Parkersburg High School Big Reds Football

Aug. 30, 2024 Morgantown game

Big Reds Dominate But Drop Opening Game

Parkersburg’s Big Reds dominated Morgantown – but lost.

In a one-sided effort that went for naught the home team did everything but win the game as the Mohigans turned three plays – and three plays only – into a 24-13 victory Friday night in a season-opening game delayed two hours by lightning.

PHS ran an amazing 83 plays to just 25 for the visitors, piled up a 22-4 margin in first downs and had a 331-185 advantage in total yards but somehow lost the game as Morgantown had only three positive plays but turned them into touchdowns that produced the advantage on the scoreboard. Two long touchdown runs of 66 and 69 yards and a fumble recovery on the PHS seven-yard line produced the other Morgantown touchdown on the very next play after the recovery.

Several outstanding efforts by PHS players were wasted as Jakel Shelton ran for 66 yards, caught passes for 47 more and scored a touchdown while Cooper Cancade completed 27 of 43 passes for 218 yards. Morgantown tried just three passes and completed none and had just 50 yards in 23 plays other than the two long scoring runs. Tytan Parsons also caught six passes for 44 yards for PHS which had 10 different players catch passes.

The Big Reds took the opening kickoff and drove for a 32 yard field goal try but the attempted was missed. After forcing a punt the Big Reds got the ball back at midfield and drove to the nine yard line but had to settle for another field goal try. This time Quinton Wright’s 30 yard attempted was blocked and returned 35 yards to the Morgantown 45.

Again the PHS defense held and got the ball back after a long punt by Morgantown’s Aiden Stire (who showed why West Virginia University has given him a scholarship with his powerful leg). But PHS was forced to punt and the kick went just 11 yards and Morgantown took over at the PHS 35 from where the Mohigans moved to the 29 yard line and Stire wound up kicking a 48 yard field goal. .

The Big Reds misfortune continued on their next possession when a dropped punt snap gave Morgantown the ball on the PHS seven yard line. A.J. Thomas ran it in for a 10-0 lead with 5:10 left in the first half.

A 37 yard field goal by Wright after a 12-play drive cut the lead to 10-3 on the last play of the first half. It was a half which saw PHS hold the visitors to just 9 yards on 13 plays while the Big Reds had 145 yards on 39 plays and an 11-1 margin in first downs.

The pace picked up in the third quarter as PHS got a break to begin the half with Sylas Cheuvront knocking the ball loose on the kickoff and Tyler Shahan recovered on the Morgantown 22 yard line. Six plays later Jakel Shelton went over right tackle for the touchdown and Wright’s PAT kick tied things at 10-all.

But Morgantown immediately regained the lead on a 66 yard TD run by Carsin Lawhun.

The Big Reds then moved from their own 20 to the Morgantown 23 before a two hour lightning delay halted play.

When the teams finally returned to the field, PHS drove on to the 10 yard line but a sack proved costly and Wright came on to boot his second field goal and cut the lead to 17-13 with 7:31 left in the third period.

PHS put together another long drive to start the fourth quarter, driving all the way to the Morgantown one yard line but a four yard loss followed and two plays later the Big Reds failed on a fourth down run attempt that lost three yards.

The Big Red defense forced another punt, which went just 18 yards to the Morgantown 23 but two plays later a fumble stopped that scoring attempt and A.J. Thomas made PHS pay by ripping off a 69 yard tackle-breaking scoring run which ran the score to 24-13 with 4:05 left to play.

A last-ditch scoring threat for PHS ended at the Morgantown 27.

Aug. 30 at Parkersburg)

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Total

Morgantown (1-0) 0 10 7 7 - 24

Parkersburg (0-1) 0 3 10 0 - 13

Qtr Time Scoring play

2nd 05:48 MORG - Aiden Stire 48 yd field goal, 4-6 1:27

05:10 MORG - AJ Thomas 7 yd run (Aiden Stire kick), 1-7 0:08

00:00 PHS - Quinton Wright 37 yd field goal, 13-60 5:23

3rd 09:10 PHS - Jakel Shelton 1 yd run (Quinton Wright kick), 6-22 2:37

08:48 MORG - Carsin Lawhun 66 yd run (Aiden Stire kick), 1-66 0:12

01:17 PHS - Quinton Wright 27 yd field goal, 15-70 7:31

4th 04:05 MORG - AJ Thomas 69 yd run (Aiden Stire kick), 2-77 0:54

.....................................................MORG PHS

FIRST DOWNS 4 22

RUSHES-YARDS (NET) 22-185 40-113

PASSING YDS (NET) 0 218

Passes Att-Comp-Int 3-0-0 43-27-0

TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS 25-185 83-331

Fumble Returns-Yards 0-0 0-0

Punt Returns-Yards 0-0 0-0

Kickoff Returns-Yards 3-49 1-12

Interception Returns-Yards 0-0 0-0

Punts (Number-Avg) 4-29.8 1-11.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 2-1

Penalties-Yards 8-45 3-26

Possession Time 11:25 35:44

Third-Down Conversions 1 of 7 11 of 19

Fourth-Down Conversions 0 of 0 0 of 3

Red-Zone Scores-Chances 1-1 3-6

Sacks By: Number-Yards 1-7 0-0

RUSHING: Morgantown-AJ Thomas 12-124; Carsin Lawhun 2-68; Rhys Wells 4-13; Zaiden Lockett 1-minus 2;

Matthew Hennige 1-minus 6; Rem Hawkins 2-minus 12. Parkersburg-Jakel Shelton 22-66; Cooper Cancade 6-29; Sylas Cheuvront 2-20; Ethan Jones 9-11; Cole Sisk 1-minus 13.

PASSING: Morgantown-Matthew Hennige 0-3-0-0. Parkersburg-Cooper Cancade 27-43-0-218.

RECEIVING: Morgantown-. Parkersburg-Jakel Shelton 6-47; Tytan Parsons 6-44; Ethan Jones 3-22; Zane Lewis 3-21; Brady Thorn 2-25; Austin Craven 2-14; Hunter Leavitt 2-13; Devin Widman 1-15; Preston Riffle 1-12; Sylas Cheuvront 1-5.

FUMBLES: Morgantown-Matthew Hennige 1-0; AJ Thomas 1-1. Parkersburg-Ethan Jones 1-1; Cole Sisk 1-0.

Attendance: 2500

Kickoff time: 7:30 • End of Game: 12:14 (2 hour weather delay)• Total elapsed time: 2:48 Temperature 96