But that margin lasted only 20 seconds as Adames returned the ensuing kickoff 79 yards up the sideline to cut the margin to 49-42.
A fumble gave the home team a chance to tie the game at 49-all as the Applemen started from their own 36 and took 10 plays to cover the 64 yards with a 21-yard scoring pass with 6:17 left in the game making it a tie for the third time.
The Big Reds went for it on fourth down at the Musselman 45 with 5:05 left in the game but a pass was broken up and the home team put together a drive which took 3:38 off the clock and moved to a first and goal at the PHS nine yard line.
Stanley broke up a pass attempt and Jeffery Jones and Kennedy Jeter stopped a run try for a yard gain. On third down the Big Reds, led by Matt Stalnaker, stopped a run at the two yard line and Musselman decided to kick the go-ahead field goal with 1:27 remaining.
That set the stage for the last-minute heroics which pulled out the victory and made the four and one-half hour bus trip back more enjoyable.