BLACKSVILLE — It was a tale of two halves Friday night for Clay-Battelle’s Homecoming game against Tygarts Valley, and unfortunately for the Cee-Bees, it was the Bulldogs who turned a pair of second-half splash plays within a three-minute stretch into a shocking come-from-behind spoiler victory, 13-12.
Clay-Battelle (2-3) took control early with a vintage display of power C-B football featuring their elusive and surprisingly powerful freshman tailback Caleb Hall. At a mere 5-foot-4 and 132 lbs., Hall zipped through holes, but also moved the pile and added yards after contact on every carry as the Cee-Bees pounded the right side all the way into the end zone on a seven-play, 40-yard TD drive.
After a Tygarts Valley (1-4) three-and-out, the Cee-Bees marched down the field again, but Hall fumbled at the one-yard line. The Bulldogs drove the length of the field but turned the ball over on downs at the C-B 7, which gave the C-B offense another chance to dominate.
Fourteen plays later, Hall rolled in from the three for his second score of the day, and though neither conversion try was successful, Clay-Battelle had racked up 13 first downs, doubled the time of possession stats, and led comfortably at the break, 12-0.
However, the Cee-Bees freshman phenom suffered a leg injury that sidelined him late in the half and would keep him out for the remainder of the game after rushing for an impressive 97 yards on 14 carries.
The halftime messages from the coaches certainly seemed to have been prophetic. Tygart Valley’s Charles Clarkson told his team that “it was mostly our own mistakes that were stopping us, and if we kept fighting, the game was there for us to take.”
In the home locker room, C-B first-year coach Aaron LaPoe leaned on his biology teaching background and let his team know that “when a lion catches an antelope, it will fight to escape, and the lion needs to sink its teeth in and finish the job.”
In the second half, despite moving the ball well offensively, neither team was able to finish off drives until late in the third, when the game completely changed complexion. Starting on their own 9, the Bulldogs ran their wishbone option to perfection when wingback Adam Woods took a reverse pitch all the way to the left sideline and down the field for a stunning 86-yard score. The PAT was wide, so the Cee-Bees still led by six, but the prey had all but escaped.
When the Bulldogs stopped Clay-Battelle on a fourth-and-four attempt on their own 35 early in the fourth quarter, they took immediate advantage. Quarterback Daxon Drennen found tight end Aiden Phares open on a crossing route for a backbreaking 41-yard TD pass, Woods’ PAT was true, and the Bulldogs had somehow forged an improbable 13-12 lead.
Eleven minutes remained, plenty of time for the Cee-Bees to regain the lead, but it never happened. A 13-play drive stalled at midfield, Tygarts Valley chewed up all but a minute of the remaining clock, and the final C-B drive was snuffed out, leading to jubilation and dejection.
After the game, Clarkson said a few small adjustments and a few big plays made all the difference.
“Their right side O-line was really big and really good,” he admitted, “so we moved a couple of our bigger linemen over to that side to try to neutralize them. And when Adam (Woods) finally broke free, you could definitely feel the momentum of the game shift. It was a big win for us after some really close, tough losses.”
LaPoe could also feel the game change in the second half, but couldn’t find a way to slow the Bulldogs’ roll.
“We had guys go down, starting with Caleb (Hall),” he explained, “but I knew they were a better team than their record, and in the end, we just didn’t get it done in the second half. I’ve been giving the offense a lot of plays, and we weren’t executing the last few games, so this time, we worked on perfecting a handful of plays, and running them until they stopped them. In the first half, they never did, but when they stopped us later in the game, I wasn’t able to find a different set of plays to get us back into the game, and that’s on me.
“I guess,” he concluded, a wry smile on his face, “we didn’t sink our teeth in quite far enough. But we’ll circle the wagons, learn from our mistakes, and fight together to get better. That’s what teams do.”
Box score
Tygarts Valley 0 0 6 7—13
Clay-Battelle 6 6 0 0—12
SCORING SUMMARY
CB – Caleb Hall 4 run (try failed)
CB – Hall 3 run (try failed)
TV – Adam Woods 86 run (kick missed)
TV – Aiden Phares 41 pass from Jaxon Drennen (Woods kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: TV – Drennen 15-11, Woods 6-91 TD Noah McAtee 4-72, Dakota Adams 1-16, Jamal Nesbitt 7-29. Clay-Battelle — Hall 14-97 2TD, Ponceroff 11-32, Maverick Gum 14-47, Landon Savage 1-6, Caleb Snodgrass 11-51.
PASSING: TV – Drennen 5-7-0 92 TD. Clay-Battelle — Braden Ponceroff 6-16-0 69.
RECEIVING: TV – McAtee 1-16, Woods 3-35, Aiden Phares 1-41 TD. Clay-Battelle — Landon Savage 3-28, Gum 2-15, Josiah Morgan 1-26.
