MORGANTOWN — Growing pains began for South Charleston Thursday evening.
The rebuilding Black Eagles were beset by a variety of maladies in the first quarter and visiting Morgantown took advantage of just about every last one, racing to a 50-0 victory in a mutual season opener at SC High School. The loss ruined the coaching debut of former South Charleston standout Carl Lee.
Caleb Nutter had a pair of short touchdown runs for the Mohigans and also blocked a punt and recovered in the end zone for a third score. Quarterback Caleb Bowers directed Morgantown’s wing-T attack and threw for two TDs, completing 7 of 11 passes for 102 yards.
Bobby Powell supplied an additional bolt of lightning for Morgantown, returning the opening kickoff of the second half 81 yards for a score. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
The Mohigans used superior field position in the first quarter to break into their early 22-0 lead, getting the ball in SC territory each of their first three drives, which resulted in touchdowns.
Morgantown coach Sean Biser said his team tried to counter South Charleston defenders hogging the line of scrimmage in an effort to slow down the wing-T offense, normally a running attack.
“They were just selling out, trying to stop the run,’’ Biser said, “and bring pressure off the edges, and it worked to shut our run game down. But we were able to get the ball open in spots and really, that’s what we were able to do.’’
South Charleston, which saw about a half-dozen key starters transfer to other schools in the off-season, provided Morgantown with several early opportunities. If it could have gone wrong for SC in the first quarter, it certainly did as the Mohigans’ lead swelled to 22-0.
The Black Eagles lost a fumble at their own 34, were penalized five times for 38 yards, snapped the ball out of their own end zone for a safety and gained only 8 yards on their first four possessions. They battled poor field position the entire first quarter, including a start at their own 6 when a kickoff returner stumbled and fell out of bounds.
Even worse, junior tailback Amellio Miller, one of the team’s few returning offensive standouts, suffered a first-quarter injury and didn’t return after five carries for 8 yards. That all happened before the second quarter began.
Morgantown, however, had no such issues in the opening period, taking all three of its full possessions for touchdowns. All three drives started in SC territory — at the 48, 30 and 45, respectively.
Punt snaps were an issue all night for the Black Eagles, with another poor one covered at the SC 17 for a 20-yard loss, giving Morgantown good field position yet again.
“Personally, I’ll take the blame,’’ Lee said, “that we have not worked long enough and well enough on our special teams to be good. So that’s part of my responsibility. We had been focused on — with all the different changes that we’ve taken, and with kids on the offensive side — we’ve been more focused there than we have on the other stuff, so that was our weakness that we had. It’s a weakness because we don’t have a lot of numbers.’’
On top of that, SC’s top two ball-carriers, Miller and Delviccio Dyess, each left early, Miller with an aggravation of his previous ankle injury and Dyess with stomach issues after carrying seven times for
29 yards.
“After that, we don’t have enough depth to step in,’’ Lee said.
One of the many spots SC had to replace was the transfer of All-State quarterback Trey Dunn, who moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Junior quarterback Jacob Wilson got his first varsity start for the Black Eagles and completed 5 of 18 passes for 26 yards with one interception. SC also lost one fumble and was penalized 11 times for 93 yards.
Bowers, who missed much of last season with an injury, had a pair of scoring passes in the first quarter for Morgantown, finding Dakoma Neal from 14 yards out and Jacob Keir with a 45-yarder. Nutter also had a 1-yard TD run.
It remained 22-0 at the half as South Charleston’s defense forced two straight three-and-outs in the second quarter and later held the Mohigans out of the end zone to close the half.
“We got a little lax in the second quarter because we jumped on them so fast,’’ Biser said, “and I think our kids didn’t react the way I wanted them to react. Overall, though, pleased with their effort. We played pretty hard tonight and any time you can come away with one on the road, it’s great.’’
One of Morgantown’s top backs, Peyton Johnson, left the game with a leg injury and needed crutches to walk the sidelines in the second half. Nutter finished with a team-high 69 yards on 10 carries as the Mohigans wound up with 166 yards on 36 rushing plays.
SC won at Morgantown last season 37-28.
By RICK RYAN, Charleston Gazette-Mail
