2011

 Mistakes, Turnovers Take Toll as PHS Falls to Huntington After Leading 17-0

HUNTINGTON - Even a 17-0 early lead was not enough when turnover trouble took over and caused the Parkersburg Big Reds to suffer their first defeat of the season here Friday night by a 27-17 score at the hands of the Highlanders of Huntington High.

The Big Reds dominated play for the first 18 minutes of action before a roughing the passer penalty took away an interception return for a touchdown that would have pushed the lead 23-0. From that point on it was all downhill for the fourth-ranked Big Reds as Huntington scored 27 unanswered points to notch their first win over PHS since 2004.

In all, PHS turned the ball over three times (one fumble and two interceptions) and each proved costly. The Big Reds were also penalized six times for 68 yards.

When the game ended, PHS had three two-way starters on the sidelines with injuries. In addition to Chad Collins, already out with a torn ACL, Adam Lindamood went to the bench after scoring two touchdowns and did not play in the second half. Jeremy Bell was injured on the last play of the first half and saw very limited action in the second half.

Big Red quarterback Alex Ash completed 15 of 23 passes for 195 yards and one touchdown but suffered his first two interceptions of the season. He was also sacked four times for minus 32 yards. Bell was still the leading receiver with four catches for 85 yards while Lindamood had four receptions for 28 yards. Sophomore Chandler Hamilton was the leading rusher with 49 yards on nine carries but fumbled the ball away on the Huntington five yard line with the Highlanders recovering in the end zone to avoid another Big Red touchdown. Lindamood had 43 yards on 12 carries and scored both his team's touchdowns in 24 minutes of playing time.

Huntington got 101 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 20 carries from Paden Christian. Overall, the Highlanders had 224 yards in total offense, all but 46 of it coming on the ground. PHS finished with 300 yards in offense and had a 20-15 advantage in first downs.

The Big Reds took less than four minutes to score as they took the opening kickoff and drove 69 yards on nine plays. After hitting Bell for completions of 11 and 35 yards, Ash rolled out from the 10 yard line, saw a tackler in front of him, spun back left and pitched the ball to Lindamood at the five, from where he ran over the last would-be tackler to reach the end zone with 8:15 on the clock. Cody Roney kicked the extra point.

Defense by the Big Reds set up the next score as Huntington fumbled on its first play, losing nine yards. Then Josh Lewis had a three yard tackle for loss and an incomplete pass followed, forcing a punting situation. A 20 yard kick gave PHS the ball just 38 yards from the Highlander end zone.

Eight plays later Lindamood barreled straight up the middle for the final three yards and the touchdown. Roney again put the extra point through the uprights to make it 14-0 with 3:19 left in the first period.

After forcing another punt, PHS moved the ball from its own 36 to the Huntington 10 yard line but after getting nothing on two plays, tried some razzle dazzle as Ash pitched to Bell behind the line. Bell looked up field but had to settle for throwing the ball back to Ash, who was immediately hit and fumbled the ball. Fortunately Luca ScottoDiluzio recovered on the 12 yard line. From there Roney came on to kick his second field goal of the season - this one from 29 yards out - to put PHS up 17-0 with 6:24 left in the half.

Three plays later PHS appeared to have another score as Matt Santer ran an interception back 30 yards for a touchdown but the Big Reds were called for roughing the passer and the play was nullified. The Highlanders made PHS pay dearly for that mistake as Christian broke away for a 36 yard run with another five yards tacked on for a facemask penalty. Two plays later Huntington quarterback Mark Shaver faked a handoff, took the ball away from the ball carrier and sprinted straight up the middle for 21 yards into the end zone to make it 17-6.

The PHS offense responded by putting together a nine play drive, getting as close as the 19 yard line before suffered a quarterback sack, a holding penalty and finally an interception in the end zone as Ash tried for a touchdown on the final play of the half.

In the first half the Big Reds had possession for 18:16 compared to 5:44 for the home team and ran 38 plays (for 223 yards) to just 12 (for 56) for the home team.

But the momentum had shifted and a 20 yard punt gave Huntington the ball just 36 yards from the Parkersburg end zone. The Highlanders scored in seven plays on a one yard run by Christian and made the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 17-14 with 3:24 left in the third period.

On the second PHS play from scrimmage following that score, Ash threw an interception to Marcus Eller on the 25 yard line. Seven plays later the home team was in the end zone again, this time on a one yard run from Christian on the first play of the fourth quarter. The extra point kick made it 21-17.

Hamilton then had a 75 yard kickoff return to the Huntington 15 yard line and PHS appeared poised to retake the lead. After picking up two yards on one play, Hamilton carried again, ran to the five yard line where he was hit and coughed up the ball with Huntington recovering in the end zone to silence the PHS attempt to regain the upper hand.

With Christian doing most of the work, Huntington was able to put together two drives, the second culminating in a three-yard scoring plunge. Christian's second TD came with just 1:03 left in the contest and ran the score to 27-17.

After having time of possession nearly tripled on them in the first half, Huntington responded by controlling the ball for 18:14 in the second half compared to just 5:46 for PHS. The Highlanders ran 40 second half plays to just 18 for the Big Reds.

  Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score

  -----------------    -- -- -- --   -----

  Parkersburg Big Reds 14  3  0  0  - 17       Record: (3-1)

  Huntington..........            0  6  8 13  - 27       Record: (3-1)

  Scoring Summary:

  1st 08:15 PHS - Adam Lindamood 10 yd pass from Alex Ash (Cody Roney kick), 9-69 3:45, PHS 7 - HUNT 0

      03:19 PHS - Adam Lindamood 3 yd run (Cody Roney kick), 8-38 3:25, PHS 14 - HUNT 0

  2nd 06:24 PHS - Cody Roney 29 yd field goal, 13-52 6:43, PHS 17 - HUNT 0

      04:23 HUNT - Mark Shaver 21 yd run (Jarod Martin kick failed), 6-82 1:55, PHS 17 - HUNT 6

  3rd 03:24 HUNT - Mark Shaver 1 yd run (Elijah King rush), 7-36 3:13, PHS 17 - HUNT 14

  4th 11:55 HUNT - Paden Christian 1 yd run (Jarod Martin kick), 7-25 2:51, PHS 17 - HUNT 21

      01:03 HUNT - Paden Christian 3 yd run (Eric Farley rush failed), 7-36 2:50, PHS 17 - HUNT 27

                                      PHS     HUNT

  FIRST DOWNS...................       20       15

  RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............   32-107   47-178

  PASSING YDS (NET).............      193       46

  Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  24-16-2    5-2-0

  TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   56-300   52-224

  Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0

  Punt Returns-Yards............      0-0      0-0

  Kickoff Returns-Yards.........    4-128     3-34

  Interception Returns-Yards....      0-0     2-28

  Punts (Number-Avg)............   1-20.0   3-35.0

  Fumbles-Lost..................      2-1      1-0

  Penalties-Yards...............     6-68     6-54

  Possession Time...............    24:02    23:58

  Third-Down Conversions........  9 of 13   2 of 8

  Fourth-Down Conversions.......   0 of 1   2 of 3

  Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      3-6      3-3

  Sacks By: Number-Yards........     2-11     4-32

  RUSHING: Parkersburg Big Reds-Chandler Hamilton 9-49; Adam Lindamood 12-43; Alex Ash

  11-15. Huntington-Paden Christian 20-101; Rashaun Page 9-35; Mark Shaver 10-26;

  Elijah King 6-17; Jaylin Johnson 2-minus 1.

   PASSING: Parkersburg Big Reds-Alex Ash 15-23-2-195; Jeremy Bell 1-1-0-minus 2.

  Huntington-Mark Shaver 2-4-0-46; Jaylin Johnson 0-1-0-0.

   RECEIVING: Parkersburg Big Reds-Jeremy Bell 4-85; Adam Lindamood 4-28; Chandler

  Hamilton 2-15; Matt Santer 1-19; Tre Jackson 1-16; Huntar Shank 1-15; Zayne

  Minnite 1-11; Adrian Webster 1-6; Alex Ash 1-minus 2. Huntington-Elijah King

  2-46.

  INTERCEPTIONS: Parkersburg Big Reds-None. Huntington-Kyree Congleton 1-28;

  Marcus Eller 1-0.

   FUMBLES: Parkersburg Big Reds-Alex Ash 1-0; C. Hamilton 1-1. Huntington-Rashaun

  Page 1-0.

    SACKS (UA-A): Parkersburg Big Reds-John Weber 1-0; Skyler Terrell 0-1; L

  ScottoDiluzio 0-1. Huntington-Gregory May 2-0; Jarod Martin 1-0; Marcus Eller

  1-0.

   TACKLES (UA-A): Parkersburg Big Reds-John Weber 6-7; Josh Lewis 3-6; Matt Santer

  4-4; Coby Sovel 0-7; Chase Evans 0-6; Huntar Shank 2-3; Paul Fichtelman 1-4; L

  ScottoDiluzio 1-3; Randall Taylor 1-2; Jeremy Bell 2-0; Wes O'Brien 1-1; Tre

  Jackson 1-0; Austin Alatore 1-0; C. Hamilton 1-0; Skyler Terrell 0-1; David

  Imboden 0-1; D.J. Carozza 0-1. Huntington-Marcus Eller 6-2; Brooks Arthur 5-2;

  Payton Johnson 4-3; Gregory May 4-1; Kyree Congleton 3-1; Tony Kitts 2-2;

  Damadre Turner 2-1; Deric Gibson 2-0; M. Rutherford 2-0; Kris Van Camp 2-0;

  Jarod Martin 2-0; Toquan Hayes 0-2; Isasiah Atkins 1-0; Eric Farley 1-0; Zachary

  Page 1-0.