2011

Defense Shines as Big Reds Secure 29-7 Homecoming Win Over Red Dragons

The Big Red defense pitched a shutout with a patchwork unit while the offense did just well enough to post a 29-7 homecoming victory over St. Albans.

The injury-riddled PHS squad, ranked 10th in the state coming into the game, ran nearly twice as many offensive plays as the Red Dragons while gaining four times the yardage. Meanwhile the defense allowed just five first downs and kept the St. Albans offense out of the end zone.

Four more Big Reds went to the already crowded sidelines in the first half against St. Albans but PHS continued to press on and came away with the fourth win of the young season. Alex Ash threw for one touchdown and over 200 yards while sophomore Chandler Hamilton ran for two touchdowns. The Big Red offense rolled up 368 yards total but lost three of five fumbles. While Ash was completing 17 of 24 passes for 215 yards and one touchdown, Hamilton led the way on the ground with 77 yards on 12 carries. Seen different receivers caught passes on the night with Zayne Minnite catching four for 83 before breaking his collarbone. Hamilton caught four passes for 35 yards while Skyler Terrell had three receptions for 45 yards and a score and Jeremy Bell caught three for 39.

Josh Lewis, who was crowned Homecoming King at halftime, led the Big Red defense with 10 tackles. The PHS prevent unit had two quarterback sacks and nine tackles for loss (four of them by Bell). St. Albans, which had 500 yards in total offense last week, managed just 57 yards on the ground and 34 through the air.

PHS looked like it would score on its first possession, driving from the 23 to the St. Albans 14 yard line, thanks in big part to a 46 yard completion down the right sideline to Minnite. But on a fourth down play, Ash fumbled and Drew Kirby of the Red Dragons picked the ball up and raced 84 yards for a touchdown to put the visitors up with 3:15 left in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter the Big Reds began to get untracked, putting together a seven-play, 59 yard scoring drive that culminated with a one yard run by Chase Evans. PHS then faked the extra point (regular kicker Cody Roney is among the PHS injured) with Ash throwing to Bell for the two point conversion.

St. Albans turned the ball over minutes later when they fumbled a punt and Tyler Riddle recovered for PHS on the Dragon 28 yard line. Ash immediately threw down the middle to Terrell for a touchdown with 3:38 left in the first half. Kyle Foster, the PHS third-string kicker, then booted the first of three straight extra points to make it 15-7.

The Big Reds then got a sack from Vince Ott to force another St. Albans punt and PHS was back in business with 2:05 left to play and 51 yards from the end zone. Five straight pass attempts by Ash, four of them completions, put the ball on the five yard line and Hamilton went up the middle for the touchdown with 31.8 seconds left before intermission. Minnite had two catches, Hamilton and Adrian Webster one each on that 93 second drive.

PHS got the ball to start the second half and quickly tacked on an insurance score thanks to a 48 yard kickoff return by Tre Jackson which put the ball on the St. Albans 42 yard line. A big reception of 17 yards by Bell set up Hamilton's 11 yard run to the right which ran the score to 29-7.

From there PHS relied on its defense as Lewis, Bell, Austin Alatore, Huntar Shank and others made one big play after another. Meanwhile, the Big Red offense played ball control and actually kept the ball for over eight consecutive minutes in the middle of the fourth quarter.

  Score by Quarters                  1  2  3  4   Score

  St. Albans Red Dragons     7  0  0  0  -  7       Record: (1-4)

  Parkersburg Big Reds        0 22  7  0  - 29       Record: (4-1)

  Scoring Summary:

  1st 03:15 SA - Drew Kirby 84 yd fumble recovery (Gavin Smith kick), , SA 7 - PHS 0

  2nd 06:37 PHS - Chase Evans 1 yd run (Jeremy Bell pass from Alex Ash), 7-59 3:08, SA 7 - PHS 8

      03:38 PHS - Skyler Terrell 28 yd pass from Alex Ash (Kyle Foster kick), 1-28 0:07, SA 7 - PHS 15

      00:32 PHS - C. Hamilton 5 yd run (Kyle Foster kick), 6-51 1:40, SA 7 - PHS 22

  3rd 10:09 PHS - C. Hamilton 11 yd run (Kyle Foster kick), 5-42 1:40, SA 7 - PHS 29

                                       SA      PHS

  FIRST DOWNS...................        5       20

  RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............    28-57   41-153

  PASSING YDS (NET).............       34      215

  Passes Att-Comp-Int...........    6-5-0  24-17-0

  TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....    34-91   65-368

  Fumble Returns-Yards..........    2-105      0-0

  Punt Returns-Yards............      2-3     2-11

  Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     5-73     2-48

  Interception Returns-Yards....      0-0      0-0

  Punts (Number-Avg)............   6-35.7   2-44.0

  Fumbles-Lost..................      3-2      5-3

  Penalties-Yards...............   10-135     7-57

  Possession Time...............    19:38    28:22

  Third-Down Conversions........   1 of 9   2 of 9

  Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 2   3 of 6

  Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      0-0      3-6

  Sacks By: Number-Yards........     3-18      2-9

   RUSHING: St. Albans-Zack Walke 15-51; Drew Kirby 4-20; Tristan Allen 1-5; D. Alexander 1-0; Kevin Cantley 2-minus 3; Taylor Clark 5-minus 16. Parkersburg Big Reds-C. Hamilton 12-77; Skyler Terrell 6-43; Tre Jackson 6-28; Alex Ash 13-7; Chase Evans 2-2; Carl Boyles 2-minus 4.

  PASSING: St. Albans-Taylor Clark 3-4-0-8; Kevin Cantley 1-1-0-22; Tristan Allen 1-1-0-4. Parkersburg Big Reds-Alex Ash 17-24-0-215.

   RECEIVING: St. Albans-Zack Walke 2-27; Drew Kirby 1-4; Kevin Cantley 1-4; Cory Rhodes 1-minus 1. Parkersburg Big Reds-Zayne Minnite 4-83; C. Hamilton 4-35; Skyler Terrell 3-45; Jeremy Bell 3-39; Matt Santer 1-7; Adrian Webster 1-6; Jake Gold 1-0.

   FUMBLES: St. Albans-Sam Casto 1-1; Taylor Clark 1-0; Cole Medley 1-1. Parkersburg Big Reds-Alex Ash 3-1; C. Hamilton 1-1; Skyler Terrell 1-1.

    SACKS (UA-A): St. Albans-Zack Walke 2-0; Mike Cain 1-0. Parkersburg Big Reds-Austin Alatore 1-0; Vince Ott 1-0.

  TACKLES (UA-A): St. Albans-Kevin Cantley 9-3; Cory Rhodes 7-1; Mike Cain 4-1; Ben Skaggs 4-0; Kyle Boles 2-2; D. Alexander 2-1; Jack Bruer 2-0; Nathan Pauley 2-0; Drew Kirby 2-0; Zack Walke 2-0; Zack Leftridge 1-1; Logan Armstrong 1-0; Cole Medley 1-0; 30 1-0; Gavin Smith 1-0; Tristan Allen 0-1. Parkersburg Big Reds-Josh Lewis 4-6; Jeremy Bell 3-3; Brandon Gandee 0-6; Huntar Shank 2-3;  Randall Taylor 3-0; Austin Alatore 1-2; Tre Jackson 1-2; Chase Evans 0-3; Vince  Ott 1-1; D.J. Carozza 0-2; Paul Fichtelman 0-2; Wes O'Brien 0-2; Adrian Webster  1-0; Kris Morris 1-0; Shawn Graham 1-0; Skyler Terrell 1-0; C. Hamilton 1-0;  John Weber 0-1; L ScottoDiluzio 0-1; Matt Santer 0-1; Michael Talbott 0-1.