By ERIC HERTER
MORGANTOWN — Morgantown’s Bobby Powell likely has a lot of football games left to play in his career. But none may top what he did on Friday night at Pony Lewis Field.
Powell, a sophomore defensive back for the Mohigans, intercepted three passes as he helped lead a stout MHS defense to a 62-20 win over visiting Hedgesville.
“This is just my third varsity game,” Powell said after helping MHS hold the Eagles to 190 yards of offense. “I was looking at the quarterback and I saw that he really didn’t trust his receivers. I saw that he threw the ball up and he didn’t really know where the receiver was at, so I just went and made plays.”
Not too shabby for a sophomore who is making the transition to defensive back this year after playing primarily on offense in his early years.
MHS’s defense was so stout that Hedgesville had just 35 yards of offense in the first half and didn’t gain any big chunk plays until the fourth quarter when the contest was well in hand.
“I hope we can (play better that this on defense),” MHS head coach Sean Biser said. “We are going to have a lot of tough teams coming down the road. We have to keep working at getting better in practice and every day.”
Spoken like a coach who also watched his team commit 159 yards worth of penalties in the contest.
However, those miscues are easy to overlook when your defense shuts an opponent down and your offense finds its groove.
Morgantown used 12 different ball carriers in the contest while picking up 414 yards on the turf. Quarterback Maddox Bowers, back from an injury he suffered in a loss to Bridgeport, added 121 yards through the air on 6 of 10 passing with two scoring throws.
“We’ve got a bunch of (running backs). We’ve got a bushel,” Biser said. “We aren’t as deep as people think we are, but we have several kids that can play multiple positions.”
Davon Eldridge and Jarrett Lawrence each finished with two touchdown runs, while James Hoskins, Alec Duley and Peyton Johnson each had one. Marquis Mauney hauled in both of Bowers’ scoring strikes in the contest.
The Mohigans (1-2) earned their first victory of the season thanks to that patient offense and a defense that had five interceptions, recovered a fumble and also recovered a kickoff that bounced off the hands of the Eagles (2-2).
“They aren’t your typical 0-2 team,” Hedgesville head coach Matt Faircloth said. “I think they are battle tested from the first two games they played. We knew coming in, that this was a measuring stick for us. They are fast, they are physical and they are well coached.”
Biser said he was happy to pick up a victory after two tough-luck losses to begin the season, but any football coach is always looking for improvement.
“There’s no such thing as a bad win,” Biser said. “I was happy with how the kids played. We shot ourselves in the foot several times, so we have to clean that up.”
The Mohigans return to action next Friday when they travel to Woodrow Wilson for a 7:30 p.m. contest.
1 2 3 4 F
Hedgesville 7 0 0 13 – 20
Morgantown 14 35 13 0 – 62
First Quarter
MHS – Marquis Mauney 7 pass from Maddox Bowers (Jack Grushecky kick)
H – Kanye Smith 99 kick return (Reilly Bubb kick)
MHS – Davon Eldridge 4 run (Grushecky kick)
Second Quarter
MHS – Jarrett Lawrence 6 run (Grushecky kick)
MHS – Lawrence 6 run (Grushecky kick)
MHS – Mauney 38 pass from Bowers (Grushecky kick)
MHS – Eldridge 3 run (Grushecky kick)
MHS – James Hoskins 14 run (Grushecky kick)
Third Quarter
MHS – Alec Duley 18 run (Grushecky kick)
MHS – Peyton Johnson 33 run (kick fail)
Fourth Quarter
H – Gabe Tost 2 run (#34 kick)
H – Tanner Matthew 47 pass from Jaxson Ruest (kick block)
RUSHING – HEDGESVILLE – Team 1-(-2), Nathan Albright 12-35, Ruest 1-(-5), Gage Creel 1-1, Tost 5-42; MHS – Eldridge 4-17 TD, Caleb Nutter 9-36, Hoskins 4-56 TD, Bobby Powell 1-6, Lawrence 7-86 TD, Brodrick Washington 4-37, Duley 7-44 TD, Braedon Brooks 4-23, Johnson 7-65 TD, Grushecky 2-17, Bradley 4-(-2), Sabastian Dalton 4-23.
PASSING – HEDGESVILLE – Ruest 6-18-5 1 TD; MHS – Bowers 6-10-1 2 TD.
RECEIVING – HEDGESVILLE – Creel 2-10, Xavier Kirk 1-(-1), Hunter Turner 2-63, Matthew 1-47 TD. MHS – Mauney 4-63 2 TD, Washington 1-36, Eldridge 1-22.
