MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — A week before the Mohawk Bowl, a real live Madden Bowl broke out at Pony Lewis Field.
In what could only be described as an offensive display by two teams with two very different philosophies, Morgantown High outlasted Linsly on Friday, 61-40.
“Yeah, that was a lot of fun,” said MHS quarterback Cam Rice, who rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns. “Both teams were just going at each other. It was like a video game out there.”
The Mohigans (2-2) host rival University High next week, but their offense may need some time to rest before then and their defense has a little work to do.
How crazy this game actually became was highlighted by a fourth quarter that saw both schools combine for seven touchdowns and 49 points in just 12 minutes.
Morgantown High did it on the ground, while the Cadets did it through the air.
Just how ground-oriented were the Mohigans? How about this: MHS racked up 668 yards rushing as a team, and out of 68 plays, none of them were a pass.
“Hey, we did call one pass, but then there was a penalty and that changed everything,” MHS head coach Sean Biser said.
Rice rushed for three scores, including a 71-yard jaunt that gave the Mohigans a 20-0 lead with 5:42 left in the second quarter, but he was far from the star of the game.
That was fullback Deondre Crudup, who carried 20 times for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
He had two runs of more than 50 yards in the fourth quarter, when Linsly’s run defense was worn out and offered little resistance.
“Deondre is a beast and he can do things that no other back in this state can do,” Rice said. “He can get to the open field and make you miss or he can just run you over. He did a little bit of both tonight. They couldn’t stop him.”
For added measure, Caden Biser rushed for 182 yards and two touchdowns and Davon Eldridge also had 62 yards and two more TDs.
“Sixty-some points and 600-some yards, not bad for an archaic offense,” Sean Biser said jokingly of his Wing-T attack. “People want to give us some flack for not throwing much, but I say why fix it if it’s not broke?
“Our offense is designed to have these types of games and what was really good for us is we had a lot of different guys get involved.”
There are two sides to a shoot-out, and after being held to just 99 yards at the half and no offensive scores, the Cadets made up for it in the second half.
Linsly senior quarterback Hunter Kelley attempted 60 passes and completed 34 of them for 337 yards and three touchdowns.
He also added 96 yards rushing and two more scores.
“He was a great athlete and he just kept making great plays,” said Rice, who also doubled as the Mohigans’ safety trying to defend against those passes. “We did our best to contain him, but some of those throws were right on the money and you couldn’t do much about it.”
Linsly receiver Kobe Hill caught an amazing 16 passes for 199 yards and teammate Luca DiLorenzo added 10 catches for 137 yards.
“We tried a couple of different schemes, but obviously we have to improve defensively,” Biser said. “I really liked that our kids didn’t fold when they came back. I was really looking for effort from our guys tonight and they gave plenty of it.”
Linsly never led, but after trailing, 20-0, the Cadets did close the game to within five points as late as 8:46 remaining in the game.
As crazy as this game was, that was still enough time for both teams to combine for four more touchdowns.
After Linsly had closed to within, 38-33, Crudop scored on a 55-yard run on the very next play and then added a 4-yard run with 6:01 left to make it 54-40.
Both teams combined for 1,142 yards of offense to go along with the 101 points.
“We’re really starting to come together as a team,” Biser said. “We have no selfishness. We’re playing good team football. Our offensive line has come along way, which showed tonight. We’ve still got some things to shore up, but we’re playing really hard as a team right now.”
Linsly 0 7 13 20—40
Morgantown 7 19 6 29—61
SCORING SUMMARY
MHS—Davon Eldridge 8 run (Jack Grueshecky kick)
MHS—Caden Biser 4 run (Grueshecky kick)
MHS—Cam Rice 71 run (kick failed)
Lin—Marcus Aprea 55 fumble return (Joao Lima kick)
MHS—Rice 4 run (kick failed)
Lin—Zachai Simmons 12 pass from Hunter Kelley (Lima kick)
Lin—Kelley 22 run (run failed)
MHS—Rice 7 run (run failed)
Lin—Luca DiLorenzo 12 pass from Kelley (Lima kick)
MHS—Biser 5 run (run failed)
Lin—Kelley 3 run (pass failed)
MHS—Deondre Crudup 55 run (Biser run)
Lin—Kobe Hill 19 pass from Kelley (Lima kick)
MHS—Crudop 4 run (Biser run)
MHS—Eldridge 12 run (Grueshecky kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Linsly—Kelley 12-96 2 TD, Steve Felton 4-25, Simmons 2-11, Hill 1-5. Morgantown—Crudop 20-207 2 TD, Biser 18-182 2 TD, Rice 15-150 3 TD, Eldridge 11-62 2 TD, Broderick Washington 4-67.
PASSING: Linsly—Kelley 34-60-2 337 3 TD. Morgantown—None.
RECEIVING: Linsly—Hill 16-199 TD, DiLorenzo 10-137 TD, Simmons 2-18 TD, Nathan Coleman 2-22, Felton 1-7, Felix Reitter 3-13. Morgantown—None.
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