Parkersburg High School Big Reds Football

Hurricane Playoff Game

Parsons Leads PHS Upset of Hurricane

HURRICANE – David Parsons threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more as Parkersburg stunned fourth-ranked Hurricane 47-23 here Friday night in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs.
Sparked by a blocked punt from Andrew Stalnaker on the game’s fourth play the 13th ranked Big Reds dominated the highly regarded Redskins to win just their second playoff game since 2007 and notched their seventh victory of the season. PHS will play the winner of Saturday’s Princeton-Oak Hill game on the road again at a date and time to be determined Sunday.
Parsons set another school record with the three TD tosses, giving him 30 on the season, as he completed 14 of 22 passes for 192 yards while adding 37 yards on the ground with eight rushes. He broke Jake Johnson’s record of 27 touchdown passes accomplished in 2004 in 13 games.
Other standouts for PHS included Andrew Stalnaker who not only caught two touchdown passes but blocked the early punt that gave the Big Reds the momentum they needed for the blowout. Playing without an injured Jakel Shelton, the team’s leading rusher, Jason Williams picked up the slack with 121 yards rushing on 16 carries, scored one touchdown on a 28 yard run and came up with a state-leading 11th sack of the season (and has only played six games so far).
The Big Reds got off to a quick start thanks to their defense as Andrew Stalnaker came up the middle to smother a Hurricane punt attempt and Tytan Parsons recovered on the two yard line. Three plays later Parsons faked a handoff and went around left end for the touchdown with 9:12 still showing on the first quarter clock. Casey Stanley kicked the first of his six extra points.
Hurricane, which came into the game averaging 52.5 points per game (second best in the state), went four-and-out again on its second possession and PHS drove inside the home team 20 yard line only to fumble the ball away.
The teams traded punts before Hurricane got on the scoreboard thanks to an 82-yard catch-and-run by Redskins speedster Tyshawn Dues to the PHS five yard line. Three plays later Dues scored and Grayson Maddox extra point tied the game at 7-all with 1:10 left in the first quarter.
But it took PHS less than a minute to go ahead for good as Williams broke off a 43 yard run on the first play to the Hurricane 11 and two plays later Parsons found Andrew Stalnaker for the touchdown from eight yards out.
The start of the second quarter saw the Big Reds continue their strong defense and forced a quick punt from the Hurricane 33. A high snap caused punter Maddox to pick the ball up inside his 15 and he promptly kicked the ball intentionally out the back of the end zone, giving PHS a safety and a penalty for illegal touching. Hurricane was offside on the ensuing free kick and finally kicked the ball to Williams who returned it 13 yards into Redskin territory at the 49.
A great 34-yard reception in a crowd by Stanley took the ball to the Hurricane 15 and on fourth down he kicked a 24-yard field goal to make it 19-7.
Just before the end of the half PHS put more points on the board Parsons hit Stalnaker again the Big Red senior shook off a tackler to complete a 37-yard scoring play with 14 seconds on the clock to make the score 26-7 at the intermission.
The second half was more of the same as PHS took the kickoff and drove 70 yards in seven plays with Matt Stalnaker doing the honors this time on a 22 yard reception to make it 33-7 with less than four minutes gone in the third quarter.
Hurricane switched 1,000 yard rusher Noah Vellaithambi to quarterback but he threw an interception (by Matt Stalnaker) near midfield and PHS responded with another quick score on a 28 yard run by Williams with four minutes left in the period to run the lead to 40-7.
The Redskins got their second touchdown with 49 seconds left in the third period on a six yard run by Kylan Grace and then recovered an onside kick but could not score as the PHS defense came up with a goal-line stand at the 10-minute mark.
PHS got a couple of first downs but punted and Hurricane was able to score after a 34 yard run by Vellaithambi, who dropped the snap from center but weaved his way through the defense to the PHS six yard line. From there he hit Tyshawn Dues for the TD to make it 40-23 with 3:28 left in the game.
Hurricane tried another onside kick but Matthew Stalnaker picked the ball up on a bounce and returned it 41 yards to set up back-to-back seven yard runs to the end zone with just 2:25 remaining to make it 47-23.
An interception by Andrew Stalnaker sealed the victory four plays later.

#13 Parkersburg vs #4 Hurricane (Nov 10, 2023 at Hurricane)
Score by Quarters 1      2      3      4      -       Total
Parkersburg          14    12    14    7      -       47
Hurricane              7      0      8      8      -       23
Qtr Time Scoring play
1st 09:12 PHS - David Parsons 2 yd run (Casey Stanley kick), 3-2 1:18
01:10 HURR - Tyshawn Dues 2 yd run (Grayson Maddox kick), 3-79 0:47
00:06 PHS - Andrew Stalnaker 8 yd pass from David Parsons (Casey Stanley kick), 3-54 0:55
2nd 10:46 PHS - TEAM safety
07:48 PHS - Casey Stanley 24 yd field goal, 6-42 2:49
00:14 PHS - Andrew Stalnaker 37 yd pass from David Parsons (Casey Stanley kick), 6-74 1:46
3rd 08:11 PHS - Matthew Stalnaker 22 yd pass from David Parsons (Casey Stanley kick), 7-70 3:41
04:00 PHS - Jason Williams 28 yd run (Casey Stanley kick), 3-46 0:59
00:49 HURR - Kylan Grace 6 yd run (Noah Vellaithambi rush), 9-80 3:11
4th 03:28 HURR - Tyshawn Dues 6 yd pass from Noah Vellaithambi (Michael Terrell pass from N. Vellaithambi),
02:25 PHS - David Parsons 7 yd run (Casey Stanley kick), 2-14 0:52
...............................................................PHS         HURR
FIRST DOWNS                                      17            24
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)                        30-151     35-132
PASSING YDS (NET)                            192          313
Passes Att-Comp-Int                               22-14-0 44-22-2
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS     52-343     79-445
Fumble Returns-Yards                            0-0           0-0
Punt Returns-Yards                                1-16         0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards                           4-119       4-89
Interception Returns-Yards                    2-15         0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)                              3-39.0      4-26.8
Fumbles-Lost                                          1-1           1-1
Penalties-Yards                                       4-37         14-154
Possession Time                                      23:52       23:02
Third-Down Conversions                        4 of 8       5 of 15
Fourth-Down Conversions                      0 of 0       3 of 5
Red-Zone Scores-Chances                      4-5           3-4
Sacks By: Number-Yards                       1-4           1-5
RUSHING: Parkersburg-Jason Williams 17-121; David Parsons 9-37; TEAM 2-minus 2; Sylas Cheuvront 3-minus 5. Hurricane-Noah Vellaithambi 15-89; Kylan Grace 12-64; Tyshawn Dues 4-15; Jacqai Long 3-minus 3; Grayson Maddox 1-minus 33.
PASSING: Parkersburg-David Parsons 14-22-0-192. Hurricane-Noah Vellaithambi 13-29-2-141; Jacqai Long 9-15-0-172.
RECEIVING: Parkersburg-Andrew Stalnaker 3-46; Matthew Stalnaker 3-23; Casey Stanley 2-54; Jason Williams 2-26; Anthony Ice 2-21; Braxton Kupfner 1-15; Sylas Cheuvront 1-7. Hurricane-Tyshawn Dues 8-158; Michael Terrell 6-62; Rhett Mcgrew 4-63; Jai'den Smith 3-17; Laron Dues 1-13.
INTERCEPTIONS: Parkersburg-Matthew Stalnaker 1-15; Andrew Stalnaker 1-0. Hurricane-None.
FUMBLES: Parkersburg-David Parsons 1-1. Hurricane-Noah Vellaithambi 1-1.