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Mohigans too much for Big Reds in 2026 debut

By Jay W. Bennett 7 min read

PARKERSBURG – Defending Class AAAA state champion Morgantown picked it up a notch defensively in the second half here Friday night at Stadium Field as the Mohigans turned back Parkersburg, 33-9, and in the process gave head coach Sean Biser career win No. 200.

“Those two turnovers in the first half hurt us a lot,” admitted Biser, who didn’t have junior quarterback and last year’s J.R. House Award winner Maddox Twigg available for the final three quarters due to a hamstring issue.

The Big Reds of head coach Matt Kimes got a 17-yard touchdown completion from Alex Greer to Brady Thorn with 4 seconds left before intermission to set the halftime score at 13-9.

Despite getting the ball to open the second half, the red and white couldn’t get anything going offensively as the Mohigans added three more six-pointers en route to victory.

“We just didn’t play very well in the second half for whatever reason. We had momentum,” admitted Kimes. “We went into halftime and a lot of excitement in the room. We came out and made a couple tweaks I thought was going to help us in the second half and we just didn’t play well in the second half. We had all kinds of cramping going on. It happens early in the season, but man that was as bad as I’ve ever seen it cramp-wise.

“It seemed like every play somebody was going down and now you’re trying to keep your head afloat and you’re throwing guys in there to fit roles, and we had guys out of position. Like I told those guys. I’ll never question their want to and their effort and their passion for the program. We just didn’t play very well.”

After matching the Mohigans with seven first downs in the opening half, the hosts managed just one the rest of the way as MHS allowed just 21 total yards following intermission.

“They got the score right before the half and they kind of had the momentum,” said Biser. “We just challenged our guys at halftime. I told them, I said ‘there are a lot of good football players and you may not be the number one guy, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a good football player and you need to step up and make plays,’ and that’s what happened in the second half.

“Our offensive line, hats off to them. We ran multiple backs behind them and we were gaining yardage and getting a good push. First time this group has really seen action together. We moved some guys around so our second team guard was actually playing for our first team guard because we moved him to defense. I was real pleased with that.”

Twigg capped an 8-play, 69-yard opening drive which took 3:17 off the clock with a 2-yard TD run to put the Mohigans on the board, but Aidan Petsko’s extra point kick was blocked by Javel Chandler.

After forcing the Big Reds to punt on their opening series, MHS had the ball at the red and white 26 before Twigg was intercepted in the end zone by Chandler.

A 42-yard return along with a Mohigan penalty put the ball on the other side of midfield, but the hosts were forced to punt again.

Brady Thorn’s punt was downed at the 3 and on the first play from scrimmage the Big Reds looked like they might tackle Twigg for a safety, but he housed it from 97 yards out and it was 13-0 with 4:10 still left in the first after Petsko’s PAT was true.

Morgantown, which rushed 38 times for 346 yards while holding the Big Reds to 43 stripes on 26 attempts, got the ball right back when Alex Greer was picked off by Tanzer George.

However, Zach Medina forced a fumble on tailback Carson Keeling, which was recovered by Myles Ross.

Although the Big Reds were unable to score and had another three-and-out, Twigg didn’t come back out again and was replaced by Chantz Lenhart.

A Michael Austin TFL on Lenhart helped force a punt that was partially deflected by Tyler Cameron. The Big Reds marched into the red zone after taking over at their own 32, but had to settle for a 33-yard Cole Sisk field goal, which made it 13-3 with 6:18 left in the half.

Parkersburg’s lone scoring drive came next after the defense forced a three-and-out. It was aided by a Greer to Eli Cheuvront 12-yard completion for a first down as well as a 10-yard hookup from Greer to Karsen Kimes, but Sisk’s extra point was off the mark.

After being forced to punt to open the third quarter, disaster struck for the Big Reds with a bad snap on the punt and Thorn went down to a knee and didn’t come up before scooping the pigskin, which led to an 11-yard loss and MHS taking possession at the 27.

Keeling, who had 14 carries for 81 yards to finish behind Twigg’s four rushes for 115 yards, broke off an 18-yarder to make it first-and-goal. Lenhart eventually scored from the 1 as PHS fell behind 20-9 with 8:25 to go in the third.

Nathan Ely added a 26-yard TD burst on the first play of the fourth quarter and Lenhart capped the scoring on a 4-yard run with 3:49 remaining.

“We’ve got to be able to run the football,” stressed coach Kimes. “That’s where our offense is going to start and end because if we can’t do that it’s just so hard to do the rest of the things we like to do.

“We struggled running the football tonight and they had a lot to do with it. We got some experience up there and we got some experience at some key spots, but our execution was poor tonight and that happens with high school kids.”

Greer went 12 of 20 for 103 yards and also led the ground attack with 28 yards on 10 attempts. Thorn had game-highs of four catches for 48 yards.

Twigg completed 4 of 5 passes for 55 yards while Lenhart finished 2 of 5 for 16 yards. Ely chipped in 61 ground yards on five rushes.

“It was just an all around great effort by my coaching staff,” Biser added. “Offensive and defensive coordinators did a fantastic job. Our special teams were good.

“Still got some work to do in every phase, obviously. That’s what our coaches do. We go back and we’ll evaluate what we did and improve for next week.”

Morgantown 33, Parkersburg 9

MHS (1-0) 13 0 7 13 – 33

PHS (0-1) 0 9 0 0 – 9

M: Maddox Twigg 2 run (kick blocked) 8:38, 1st

M: Twigg 97 run (Aidan Petsko kick) 4:10, 1st

P: Cole Sisk 33 field goal 6:18, 2nd

P: Brady Thorn 17 pass from Alex Greer (kick failed) 0:04, 2nd

M: Chantz Lenhart 1 run (Petsko kick) 8:25, 3rd

M: Nathan Ely 26 run (Petsko kick) 11:54, 4th

M: Lenhart 4 run (kick failed) 3:49, 4th

Team stats

MHS: First downs: 18; Rushes-yards: 38-346; Passing yards: 71; Total yards: 417; Passing: 6-10-1; Punts-average: 2-34.0; Fumbles-lost: 2-1; Penalties-yards: 6-50

PHS: First downs: 8; Rushes-yards: 26-43; Passing yards: 109; Total yards: 152; Passing: 13-21-1; Punts-average: 5-34.2; Fumbles-lost: 0-0; Penalties-yards: 7-34

Individual stats

MHS: Rushing: Team 2-(-4), Tanzer George 1-18, Maddox Twigg 4-115, Carson Keeling 14-81, Nathan Ely 5-61, Landon Cook 1-13, Chantz Lenhart 6-28, Brooks King 1-0, Derrick Turner 4-34; Passing: Twigg 4-5-1, 55 yards; Lenhart 2-5-0, 16 yards; Receiving: George 2-16, Cook 2-27, Brendon McCutcheon 1-11, Jackson Bredeson 1-17

PHS: Rushing: Team 1-(-11), Alex Greer 10-28, Daleon Evans 6-16, Eli Cheuvront 2-3, Gavin Bowman 7-7; Passing: Greer 12-20-1, 103 yards; Noah Smith 1-1-0, 6 yards; Receiving: Brady Miller 1-2, Cole Sisk 1-5, Austin Craven 1-13, Santana Jones 1-6, Javel Chandler 1-4, Evans 1-2, Brady Thorn 4-48, Karsen Kimes 2-17, Cheuvront 1-12

Next games: Jefferson at Morgantown on Friday; Parkersburg at Spring Valley on Friday.

Starting at /week.