MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It’s rare for Morgantown and University to meet toward the end of the regular season in the Mohawk Bowl with little to no playoff implications on the line, but that’s what happened Friday night at Mylan Pharmaceuticals Stadium.
.But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t pride on the line, and for the Mohigans, it will serve as a springboard toward 2020 after a 52-6 blowout against the Hawks.
Look no further than MHS junior Deondre Crudup, who put an exclamation point on a season that saw him become one of the Mohigans’ (3-7) most explosive defensive lineman and bruising running backs.
At 5-foot-8 and 255 pounds, Crudup scored MHS’s first three touchdowns, and on a cold night at UHS, he was difficult to bring down in the first half.
Defensively, he was arguably more impressive: Crudup lived in the Hawks’ (3-7) backfield from his defensive end spot and threw off UHS’s timing as a disruptive force.
It took time for Crudup to feel comfortable on the defensive line. He played linebacker his entire career prior to this season, but was asked to make the switch before the season.
“I was a little hesitant at first, but I know coach did it for the best,” Crudup said. “Right now, it seems like it was a great decision.”
Even Crudup’s offensive production is relatively new. With the Mohigans struggling offensively midway through the season, the coaches decided to give him the ball rather than be the lead blocker as the fullback. It all came to a head in the Mohawk Bowl with his three-touchdown performance.
“In the last 3-4 games, I’ve been getting a lot of carries and I’ve tried to be blessed by making the most out of it,” Crudup said.
The Mohigans set the tone early. After the Hawks forced a punt on MHS’s first possession, UHS gave it right back with a fumble on its first play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Crudup scored his first touchdown.
From there, it all snowballed on the Hawks. By halftime, MHS held a commanding 29-6 lead. UHS’s only touchdown of the night was on a 55-yard tip drill catch by Tracy Brooks from Chase Edwards.
In the third quarter, the Mohigans put it away for good, scoring three touchdowns — runs by seniors Preston Fox, Jace Whetsell and Jackson Wolfe. They also recorded two safeties, tackling UHS running back Logan Raber in the end zone in the first half, followed by an errant snap on a punt in the third quarter over the head of UHS punter Joseph McBee that went out of the back of the end zone.
“They took away Preston a little bit, which is a credit to [UHS], but we found other ways to score, and we played our best defensive game of the year,” MHS coach Matt Lacy said. “Give credit to (defensive coordinator Matt Kelly) for battling with those kids all year. We had a couple safeties, a couple turnovers and held them to very few yards.”
The Mohigans held UHS to just 188 yards of total offense, with 55 coming on one play.
For the Hawks, costly mistakes doomed them early, and they couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole.
“I thought our defense played really well in the first half to keep us in it, but we shot ourselves in the foot with mistake after mistake after mistake,” UHS coach John Kelley said. “Eventually, they were able to wear us down. I don’t think the score was indicative of the game.”
The regular season comes to an end for both schools, and while Morgantown isn’t mathematically eliminated from the Class AAA playoff picture yet, the scenarios are very unlikely.
