The Bottom Line
By Bill Nestor
Sports Editor
Starting on the high school scene, the Lincoln Cougars football team earned its first win of the season and in the process gave Head Coach Rob Hawkins his first win as well.
The victory did not come easy as Lincoln found themselves down 12-7 at the break but Hawkins and his coaching staff made some moves.
“It was a matter of making adjustments and our coaching staff did a great job,” explained Hawkins. The halftime deficit coupled with an injury to quarterback Jarrod Kellar provided a bleak picture. However, Hawkins pointed to the positive. “We felt like we outplayed them in the first half. We unfortunately stubbed our toe on a couple of drives. In the second half we were able to control the line of scrimmage. We came around a little bit offensively and moved the ball on the ground.”
Andre Lopez led the charge picking up 149 yards on 22 rushes. Lopez also scored the games first touchdown on a 39 yard run.
Freshman, Kobie Carpenter replaced Kellar and provided a strong effort in the second half utilizing both his feet and his arm. Carpenter scored on a two-yard run, converted a two-point conversion, and threw a 32-yard scoring strike to Chase Riley to ice the game.
The defensive unit drew praise from Hawkins as well. “For the second game in a row our defense really stepped up in the second half.”
The first win of the Rob Hawkins era is now in the ‘record’ books. Truthfully it’s a big relief. It’s one of those things where you get the monkey off our back. I was very happy for the kids. They worked so hard and I was very happy for them.”
South Harrison also picked up their initial win of the season last Friday with a 45-0 win over Gilmer County in Lost Creek. Chase Jenkins paced the Hawks with 118 yards rushing. Jenkins also scored the games first three touchdowns. A 47-yard interception return was sandwiched by a pair of rushing scores of 73 and 23 yards respectively. Austin Barker scored on a 47 yard run while signal caller Ian Riggleman tossed a 23-yard scoring strike to Corey Ferrell. Kicker, Garrett Wilkins nailed a 32-yard field goal and supplied four extra points in the win.
West Virginia University also earned its first victory of the 2014 campaign with a 54-0 win over Towson. It was the second consecutive game in which the Mountaineers showed consistent play. This past Saturday they scored in double figures in 3 out of 4 quarters.
WVU also dominated most statistical categories such as first down (33-7), total yardage (606-122), and time of possession (35:31-24:29).
Quarterback Clint Trickett was near perfect on the evening going 35-40 for 348 yards and three scores (2 passing and 1 rushing). Kevin White was once again his favorite target, hauling in 10 passes for 101 yards.
William Crest, Jr. made his Mountaineer debut. Crest Jr. was 3 of 4 for 7 yards passing and carried the ball 4 times for 14 yards including a 4-yard touchdown run.
The defense pitched a shutout for the first time since 2010 when they blanked Costal Carolina in the season opener, Tony Gibson’s guys also forced 8 punts and allowed a mere 42 yards on the ground.
The point production was the highest since December 1, 2012 when WVU scored 59 against Kansas in Morgantown. The Mountaineers will look to enact their own version of payback this week as they travel to Maryland for a noon start with the Terrapins.
That will do it for now. Until next week…take care and God Bless!
