Parkersburg South looks to bounce back against Morgantown

Parkersburg South’s Logan Middleton (63) blocks during last week’s game against Bridgeport at Erickson All-Sports Facility.
(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg South’s chance for redemption takes place at 7 p.m. Friday on Senior Night at Erickson All-Sports Facility as the Patriots welcome in Morgantown.

The opening moments of last week’s loss to Bridgeport left a bad taste with South after turning the ball over three times in the first five plays from scrimmage.

As if Bridgeport’s single wing offense needed another advantage, the Indians made the most of short field situations. The Patriots fell behind 28-0 by halftime.

Had South forced Bridgeport into using the whole field, the outcome may have been different.

“I most certainly do think that game would have been a different story if we don’t turn the ball over,” South coach Nate Tanner said. “In the third quarter, we came out and scored first then were able to stop them inside their own 40. The next possession we scored again. Later in the quarter, we were able to hit on a big play to receiver Taj Joyce against what was a really good team. Those are the positives we can take away from that game.

“I don’t know if having a bye week was a big help because we seemed real rusty at the beginning of the game. Toward the end of the game, you could tell the kids were back into it. They had the same vibe and attitude we showed the previous four games that we had won.”

South enters this week 4-2 and ranked No. 5 in Class AAAA. Morgantown is on a two-game slide following consecutive losses to Wheeling Park and Martinsburg. The Mohigans are 4-3 and ranked No. 11 in Class AAAA.

Morgantown is coached by Sean Biser, now in his fifth season with the program. Minus the COVID season, Biser has taken the Mohigans to the postseason three straight years.

Since the two schools began playing each other in 2002, Morgantown owns a 13-6 edge despite losing to the Patriots the past two years.

The current head coaches have split four head-to-head meetings, with the past three outcomes decided by a touchdown or less.

Like’s South’s issue against Bridgeport, Morgantown experienced a similar turnover fate two weeks ago in a 14-7 loss to Wheeling Park. The Mohigans fumbled five times and lost four. The costliest fumble occurred on their final drive of the game at the Wheeling Park 5-yard line with 33 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Last week in a 51-14 loss against Martinsburg, Morgantown quarterback Maddox Twigg threw two touchdown passes.

“Morgantown is always really competitive regardless of their record,” Tanner said. “They always have good size, good skill players and are well-coached. We will definitely have to bring our ‘A’ game in order to have success this week.”

Expect several personnel changes for South on Friday.

“We are trying to create a spark with personnel changes – we are trying to give a few kids a break and allow other kids an opportunity they’ve earned.”

As for their preparation this week, South can toss anything single wing-T related in a file cabinet and return to its base defense.

“Prepping for Bridgeport is different than any other week we have,” Tanner said. “This week we are going back to normal per se.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com