A week after a strong comeback in the Mohawk Bowl, Morgantown hoped head into the Class AAA playoffs with a lot of momentum, but Linsly had a different idea to end their season Friday night at Pony Lewis Field.
After the Mohigans jumped out to a 7-0 lead following their first possession, the Cadets’ defense put the hammer down the rest of the game, holding MHS to 134 yards after the opening scoring drive on their way to a 24-7 win.
MHS was able to keep it close through the first three quarters, but Linsly scored two touchdowns in the fourth to pull away.
“We just didn’t play well offensively, we made mistakes and gave up too many big plays on defense and our special teams was basically non-existent,” MHS head coach Sean Biser said. “We’re going to have to go back in here and figure out how to fix it to get ready for the playoffs.”
The Mohigans (7-3) came into the game at No. 10 in the WVSSAC playoff ratings, looking to solidify a spot near the middle of the pack, though a road game was likely regardless of the outcome.
However, with the loss, the projected ratings have MHS traveling south to take on No. 2 Huntington as the 15-seed, though not official at press time.
MHS will have the choice to play either next Friday night or Saturday afternoon.
“This game is over now, so we’ll go back and see what we didn’t do right and what we did do right, and get ready to go for next week,” Biser said.
While the list off what went right is short for MHS, the first seven minutes of the game are at the top. After Linsly (5-5) botched a punt attempt, the Mohigans marched down the field for a score, capped off by a touchdown deep pass over the middle from Maddox Bowers to Andrew Phares for 28 yards.
However, the Cadets answered quickly on their next drive as quarterback Braden Wade threw a dart over the middle to split the safeties and hit Malte Feil, who sprinted to the end zone for an 83-yard touchdown.
Feil kicked a 36-yard field goal in the second quarter to push Linsly’s lead to 10-7, which it held until the fourth quarter.
Feil found the end zone again, snatching an 8-yard pass from Wade on a critical 3rd down to make it a two-possession game in the fourth quarter.
The Cadets got the ball back quickly, and their next drive ended with Atley Cowan sneaking the ball from under center to put the game out of reach at 24-7.
Wade finished with 207 yards on just 10 completions, while Feil collected 107 of those yards.
For MHS, Bowers had 51 yards through the air, while AJ Thomas tallied 80 yards on the ground to lead the team in rushing.
By Sean Manning
Box score
Linsly 7 3 0 14 – 24
MHS 7 0 0 0 – 7
SCORING SUMMARY
MHS – Phares 28 pass from Bowers (Stire kick)
LS – Feil 83 pass from Wade (Feil kick)
LS – Feil 36 field goal
LS – Feil 8 pass from Wade (Feil kick)
LS – Cowen 1 run (Feil kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: LS – M. Troullos 12-39; Weiner 8-39; Stanisi 8-42; Derr 1-3; Cowen 7-(-8) TD; Cottrill 1-(-1). Totals: 37-114 TD. MHS – Thomas 18-80; Nutter 7-25; Powell 4-17; Ullom 3-9; Bowers 2-(-2). Totals: 129.
PASSING: LS – Wade 10-19 207 2TD; Stanisi 0-1; Cowen 1-1 16. MHS – Bowers 10-18 51 TD.
RECEIVING: LS – Feil 4-107 2TD; Coleman 2-11; Cohen 4-51; Schiebel 1-42. Totals: 11-213 2TD. MHS – Phares 2-33 TD; Thomas 4-5; Nutter 1-5; Ullom 2-9; Powell 1-5. Totals: 10-51 TD.
