Wirt County wide receiver Andrew Lemley manages to haul in a touchdown pass in double coverage provided by Eastern's Parker Durst (14) and Trace Barnett (12) during the Tigers 47-13 setback to the Eagles on Friday night at Wilson-Eismon Field. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

ELIZABETH — Wirt County jumped out to a 13-0 lead versus Eastern here Friday night at Wilson-Eismon Field, but the Tigers suffered injuries to starting quarterback Tyler Smith and backup Jake Moore as the Eagles left town with a 47-13 victory.

“Only if we were up or down by 40,” Tiger head coach Jason Hickman said of the plans of having to use freshman Luke Hickman at signal-caller, which came early in the third quarter.

Things couldn’t have started off better for the Tigers, who welcome in Magnolia next Friday, as Smith hit 8 of 9 passes for 86 yards on the opening drive that culminated with a 19-yard over the shoulder TD strike to Andrew Lemley.

Following Easton Wyer’s extra point, the Eagles of head man Jason Jackson fumbled after Ethan Edwards had a 26-yard gain to get the ball to the Tiger 15. Frankie Bolek pounced on it and the Tigers marched down the field, but faced a fourth-and-11 at the 21 after Mason Shepherd registered the first of his three-and-a-half sacks.

However, Smith managed to connect with Lemley in double coverage in the corner of the end zone to give the hosts a 13-0 lead at 10:06 of the second.

Wirt County's Easton Wyer is tackled by Eastern's Blaise Gilmore during the Eagles' 47-13 victory versus the Tigers on Friday night at Wilson-Eismon Field. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Eastern, now 2-0 with a road game next Friday at South Gallia, responded when Edwards, who finished with nine totes for 206 stripes, broke free for a 48-yard scoring gallop. Hayden Wilcoxen’s PAT cut the deficit to six.

Wirt County marched back down the field and had it first-and-goal at the 6, but Smith ended up getting hurt and Moore’s pass on fourth down was incomplete.

The momentum then switched as Edwards darted 94 yards for a touchdown to give the visitors the lead for good with 4:41 left in the half.

Parker Durst returned the ensuing punt for a 60-yard touchdown, but it was called back on a penalty. Eastern was flagged 12 times for 130 yards and the Tigers had nine for 80.

Lemley managed to intercept a Braxton Yonker pass to keep it a one-point game at intermission.

Eastern's Ethan Edwards gets some lead blocking from teammates Braxton Yonker (4) and Ronnie Golden (25) en route to a 94-yard touchdown run during the Eagles' 47-13 victory Friday night against Wirt County at Wilson-Eismon Field. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett) =

“I give all the credit to coach Hickman and coach (Ben) Moore,” said coach Jackson, who watched freshman Broghan Short have his first two career fumble recoveries. “They have an awesome gameplan and they did an outstanding job.

“It’s unfortunate that injuries happen and if their quarterback, who is a great athlete, doesn’t go down it could’ve ended up the other way. I give them all the credit. I respect that team. I respect those coaches and those boys and our boys respect them. I love those guys. I love those coaches.”

The Tigers fumbled the first play of the third quarter, which was recovered by Durst.

Yonker had a 43-yard TD strike to Edwards and the freshman QB Hickman was picked off by Ronnie Golden, who housed it from 60 yards away, which made it 27-13 at 7:12 of the third.

A bad snap to the punter Wyer resulted in a 4-yard loss as the Eagles only needed to go 18 yards for the score, which Edwards took care of via an 11-yard TD burst.

Wirt County quarterback Tyler Smith, who completed 14 of 17 passes for 180 yards before leaving with an injury late in the second quarter, rolls out looking for a receiver during the Tigers' 47-13 setback to Eastern on Friday night at Wilson-Eismon Field. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Eastern tacked on a 10-yard TD run from Kyler Bashman and the two-point conversion run from Matt Marcum early in the fourth prior to Andrew Young closing things out with a 24-yard TD jaunt.

Smith finished 14 of 17 for 180 yards in a contest where the Tigers held a 25-12 advantage in first downs, but had just 82 total yards after the break with Dylan Hutchinson going for 79 grounds yards on seven rushes versus the EHS reserves.

“I told our boys in an NFL game when you’re down to the third string quarterback the NFL team loses and they are getting paid millions of dollars to do that job,” coach Hickman said. “That’s the hand we were dealt tonight. I think both of those kids will be fine. It’s precautionary for both and they could’ve come back in, but we’re not going to do that. Hopefully looking down the road they are going to be OK. As far as tonight goes I thought our kids in the first half, we were outmanned, and I thought we played really well. Our gameplan, they executed it to perfection.

“They really did and then we just had guys start dropping. The physicality of them upfront is hard to deal with. We dealt with it for a half, but then that second half it just started showing up. I told our kids I don’t know except for the defending state champion (Wahama) that comes in here in four weeks, I’m not sure we’re going to see anybody better than those guys. They are legit. I told our boys if we keep fighting and keep staying together and keep playing hard like we did tonight, I think there’s some good things that can happen to us down the road.”

The Tigers, who held a 240-204 edge in total yards at halftime, ended up with 322 compared to the Eagles’ 374.

Wyer (5-72), Lemley (5-68) and Moore (5-44) led the Tigers in receiving on a night when the hosts gave up 319 yards rushing on 32 attempts.

“They are very kind and very generous coaches and that’s a great football program that’s going to win a lot of games,” stressed coach Jackson. “Honestly, playing on a Saturday night that was an epic battle with Meigs, I hate to use the word hangover, but we were still dinged up on Wednesday.

“We had some guys we didn’t think were going to play tonight. They came through and played, but it showed in the first quarter. Our feet were in concrete, but I give all the credit to Wirt and their coaching staff and their kids. They played tough and I have the utmost respect for them.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com