Parkersburg South’s Logan Middleton, 63, blocks during last week’s game against Bridgeport at the Erickson All Sports Facility. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg South’s chance to redeem itself will be on Friday at 7 p.m. with Senior Night at the Erickson All-Sports Facility as the Patriots welcome Morgantown.
The opening half of last week’s loss to Bridgeport left a bad taste for South, as they turned the ball over three times in the first five plays from scrimmage.
As if Bridgeport’s single-wing offense needed an extra advantage, the Indians made the most of the short-field situation. The Patriots trailed 28-0 by halftime.
Had South forced Bridgeport to use the entire field, the result might have been different.
“I definitely think that game would have played out differently if we hadn’t turned the ball over.” South coach Nate Tanner said. “In the third quarter, we scored first and then we were able to stop them inside their own 40 minutes. On the next possession, we scored again. “Late in the quarter, against a really good team, – We were able to make a big play receiving Joyce. Those are the positives we can take from that game.
“I don’t know if having the bye week helped that much because they looked really rusty at the beginning of the game. As the game got closer to the end, you could see the kids got excited about the game again. They had the same atmosphere and attitude that we showed in the last four games we won.”
South is 4-2 this week and is ranked No. 5 in Class AAAA. Morgantown is on a two-game slump with back-to-back losses to Wheeling Park and Martinsburg. The Mohegans are ranked 11th in Class AAAA with a 4-3 record.
Morgantown is coached by Sean Visser, who is currently in his fifth season with the program. Outside of the coronavirus season, Visser led the Mohegans to the postseason for the third consecutive year.
The two schools began playing each other in 2002, and Morgantown holds a 13-6 edge despite losing to the Patriots the past two years.
The current head coach has split four head-to-head games, with the last three wins and losses decided by a touchdown or less.
Like South’s game against Bridgeport, Morgantown suffered a similar turnover fate two weeks ago in a 14-7 loss at Wheeling Park. The Mohegans fumbled five times and lost four. The costliest fumble occurred on the final drive of the game at the Wheeling Park 5-yard line with 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Morgantown quarterback Maddox Twigg threw two touchdown passes in last week’s 51-14 loss to Martinsburg.
“Morgantown is always very competitive, regardless of the record.” Tanner said. “They’ve always had good size, good skill players and are well coached. They definitely need to bring their ‘A’ game to be successful this week.” ”
Several personnel changes are expected for the South on Friday.
“We’re trying to create some momentum with personnel changes. We’re trying to give some kids a break and give other kids the opportunities that they’ve had.”
When it comes to preparing for this week, the Confederates can toss anything related to the Single Wing T into a filing cabinet and get back to defending their base.
“Preparing for Bridgeport is different than any other week.” Tanner said. “It will be back to normal this week.”
Contact Kelly Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com
