Wheeling Park is too much for Parkersburg South
Visiting Patriots race out to 44-12 halftime lead, never look back
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PARKERSBURG -- In a battle of the Patriots here Friday at Erickson All-Sports Facility, No. 6 Wheeling Park bolted out to a 44-12 halftime lead en route to a 50-20 victory against Parkersburg South on homecoming.
The visiting Patriots of head coach Chris Daugherty, now 7-1 with a home game set for next Friday night versus John Marshall, scored early and often.
In the first half, the two teams combined for nearly 700 total yards with Park holding a 390-294 advantage, which ended up at 501-459 with a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Senior quarterback Beau Heller, who entered the fray completing 72.2% of his passes, went 21 of 26 for 273 yards with five touchdowns. He also rushed for a score.
Wheeling Park tailback Stevie Mitchell surpassed the century mark for the eighth time this year.
He rushed 11 times for a game-high 161 yards.
Parkersburg South head coach Nathan Tanner's squad played a trio of signal-callers. Starter Sam Schuler finished 23 of 34 for 232 yards and two interceptions -- one each by Shaheed Jackson and Isaac Wiley, which came on the host Patriots' first two possessions.
Jackson's pick led to a 47-yard Andrew Glass field goal at 9:06 of the first as the visitors never trailed.
Following Wiley's interception, Heller connected with Sincere Sinclair on a 23-yard TD toss, but the kick was wide left.
Jake Hogsett, who had the ball bounce off him up into the air before grabbing it for a 45-yard gain, helped the hosts get on the board. Devin Gaines, who went for 106 yards on 18 attempts, followed with a 12-yard TD burst the next play. Torrence Walker blocked Nick Murphy's extra point and it was 9-6 with 4:33 left in the first.
Park answered right back when Heller capped a seven-play, 61-yard drive with an 11-yard strike to Walker, which pushed the advantage to 10 after the extra point.
Following a South punt, Mitchell raced to paydirt via a 35-yard draw for a 23-6 cushion early in the second.
Parkersburg South got a 40-plus yard kickoff return from Levi Rice, which eventually led to a Gaines 17-yard TD run at the 8:58 mark. The try for to two failed.
Park took control by scoring thrice more in the first half. Heller started it with an 11-yard TD run. On the next series, Mitchell broke off a 61-yard gallop on another draw and finished off the drive with an 11-yard TD reception. The host Patriots had 1:34 to work with, but were forced to punt. That led to a 24-yard run by Mitchell and then a 56-yard bomb down the seam form Heller to Jackson with 6.9 remaining.
Despite a Brayden Whipkey sack for the hosts on Park's second drive of the third, Heller hit another seam pass, this time covering 36 yards to Sinclair.
After Robert Shockey went 3 of 4 passing for 12 yards in relief of Schuler, the hosts turned to fellow freshman signal-caller Turner Garretson, who threw a laser to Traugh for an 80-yard scoring strike. The duo connected for the two-point conversion to set the final score with 1:40 to go.
South's Gage Wright recovered the onside kick, which was the second of the night. The hosts also recovered an onside kick in the second quarter thanks to Skyler Whited.
PSHS,which dropped to 1-7 and plays at 7:30 p.m. next Friday at rival Parkersburg, almost recovered an onside kick to open the second half, but Wright caught the ball in the air before it hit the ground.
Traugh finished with game-highs of 11 catches for 139 yards. Homecoming king Landon Fransisco (6-73), Hogsett (3-51) and Gaines (5-68) also were effective in the pass game.
Walker (6-69), Jackson (5-68), Sinclair (3-68), Mitchell (5-40) and Cameron Namack (3-34) caught all of Park's passes aside from a Brandon Mundy 2-yard grab.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com