Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Summersville – Friday was far from do or die in regards to the playoffs for Class A No. 3-rated James Monroe.
The clash with Nicholas County was however, extremely important in the battle for home field playoff games.
Finding the end zone on its first two possessions, the Mavericks never trailed on their way to a 28-12 win over the Class AA Grizzlies.
“It is hard to come up here and beat Nicholas. I think this is only the second time that we have ever done it,” James Monroe head coach John Mustain said. “The last one was even more of a nail-biter than this one was.”
After opening the season with a road win over perennial Class A power Wheeling Central, Mustain has been looking for that same effort from his team.
The veteran coach found what he was looking for Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
“I felt like, in my mind, we played the best game that we played since Wheeling Central. They really improved a lot,” Mustain said. “We have been talking a lot about attitude. We have been a little lackadaisical really since that game. We have got some wins during that period, but I was really proud of the way we played tonight.”
The Mavericks won the opening toss, but dodged the conventional thinking of deferring to the second half.
Turns out it was not unconventional for the boys from Lindside.
“We have been doing that for two years now. Don’t ask me why. Some of the boys have said in the past that if we win the toss, we want the ball. I have just been sticking with it and it has been working,” Mustain said. “If things work out, it is great. If you go out in the second half and you are behind, you are giving them the ball. It is a big risk, no doubt about it.”
The risk paid off once again for the Mavs.
Following a false start penalty that set it back to their own 15-yard line, James Monroe went 85 yards in 10 plays to take a 7-0 lead.
Runs of 29 yards and 11 yards from Chaz Boggs were key to the drive which was capped by sophomore Frederick Parker’s nine-yard touchdown run.
A big sack on third-and-5 forced a Nicholas County punt and the visitors wasted no time finding the end zone for another score.
A run of eight yards from Boggs and 23 from Cooper Ridgeway had the Grizzlies keying on the run.
James Monroe made them pay when Boggs slipped behind the defenders on the next play for a 30-yard touchdown pass from Layton Dowdy and a 14-0 lead.
Early in the second period the homecoming crowd came to life on a big strike from sophomore quarterback Coleton Hellems. Rolling right, Hellems stopped and threw the ball back to Lucas Milam streaking down the seam. Milam crossed the goal line untouched for a 73-yard score.
The snap on the conversion try wasn’t handled, leaving Nicholas trailing 14-6.
“In the past, stuff like that has taken the wind out of our sails. I told them at halftime that I was really proud of them. They had some adversity and faced it head on. That is something that we have been talking to them about,” Mustain said. “Sometimes things are not going to go perfect. When they don’t, you have to buckle down and keep fighting. I was really proud of the way they did that.”
Excitement mounted from the home crowd when the Grizzlies defense forced a James Monroe punt that was nearly blocked.
With the ball at midfield, Nicholas County found the golden opportunity it was looking for to possibly even the game heading into halftime.
Unfortunately for the Nicholas fans, the Grizzlies could not move the ball and were forced to punt.
A solid punt did appear to put the Mavericks in a tough spot with the ball at their own 16-yard line.
All of the momentum changed on the next play.
Taking the handoff, Parker exploded up the middle and never stopped until he crossed the goal line.
“We had a little momentum and we felt pretty good having crawled back into it making it a one-score game. We just couldn’t get any closer than that,” Nicholas County head coach Gene Morris said.
On a team where names like Ridgeway, Dowdy and Boggs are the dominant players, it was the young running back that made the crucial play of the game.
Parker finished the night with 150 yards on 13 carries.
“He was running the ball really well up at Wheeling Central and then he got a shoulder injury,” Mustain said. “He is a hard runner and a kid that works hard in the offseason. He loves to get in the weight room. On the opposite side of the ball, he is also really starting to get the whole idea of playing that linebacker position. We are seeing bigger things out of him each week.”
Nicholas County stiffened in the second half and had a chance to pull within one score early in the fourth quarter.
With just over eight minutes to play, Hellems found Jaxson Morriston for a 12-yard touchdown pass. Needing the two-point try to get within seven points, the pass fell incomplete and the Grizzlies trailed 21-12.
“They hit a couple of big plays on us. We made some subtle adjustments and kind of slowed them down offensively,” Morris said. “Early on, we got a little handled. We tried rotating some other guys in there up front and things like that. We were much, much better defensively and solid in the second half.”
A defensive stop by the Mavericks with just over two minutes to play was complemented by a 57-yard scoring jaunt from Boggs to seal the win. The burst game the senior speedster 150 yards on the ground on 13 totes.
“We moved the ball through the air a little bit, but we had trouble (running). They are pretty good up front. We were able to crack a few seams and run the ball, but not as effectively as we like to be,” Morris said. “That made us a little bit unbalanced. We like to have a blend of run and pass. It was more pass than run and that is not our forte. I thought Coleton did a real nice job distributing the ball and Grayson (Kesterson) had a really good game, but James Monroe has a fine football team.”
JM: 14 7 0 7 – 28
NC: 0 6 0 6 – 12
First quarter
JM: Frederick Parker 9 run (Peyton Gardinier)
JM: Chaz Boggs 30 pass from Layton Dowdy (Gardinier kick)
Second quarter
NC: Lucas Milam 73 pass (rush failed)
JM: Parker 84 run (Gardinier kick)
Fourth quarter
NC: Jackson Morriston 12 pass from Colton Hellems (pass incomplete)
JM: Boggs 57 run (Gardinier kick)
Stats
Rushing: (JM) Cooper Ridgeway 12-72, Chaz Boggs 13-150-1, Layton Dowdy 5-3, Frederick Parker 11-131-2; (NC) Coltin Browning2-9, Jaxson Morriston 9-45, Coleton Hellems 13-(-27), Ian Nutter 2-11, Devin Nash 1-4.
Passing: (JM) Dowdy 3-7-0-34-1; (NC) 18-31-1-248-2.
Receiving: (JM) Boggs 2-31-1, Ridgeway 1-3; (NC) Morriston 3-18-1, Lucas Milam 3-81-1, Grayson Kesterson 11-127, Kase Hayhurst 1-12.
