FAIRMONT — The Preston County High School football team fell to the top-ranked team in Class AA, Fairmont Senior, 56-0 Thursday night under the lights and clouds at East-West Stadium in Fairmont.
The Polar Bears (3-0) scored on each of their opening two plays, and three out of their first four, setting the tone early for the contest and showing why they are one of the best teams in the state of West Virginia.
FS junior Navaughn Jones took the ball 56 yards on the first play from scrimmage for his team for a touchdown. Senior running back Dylan Ours mirrored his teammate by scoring on a 24-yard run on the second play for the Polar Bears.
After the Knights (0-3) went three-and-out on offense, Fairmont needed only two more plays to add to the lead. This time quarterback Brody Whitehair connected with Ours for a 39-yard strike that extended the lead to 21-0 with just over five minutes played in the first quarter.
Whitrehair connected on another touchdown pass, this time a 29-yard throw to Cannon Dinger that gave the hosts a 28-0 lead after the opening frame.
In the first half alone, the hosts ran for over 200 yards and scored a touchdown on nearly every single offensive drive.
The Knights went scoreless in the first half but managed 77 yards on the ground in the first half and forced multiple turnovers of the Fairmont offense and special teams.
Two more scores by FSHS, another touchdown pass by Whitehair and another run for Ours, made the halftime lead 42-0.
“We put in a new defense this week and had some new things personnel-wise and I think for us it’s working on ourselves,” Preston head coach Mark Deep said. “We are in a tough part of our schedule right now and we just need to focus on working on ourselves and being able to reset and getting up and ready for our home opener next week.”
The bright spot for Deep and his club was the defensive turnovers that were forced and junior running back Ethan Likens, who rushed for 82 yards on 14 carries against the Fairmont defense.
The Knights will host Robert C. Byrd for their home opener next week after playing their first three games on the road at Hampshire, North Marion, and now Fairmont Senior.
“We have our home opener next week and we should be excited about it,” Deep said. “Going home should give us a reason to be excited and I think we will be better next week. We will get some bodies back next week and have had to shuffle a lot of kids around this week. It’s been a tough start but it always is and there aren’t any breaks. We get through it and now we will try to turn the season around.”
Fairmont Senior 56, Preston 0
Fairmont Senior 28 14 14 0 – 56
Preston 0 0 0 0 – 0
Scoring Summary
FS – Jones 56-yd run (Peschl Kick)
FS – Ours 24-yd run (Peschl Kick)
FS – Ours 39-yd pass from Whitehair (Peschl Kick)
FS – Dinger 28-yd pass from Whitehair (Peschl Kick)
FS – Johnson 17-yd pass from Whitehair (Peschl Kick)
FS – Ours 5-yd run (Peschl Kick)
FS – Ours KO return (Peschl Kick)
FS – Michael 69-yd pass from Whitehair (Peschl Kick)
Individual Stats
Rushing – FS: Jones 2-72 TD; Ours 6-98 2TD; Whitehair 1-11; Wilson 1-3; Boda 3-14; Smith 2-16; Carillo 1-15; Woodman 2-32. PHS: Taylor 4-(-1); Likens 14-82; Turner 8-19.
Passing – FS: Whitehair 9-13 231-4TD; PHS 2-14 7.
Receiving – FS: Canfield 3-58; Ours 1-39 TD; Dinger 2-42 TD; Jones 1-15; Johnson 1-17 TD; Michael 1-69 TD.
