South Charleston game
Defense Dominates Again As PHS Blanks South Charleston 63-0
Game Statistics
.....SOUTH CHARLESTON – Posting its third straight shutout, the Parkersburg defense showed it could be offensive as well by scoring three touchdowns to pace the Big Reds to a 63-0 victory over South Charleston here Friday night.
For the first time since 1976 the Big Reds not only held their opponent scoreless in each of the first three contests of the season but did so in dominating fashion. The PHS prevent unit scored three times (two interceptions by Cyrus Backus and a fumble return by Matthew Stalnaker) and never allowed the Black Eagles to reach the Parkersburg red zone.
In fact only once in the first three quarters did the home team cross mid-field and the only other time was on the last four plays of the mercy-rule shortened contest when South Charleston reached the PHS 35 yard line. The game was played with six-minute quarters in the second half and a running clock in the fourth period.
Meanwhile the PHS offense, which has put 166 points on the board in the first three games (55.3 points per game), was ultra-efficient as it produced six touchdowns while running just 14 plays in the first half. The Big Reds finished with 207 yards in offense on 19 plays with quarterback David Parsons completing six of seven passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns in the first 14 minutes. Parsons also ran for a touchdown on first play from offense for PHS.
Jakel Shelton ran for two touchdowns for the winners while Anthony Ice caught two touchdown passes among his three receptions. Stalnaker had the other TD catch and was the leading tackler on defense.
After forcing a punt on the game’s first series, PHS took just one play to reach the end zone as Parsons faked a handoff and went 38 yards up the left sidelines to score with 10:01 left in the first period. Casey Stanley kicked the first of his six straight extra points.
On the next series Zane Lewis blocked a South Charleston punt and recovered on the one yard line. Two plays later Shelton went over left tackle for the touchdown with 8:59 on the clock.
Another four-and-out Black Eagle effort gave PHS the ball on the SC 45 and again it was just one play for the Big Reds to reach the end zone, this time on a 45 yard bomb to a wide-open Ice, who had no defender within 15 yards when he caught the ball.
South Charleston managed a rare first down on its next series (the hosts had only four in the game and only 53 yards in offense despite running 47 plays. The Eagles also were just five of 17 in the air with the two interceptions as they were forced to play with second team quarterback Kayden Hackman due to a concussion by starting quarterback Jacob Wilson.
But after that first down Hackman fumbled the ball and Stalnaker grabbed in the air and went 35 yards to the end zone to make it 28-0 after the PAT with 3:07 left in the first quarter.
South Charletson went for it on fourth-and-three from its own 29 but was hit for a three yard loss by Ice and Stalnaker. Three plays later PHS scored on a Parsons to Stalnaker pass from the 11 to make the score 35-0 at the close of the first period.
Stalnaker scored again on a 30 yard punt return but had it called back by a penalty. That just meant Parsons would take one play to find Ice again for a 21 yard scoring pass to run the score to 42-0.
One of the longest PHS scoring drives took place after another SC punt as PHS reached the end zone in five plays covering 67 yards with 37 of that coming on a pass to Andrew Stalnaker. Shelton did the scoring honors on a two yard run around left end with 5:05 left in the half.
Backus then got in the act as South Charleston tried going to the air only to have the junior defender pick off and return first one pass 25 yard for a touchdown and then take away a long aerial attempt and return it 72 yard to make the score 63-0 on the final play of the first half.
The second half was over in a hurry as PHS ran just five plays (none in the running clock fourth quarter).
Parkersburg vs South Charleston (Sep 08, 2023 at South Charleston)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 - Total
Parkersburg 35 28 0 0 - 63
South Charleston 0 0 0 0 - 0
Qtr Time Scoring play
1st 10:01 PHS - David Parsons 38 yd run (Casey Stanley kick), 1-33 0:11
08:15 PHS - Jakel Shelton 2 yd run (Casey Stanley kick), 2-1 0:44
05:44 PHS - Anthony Ice 45 yd pass from David Parsons (Casey Stanley kick), 2-45 0:51
03:07 PHS - Matthew Stalnaker 35 yd fumble recovery (Casey Stanley kick)
00:36 PHS - Matthew Stalnaker 11 yd pass from David Parsons (Casey Stanley kick), 3-26 0:19
2nd 10:04 PHS - Anthony Ice 21 yd pass from David Parsons (Casey Stanley kick), 1-21 0:00
05:05 PHS - Jakel Shelton 2 yd run (Conner Gribble kick), 5-67 2:30
03:51 PHS - Cyrus Backus 25 yd interception return (Conner Gribble kick)
00:00 PHS - Cyrus Backus 72 yd interception return (Conner Gribble kick)
..........................................................PHS SC
FIRST DOWNS 7 4
RUSHES-YARDS (NET) 9-57 30-23
PASSING YDS (NET) 150 30
Passes Att-Comp-Int 10-6-0 17-5-2
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS ....19-207 47-53
Fumble Returns-Yards 1-35 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards 3-39 0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards 1-42 5-102
Interception Returns-Yards 2-97 0-0
Punts (Number-Avg) 0-0.0 5-21.4
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 2-1
Penalties-Yards 3-30 7-49
Possession Time 12:04 35:37
Third-Down Conversions 1 of 2 0 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions 0 of 1 2 of 4
Red-Zone Scores-Chances 3-4 0-0
Sacks By: Number-Yards 1-13 0-0
RUSHING: Parkersburg-David Parsons 2-41; Jakel Shelton 5-7; Ethan Jones 1-6; Hunter Leavitt 1-3.
South Charleston-Jaydan Green 10-17; Lyric Berger 1-7; Kayden Hackman 15-4; Colton Westfall 1-minus 1; Lincoln McConihay 3-minus 4.
PASSING: Parkersburg-David Parsons 6-7-0-150; Cooper Cancade 0-3-0-0. South Charleston-Kayden Hackman 5-16-2-30; Lincoln McConihay 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING: Parkersburg-Anthony Ice 3-81; Andrew Stalnaker 1-37; Jakel Shelton 1-21; Matthew Stalnaker 1-11. South Charleston-Elijah Pendleton 5-30.
INTERCEPTIONS: Parkersburg-Cyrus Backus 2-97. South Charleston-None.
FUMBLES: Parkersburg-Ethan Jones 1-1. South Charleston-Kayden Hackman 2-1.
Parkersburg (3-0) vs. South Charleston (0-3)
