CHARMCO – Every football player secretly loves to play in the mud.
Friday night South Harrison and Greenbrier West were afforded that opportunity on the biggest stage thanks to Mother Nature.
Meeting in the state football playoffs for the first time, the No. 9-rated Hawks and the No. 8 Cavaliers slipped and slid all night on the rain-soaked natural surface at Greenbrier West High School.
Turned out the boys from Charmco were mudders.
Pitching their eighth shutout of the season, the Cavaliers controlled the line of scrimmage most of the night and rolled past the Hawks, 35-0.
“You never know what is going to happen on a field like that. I am sure (South Harrison) was thinking the same thing, but our kids just played with a lot of heart and determination,” Greenbrier West head coach Toby Harris said. “They bent a few times on defense, but they didn’t break and they stepped up when they had to on both sides of the football. They were bigger than we were, but we blocked well and it was a good football game.”
South Harrison head coach Brett Hathaway believed the physicality displayed by the Cavaliers was a major factor in the loss for his team.
“They definitely beat us up front. They really did. We struggled to get movement and they were aggressive like we knew they were going to be,” Hathaway said. “We just struggled early on to match (their) physicality, I thought. By the time we did settle down, it was 20-0 and you dig yourself a big hole and it is tough to come back.”
After failing to take advantage of a Hawks fumble at their own 26-yard line on the opening drive of the game, the Cavaliers forced a punt on the visitor’s next possession.
Following a pair of runs for no gain, West beat the oncoming rushers with a screen pass on third-and-10 from their own 49 yard line.
Ty Nickell hauled in the pass from Tucker Lilly and sloshed his way 51 yards for the first score of the game and an 8-0 lead.
“Everyone saw the field tonight. It was wet and muddy and I knew my hands were wet. Tucker threw the ball to me and I caught it. I saw the grass and I just wanted to stay on my feet. Cole (Vandall) had a big block out there and I could see the end zone,” Nickell said.
According to Harris, it was the perfect play call at the right time.
“They were coming hard at us, so that is what you do to take advantage of it,” Harris said. “We have done that a few times. It just happened to be the right time”
Still struggling to move the ball, South Harrison elected to go for it on fourth-and-4 from its own 26 yard line.
West stuffed the Hawks, forcing a turnover on downs.
Five plays later, Nickell broke outside from the Hawks’ 10-yard line, fumbled the ball, but scooped it up and carried it into the end zone for a 14-0 lead.
South Harrison amplified it’s troubles on the next possession when it again turned the ball over on downs deep in its own territory.
A failed pass attempt on fourth-and-3 that went through the receiver’s hands gave West another short field at the 23-yard line.
“It was a culmination of things,” Hathaway said about the decision to go on the two fourth-down plays. “Are we going to get the snap on the punt? If we do get the punt off it may only go 20 yards (in these conditions). We were just trying to provide a spark for the team and gain some momentum. We struggled to gain momentum throughout the game.”
One of the main differences in the game was West’s ability to make big plays at key times.
A 10-yard run by Cole Vandall for a first down on fourth-and-one early in the second quarter was followed an 11-yard jaunt from Vandall to push the lead to 20-0.
With the field conditions deteriorating at a rapid pace, Harris felt his team getting an early advantage was huge Friday.
“We said coming in that we needed to get a good start. They are the kind of football team that if they get the first touchdown, they keep that ball five or six minutes. It is tough to come back from. We needed those early scores.”
South Harrison’s best drive of the opening half came as the clock ticked towards halftime.
The Hawks moved the ball to the West eight-yard line in the waning seconds, but could not score.
Two runs from Noah Burnside put the ball at the three-yard line, but it also forced the Hawks to burn their final timeout of the half.
An incomplete pass on third down set up a dramatic play before the half. West rose to the occasion, stopping Burnside at the one-yard line to preserve the 20-0 halftime lead.
“That was critical right there at the end of the second quarter. They score there, they are back in the football game,” Harris said. “Our guys just bucked up there and stopped them.”
Greenbrier West applied the knockout blow on the opening drive of the second half.
Chewing up almost five minutes off of the clock, the Cavaliers marched down the field 80 yards, capped by a six-yard run from Nickell for a 28-0 lead.
“That was really important. We told them at halftime that we needed to get the kickoff, take our time, go down and not make mistakes,” Harris said. “We had half-a-dozen holding penalties that kept us from moving the ball earlier. Going down and scoring was huge.”
The West defense responded with two more fourth down stops and Nickell added a four-yard run for the final margin.
Vandall provided some key carriers for the Cavaliers and led the team with 92 yards on 15 totes.
“This was a great time tonight with all of my friends that are like brothers to me,” Vandall said. “These are the games that you live for. This is what it is all about. Our offensive line did an amazing job and my running backs, Dalton Heath and Ty Nickell do a great job blocking for me too.”
Heath had two crucial runs in the opening drive of the second half. His run for 14 yards on third-and-seven from the Hawks 20-yard line, set up Nickell’s score.
After a first round exit last year, the Cavaliers were happy to be moving on to the quarterfinals.
“This win feels great, especially under the circumstances that we played in being a playoff game and especially after last year,” Nickell said. “We are brothers out there and we just go out, do our thing and keep on rolling.”
Greenbrier West moves its record to (10-1), while South Harrison ends the season at (7-4).
The Cavaliers advance to the quarterfinal round next weekend where they will face the winner of No. 1 James Monroe and No. 16 Petersburg.
SH: 0 0 0 0 – 0
GW: 14 6 8 7 – 35
First quarter
GW: Ty Nickell 51 pass from Tucker Lilly (Cole Vandall pass from Nickell).
GW: Nickell 10 fumble rec (pass failed)
Second quarter
GW: Vandall 11 run (kick no good)
Third quarter
GW: Nickell 6 run (Ethan Holliday from Lilly)
Fourth quarter
GW: Nickell 4 run (Hayden Ridgeway kick)
Stats:
Rushing: (SH) Burnside 40-159, Aiden Moreno 8-12, Lucas Rush 2-
4, Caden Davis 3-(-2); (GW) Nickell 15-48-3, Vandall 15-92-1, Holliday 1-5, Lilly 1-3, Dalton Heath 4-32.
Passing: (SH) Davis 0-2, Burnside 0-1; (GW) Lilly 3-4-0-92-1, Nickell 1-3-(-11)
Receiving: Nickell 3-61-1, Vandall 1-(-8), Holliday 1-8.
