WHEELING — It was Wheeling Park’s homecoming game Friday at Wheeling Island Stadium, but for the visiting Morgantown Mohigans, it was Groundhog Day.
The scene kept resetting time and time again — the Mohigans methodically marching down the field with a bruising running game spread amongst multiple capable runners, only for a bad snap, bad handoff, or awkward hit to pop the ball loose and extinguish a promising drive.
Morgantown head coach Sean Biser put it plainly.
“We turned the ball over four times. Fumbled it five, lost four of them, that’s the story of the game,” Biser said. “Our defense played lights-out, and we let them down offensively.”
Capitalizing off of four fumble recoveries, and some special teams plays that lived up to the title of ‘special,’ the Patriots topped their rival from Monongalia County 14-7 in a game full of twists, turns, and abrupt stops.
The Mohigans scored on their first drive of the game, a 15-yard stretch run to the pylon by Isaiah Thompson, but were held scoreless the rest of the game.
Park’s Jameson Maynard housed a punt-return touchdown to tie the game a minute before halftime, and the Patriots took the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter, a five-yard score from bellcow back Brennan Wack capping a long drive where the Patriots put it all together.
Morgantown had their chance to tie the game late, marching down the field and getting to Wheeling Park’s five yard-line with under a minute to play, but the Mohigans were not cured of the fumble problem that had plagued them throughout Friday night, and Morgantown’s fifth fumble of the game was scooped up by their opponents for the fourth time to seal the game with 0:33 on the clock.
“I can’t say it enough– we’ve got one of the tougher schedules in the state and in the OVAC,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said after the game. “We had to play a very physical football team last week [Steubenville], and we had to follow it up with a very physical football team. For our guys to show up, keep battling– we bent a little bit but we never broke– I’m really proud of the way these guys played.
“Could we have played better, especially offensively? Yes. We made some mental mistakes, we shot ourselves in the foot, but at the end of the day the effort out of our kids was great. That’s why we won, because if you make a mistake, but you’re playing full-tilt, and giving great effort, you’re going to survive and keep playing.”
Daugherty’s squad lost a fumble of their own Friday, but any of the aforementioned mistakes were smoothed over by what the Patriots head coach saw as the defining factor of the night– effort.
“We made a special teams touchdown, that’s big,” Daugherty said. “The turnovers were huge. And I thought on the field goal that they ran out, we got a lot of pressure and forced the kick a little wide. Those are little things, but when guys play hard, you end up finding a way to win. We played kind of sloppy tonight, but we played hard and we got a W out of it.”
Morgantown missed a 40-yard field goal wide with eight minutes to play in the fourth. Wheeling Park also missed a field goal, a 46-yard attempt on-line but with not quite enough power at the 1:45 mark of the first quarter.
For Wheeling Park, Wack took all of the Patriots’ carries Friday, running 22 times for 89 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore QB Jay Bordas finished 11-17 for 130 yards, completing five of his last six passes to help lead the Patriots down the field in what would end up being their go-ahead drive. Kolin Wiley was his top target with four catches for 84 yards, while Maynard caught three passes for 43 yards.
On the Morgantown side, the Mohigans attempted only three passes, but on the ground, AJ Thomas took the bulk of the work with 25 carries for 141 yards. Thompson was the next highest rusher with nine totes for 52 yards and a touchdown. Morgantown rushed 48 times for 228 yards in total.
The opening minutes of Friday were all Morgantown, forcing a three-and-out on Park’s first drive and finding little resistance on their way to a Thompson touchdown. The score stood 7-0 after the first quarter, and midway through the second quarter, the Mohigans were back on the march, down to Wheeling Park’s 36 yard-line.
That is when a snap snuck away from Morgantown QB Alex Himes, and Wheeling Park’s Noah Short was first to the ball.
The turnover stopped a promising drive, and both teams were kept off the scoreboard until, with 1:09 until halftime, Morgantown punted to Park’s Jameson Maynard, who ran straight down the punt coverage team’s throat, breaking a tackle and gunning down the middle 45 yards for Park’s first score of the game. The two teams were tied 7-7 at halftime.
The punt was a turning point for Park.
“I think the high school mind, they’re emotional beings,” Daugherty said. “They were down, you could feel it, the mojo wasn’t there. An individual guy like that, a senior, a captain, who understands the importance of continuing to play hard, he just said ‘I’m going to make a play.’ And he made one that got us back to 7-7, but more than that it changed the mindset of our players. I don’t know what value you can put on that, it’s enormous.”
Morgantown lost two fumbles in the third quarter, while Wheeling Park lost one. The Mohigans’ first fumble came after their offense had picked up five first downs on an extensive drive that ended in a backbreaker. Same could be said of Wheeling Park’s lost fumble, the Patriots picking up three first downs before the error.
With 2:07 to play in the third, the Mohigans put another ball on the ground, recovered by Isaac Sands along the sideline. On their own 34, Park started a drive that took them all the way into the fourth quarter. Wiley reeled in catches of 46 and 13 yards, the latter of which got the Patriots down to the Morgantown seven yard-line. The first play of the fourth quarter was a toss to Wack for a five-yard score.
The ensuing kickoff return nearly came back for a touchdown, if not for Patriots kicker AJ Seals running in for a tackle at the Wheeling Park 35. The drive ended in a missed field goal for the Mohigans.
Morgantown drops to 4-2, and will try and get back in the win column next week hosting Martinsburg. Biser’s message to his team after the game was blunt.
“The guy behind them is going to be playing because they can’t hold onto the football, so I’ll find somebody who can hold onto the football,” Biser said.
Wheeling Park moves to 4-2 on the season, and travels to face reigning Class-AAA champion Fairmont Senior next week.
“It’s going to be huge,” Daugherty said of this week’s win. “We’ve got to continue to play games like this, this is how you get a home playoff game, if you can continue to win. We’ve lost to two teams who are undefeated. We’ve beaten one team that’s had one loss, and tonight we gave them their second loss. At times we’re a pretty good football team, and we’ve just got to keep playing and get a little bit better every week.”
— Story by Nick Henthorn
Box score
Morgantown 7 0 0 0 – 7
Whg Park 0 7 0 7 – 14
SCORING SUMMARY
M–Thompson 15 run (Stire kick)
WP–Maynard 45 punt return (Seals kick)
WP–Wack 5 run (Seals kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Morgantown 48-228-td (Thomas 25-141; Thompson 9-52-td; Twigg 5-16; Himes 5-15; Lawhun 3-7; Lockett 1-(-3). Wheeling Park 22-89-td (all by Wack).
PASSING: Morgantown 1-3-2 (all by Himes). Wheeling Park 11-17-130 (all by Bordas).
RECEIVING: Morgantown 1-2 (all by Thomas). Wheeling Park 11-130 (Wiley 4-84; Maynard 3-43; Wack 3-5; Campbell-Heyward 1-8).
FIRST DOWNS: Morgantown 16; Wheeling Park 15
FUMBLES: Morgantown 5-4; Wheeling Park 1-0
PENALTIES: Morgantown 4-45; Wheeling Park 6-60
