MORGANTOWN — Bridgeport scored seven rushing touchdowns. Morgantown gained a total of five first downs. From that alone, you can deduce what kind of night it was at Pony Lewis Field on Friday.
The Indians (2-0) did whatever they wanted en route to a 49-0 drubbing of the homesteading Mohigans (1-1).
“There’s nights where this stuff’s going to happen,” Bridgeport coach Tyler Phares said. “We played well, our kids didn’t get overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
“We just wanted our kids to come out and play hard and just enjoy the experience, this is one of the best venues in the state.”
Bridgeport showed early that it was the much more physical team on Friday. The Indians scored on all but one of their first-half drives, racking up a 34-0 advantage at halftime.
“I felt that we came out flat,” MHS coach Sean Biser said. “I don’t know if that’s inexperience on our kids’ part in a big game with a huge crowd.”
In total, Bridgeport ran the ball 40 times for 425 yards and seven touchdowns. Alex Moses led the way with 117 yards and three touchdowns on just nine carries. Josh Love ran for 86 yards and two touchdowns while Tim Jeffress ran for 100 yards.
“They’re such a good program, Coach Biser does such a good job and they’re usually a physical program,” Phares said. “They weren’t physical tonight but I think they’ll get there.”
Moses scored on runs of four, 20 and 50 yards. Love scored from four and 42 yards. The other touchdowns went to Jake Spatafore from six yards and Sam Goodwin from one.
“We didn’t play well at our linebacker spot and that hurt us,” Biser said. “Against that kind of offense, your linebackers have got to make some plays. We were in position several times to make plays and we just didn’t make them.”
Morgantown’s offense mustered just 89 total yards, 46 rushing and 43 passing. The Mohigans never had any positive momentum, however, with several negative plays, five penalties and four fumbles.
“They beat us up front, they won the line of scrimmage,” Biser said. “We couldn’t get any traction. We’d make a couple of plays then put the ball on the ground. Just an overall poor night performance-wise on our part.”
AJ Thomas led MHS with 30 rushing yards on 14 totes. Quarterback Alex Himes completed 8-of-13 passes. Carter Cooper was his favorite target, catching four passes for 18 yards.
It was the first time Morgantown has been shutout since a 35-0 loss to Musselman in 2019. It was also the first time Bridgeport has bested Morgantown in three years.
Last time we came up here, we didn’t feel like we played our best football game and that was something that we wanted to change,” Phares said, referring to a 10-6 loss in 2022.
The Indians host East Fairmont next week.
Morgantown will travel to take on South Charleston
BOX SCORE
BHS 13 21 8 7 — 49
MHS 0 0 0 0 — 0
Scoring Summary
BHS — Moses run 4 (kick failed)
BHS — Love run 42 (run failed)
BHS — Moses run 20 (G. Williams kick)
BHS — Love run 4 (G. Williams kick)
BHS — Moses run 50 (G. Williams kick)
BHS — Spatafore run 6 (Love run)
BHS — Goodwin run 1 (G. Williams kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING — Bridgeport 40-425-7td (Jeffress 5-100; Spatafore 4-24-td; Moses 9-117-3td; Love 11-86-2td; Goodwin 3-24-td; Martin 2-45; Rohrig 2-12; Gillum 3-14; Knight 1-4). Morgantown 26-46 (Thomas 14-30; Wells 1-(-3); Himes 4-(-5); Lawhun 4-6; Thompson 3-18).
PASSING — Bridgeport 1-3 27 (all Spatafore). Morgantown 8-13 43 (all Himes).
RECEIVING — Bridgeport 1-27 (all D. Williams). Morgantown 8-43 (Cooper 4-18; Thomas 2-13; Smalls 1-2; Young 1-10).
Penalties/Yards — Bridgeport 6/55. Morgantown 5/55.
Fumbles/Lost — Bridgeport 0/0. Morgantown 4/2.
First Downs — Bridgeport 21. Morgantown 5.
