By Bill Nestor
This past Friday marked the first time that at least a part of Harrison County teams had a break at the same time, while the others did their best Meat Loaf impersonation.
Liberty and Robert C. Byrd had the week off while two of the remaining squads (Lincoln and Bridgeport) won and according to the rock star “two out of three ain’t bad.”
Lincoln had soundly defeated Braxton County and Elkins to start the campaign. Both of these victories came in Shinnston. There is a distinct home field advantage at Stydahar Field as the question was posed. Could the Cougars take their show on the road and claim a win? Veteran coach, Rob Hawkins and company would answer and company would answer with a resounding 69-14 defeat of Grafton at McKinney Field. It was the most points put on the scoreboard by a Lincoln team in school history.
A 3-0 start is impressive and when you look at how they have done it, then it becomes downright scary for future opponents. The Cougars have shown offensive consistency putting no less than 41 points on the board and they have outscored their opponents 54.5 to 4.6 on average with Halloween on the horizon, this year’s edition is striking fear in the hearts of the remaining teams on the schedule.
Lincoln continued its trend of scoring in various ways this past Friday. Brayden Edge recorded his third pick-six of the year when he took a Bearcat pass and went 61 yards for the game’s first score. Liam Gallagher provided the extra point (the first of seven) while Cade Riley would add two of his own late in the game for the Cougars to make it 7-0. Perine would help double the lead when he bounced on a blocked punt in the end zone. David Burdette added a 21 yard touchdown run and the rout was on.
Quarterback A. J. Bart was 11-14 for 303 yards with five touchdown passes. Perine, Aiden Rice (2) and Edgell (2) hauled in the scoring passes from Bart. Burdette was the game’s leading rusher with 76 yards on five rushes and he also added a second scoring run from 32 yards out in the victory.
Bridgeport rebounded from a loss a week ago to Morgantown with a 72-24 pounding over John Marshall in Moundsville. Indian running back Zach Rohrig became the first county rusher this season to go over the 200 yard mark, finishing with 212 yards on 14 attempts. He also scored three rushing touchdowns on the night.
Avery Williams would add six extra points throughout the affair with a couple of two-point conversions added in. Tanner Hathaway had seven carries, scoring on three of them while garnering 67 yards in the process.
South Harrison returned home and looked to have their first win of the season locked up late in this battle with Richie County. However, the Rebels mounted a comeback of epic proportions, scoring the game’s last 22 points (all coming in the fourth quarter) to gain the come-from-behind victory.
It was a true heavyweight battle from start to finish with running back Lucas Rush leading the way for the Hawks. Rush would rush for 230 yards on 26 attempts and become the second Harrison County running back to eclipse the 200 yard mark this season. Rush accounted for all four South Harrison scores on runs of 7, 5, 57, and 61 yards respectively.
Corey Saltis, Zane Harlow, and Shepherd Paugh (2) added two point conversions in the matchup that ended 34-32.
