Oct. 18 Cabell Midland game
Midland Runs Past PHS 48-21
Game Statistics / Game Photos
........ONA – With less than two minutes played in the game the Parkersburg Big Reds found themselves in a 14-0 deficit and although they tried valiantly to come back they could not overcome mistakes and penalties and dropped a 48-21 decision to Cabell Midland here Friday night.
The run of bad luck seemed to never end for PHS as the visitors dropped their 12th straight game to the Knights who won their second game in a row after starting the season with five straight losses.
Midland used a tackle-breaking running game to account for all but eight of its 469 yards in total offense. The Knights tried just two passes, one early in the game and one late in the contest.
On the second play of the game and just 54 seconds into the contest, Midland scored on an 85 yard breakaway run by quarterback Caden Pauley.
On Parkersburg’s first offensive play, the Big Reds fumbled the ball away on their own 17 yard line. Two plays later Pauley scored again on a keeper and the speedy signal caller would finish the game with 150 yards on just seven rushes and with the successful two-point conversion the home team had a 14-0 lead with just 1:59 off the clock.
Overall, PHS was able to generate 334 yards of its own offense as Ethan Jones and Jakel Shelton accounted for 82 and 63 yards rushing respectively while Cooper Cancade passed for 164 yards (10 of 13 attempts) including a 57 yard TD pass to Brady Thorn and the senior quarterback also ran for a pair of touchdowns but was sacked five times.
The Big Reds were penalized 13 times for 123 yards while Midland was flagged 10 times for 93 yards.
After falling behind quickly, PHS was able to put together a mini-drive but had to punt after a couple of first downs and Midland responded with a 91-yard, nine play drive (all on the ground aided by two PHS penalties) that made it 21-0 with 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The Big Reds finally settled down in the second quarter and put together a nine play drive to the Midland 29 but came up inches short on a fourth down pass to Ethan Jones.
Midland also tried for a fourth down at midfield on the ensuing possession but PHS held with Tyler Shahan and Devin Widman making the defensive stop at the PHS 42.
A 26-yard pass to Braxton Kupfner was followed by a 15 yard completion to Tytan Parsons and Cancade then ran for seven yards to the 10. Two plays later Cancade kept up the middle to the end zone and Quinton Wright’s extra point kick made it 21-7 with just 28 seconds left in the half.
Things looked bright to start the second half as Jones went 68 yards up the middle to the Midland nine on the first play and two plays later Cancade again kept up the middle for the touchdown and the extra point made it 21-14 just 59 seconds into the third quarter.
But Midland answered thanks to three big running plays, the final covering 30 yards to the end zone by Logan Hobbs to make it 28-14 with 9:29 on the clock.
Hobbs added another short TD run just five minutes later and the Knights tacked on two early fourth quarter scores (one a 30 yard breakaway) to make it 48-14 before PHS found the end zone against on a 57 yard aerial bomb to Thorn with 4:59 left in the game.
