MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Whether or not you believe in superstition, things were certainly getting weird in the opening minutes of Friday’s Morgantown and Fort Hill game at Pony Lewis Field.
On Friday the 13th and with a full harvest moon glowing overhead, there were five touchdowns scored in the first 6:01, including four runs over 74 yards. After a methodical drive, capped off by a Carson Snyder 3-yard touchdown, MHS quarterback Cam Rice took it right up the middle for 80 yards.
That was followed by a 75-yard scamper by Fort Hill’s Colby Santmyire. Then Morgantown’s Quin Thompson found space on the next drive and took it 75 yards for another score.
On the Sentinels’ next drive, Breven Stubbs went 79 yards to put Fort Hill up eight at 21-13, and the game wouldn’t be that close again as the Sentinels (1-0) pounded the ball on the ground on their way to a 49-23 win, which moved the Mohigans to an 0-3 start to the season.
“I thought we had a great plan offensive with what we wanted to do and we were moving the ball, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” MHS coach Matt Lacy said. “A couple pass plays, we had seniors not running the right route or not blocking the right guy. A couple of times, if we block the right guy, we walk into the end zone. We didn’t do those things, and that’s on us as a coaching staff, and we have to continue to get better and clean those up.”
Fort Hill rolled up 489 yards on the ground on 55 carries, a whopping 9 yards per carry. All of its touchdowns were on the ground.
Offensively for the Mohigans, Rice was able to make plays with his legs, but following an interception in the first quarter, MHS decided to put in Gunner Latimore to get snaps. Lacy said it was part of the gameplan all along to get Latimore into the game, and when he did get his chance, we played well. On two passes, he completed one to Preston Fox, and ran for 55 yards on nine carries.
However, Latimore went down with a lower leg injury in the fourth quarter after scrambling for a first down, so Rice got another chance. After completing a strike to Fox on the sideline, Jace Whetsell scored MHS’s last touchdown of the game.
“Those are going to have to battle it out and practice hard every day,” Lacy said. “One guy’s got to separate himself. I thought both guys did a nice job, but we wanted to give Gunner some meaningful reps there. We put him in and he did a nice job.
“We’ll evaluate them, watch the film and see where we need to go moving forward with it.”
With an 0-3 start, Lacy isn’t close to hitting the panic button. He had four goals to start the season and only one is no longer attainable — win the opener at Parkersburg.
“We can still win the TRAC, practice in December and win the finisher,” Lacy said. “We can either fold tent or we can continue to come to practice and get better, and that’s what I think we’ll do.”
Honored and remembered
During a ceremony at the end of the first quarter, there were two special presentations at Pony Lewis Field.
Members of the 1966 football team and cheerleading squad were honored, and the locker room was dedicated in honor of the late Nathan Shilling, who passed away in a car accident in 1999.
Shilling was a 1996 graduate of MHS and was the captain of the 1995 Mohigans football team and 1996 baseball team. He was the son of Gordon Shilling of Morgantown and the late Clidetta Shilling.
Gordon was in attendance Friday night for a video presentation and the unveiling of a new sign above the entrance of the MHS locker room.
