HURRICANE — On a festive night with the crowd clad in red and honoring former WVU player and renowned Marshall University head coach John “Doc” Holliday, the Hurricane Redskins raised their level of intensity but fell short of gaining its first win in falling 45-16 to Parkersburg on Friday night at Redskins Stadium.

Against the Big Reds, Hurricane generated a more respectable ground game than it had in its first two outings with senior running back AJ Gregory and junior quarterback Isaiah Kutscher combined for 96 yards in the first half alone behind a more determined offensive line. The Redskins kept enough spark and momentum going to stay with its Mountain State Athletic Conference foe.

But the Big Reds were able to block two Hurricane punts that led to an Ethan Jones 14-yard touchdown and a 4-yard scamper to paydirt by sophomore quarterback Alex Greer.

However, the Redskins’ Kutscher reeled off a 22-yard scramble that eventually resulted in a 38-yard field goal by Seth Casto to keep the Redskins within one score at the break with 17-10 deficit.

The second half was all Parkersburg as they used big plays to pull away for the final score.

“We came out and executed at a high level early on but unfortunately, we’re a young team and when adversity strikes,” said Redskins coach Dustin Hatfield. “We’ve just got to regroup and keep pushing forward. It’s not going to get any easier.”

Coming in to the game, Parkersburg (1-2) had struggled this season stopping the run as they surrendered 324 rushing yards to Spring Valley in a 30-20 loss last week and 266 stripes to Morgantown in their opener.

“I told them at halftime that we gotta be a more disciplined team,” said fourth year Big Red coach Matt Kimes. “But we cleaned it up in the second half and its our first win of the season and we’re excited about that.”

Hurricane (0-3), who is in rebuilding mode after the departure of current South Charleston coach Donnie Mays, won this contest 49-14 last season in dominating fashion. The win was part of a successful campaign that saw the Redskins win two playoff games to earn a semifinal spot in the initial Class AAAA post season tournament where they fell to Spring Mills.

This season reveals a very young team with many sophomores and freshmen being used in the starting lineup on both sides of the ball.

This contest served as the Redskins’ only home game in the first half of the season. They will be back on the road next Friday to face the Huntington Highlanders.

Parkersburg will start a three-game home stand at Stadium Field next Friday beginning with their long-time rival Parkersburg South.