BLACKSVILLE — Corey Coen got an audition to play quarterback. The Clay-Battelle sophomore made one heck of a first impression.
Filling in for the injured Braden Ponceroff — out with a leg injury — Coen completed 9 of 10 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Cee-Bees to a 35-13 victory against Hancock (Md.).
“He’s a kid who has always been very competitive and he’s grown up playing quarterback most of his life,” C-B head coach Aaron LaPoe said. “It takes a special kind of kid to come in as a young sophomore and step into this moment. He was ready for the moment.”
Landon Savage was on the receiving end of both TD passes. He finished with 127 yards receiving.
Freshman running back Caleb Hall — he had 97 yards rushing and two scores in his first audition last week against Tygarts Valley — added 91 yards on nine carries and scored two more touchdowns.
C-B (3-3) ended up on the short end of a 13-12 game last week against Tygarts Valley.
With a freshman now at running back and a sophomore playing his first game at quarterback, LaPoe saw a lot of good things.
Clay-Battelle led 21-0 at halftime.
“That was a really tough game for us last week, really tough on us all,” he said. “For these kids to get back up and dust themselves off, I thought that was the story of the game.
“We had a freshman in at center snapping to a sophomore making his first start, who was handing the ball off to another freshman. We couldn’t have asked for a better result under those conditions.”
Caleb Snodgrass added 49 yards rushing on seven carries and dragged defenders with him into the end zone on another TD run.
Bryan Vega was also a perfect 5 of 5 on extra-point conversions.
The Cee-Bees travel to Meadow Bridge on Friday.
