By Rick Kozlowski, for Lootpress
CHARLES TOWN — Martinsburg’s offense can be scary enough, but when the defense starts to score, too, forget about it.
The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission’s second-ranked, Class AAAA Bulldogs managed a safety and an interception return for a touchdown on the way to a 51-7 victory over Washington Friday night at Marcus Stadium in an Eastern Panhandle Athletic Conference game.
The Bulldogs moved to 8-0 in advance of their showdown with No. 1 Spring Mills, which won its seventh game without a loss but yielded its first points of the season on a pair of field goals in a victory over University.
Martinsburg had no problem with No. 10 Washington, which broke a scoreless streak of eight seasons against the Bulldogs on a late touchdown pass against Martinsburg backups after a fumble in its own territory.
The Bulldogs scored on their first series and then added two points three plays later as Washington quarterback Braylon Holmes was swarmed for a safety.
Holmes, who alternated with Michael Thompson at signal caller, then tossed the pass while being mauled that defensive lineman Peyton Kaufmann hauled in for a 31-yard interception return.
It fluttered into the arms of Kauffman, who, after catching the ball, had clear sailing into the end zone.
“I’ll take it,” said Kauffman, who returned an interception 50 yards in the Orange-and-Black’s season-opener.
It gave the Bulldogs a 44-0 lead midway through the third quarter. Tashawn Cofield’s 9-yard scoring run rounded out Martinsburg’s scoring.
The Bulldogs’ leader, quarterback Koi Fagan, had a typical game for him by having a hand in five touchdowns, two rushing and three passing.
He pushed in from the 1 to open the scoring and then demonstrated how dynamic he can be on a 46-yard touchdown pass to Nicholas Busky.
The shotgun snap escaped Fagan’s grasp to his right, while a screen was set up for Busky on the left. Fagan retrieved the ball and kind of shot-putted it to Busky as the rush was all over him.
All the while, none of the linemen went downfield illegally and held their spots.
“The pass was behind the line,” said Kauffman, who also noticed that none of his linemates had wandered off.
When Busky saw the fumble, “I stuck with the play; he got it to me.”
And Busky used the screen to get most of the yardage and then used his power and skill to elude two would-be tacklers to reach the end zone.
Fagan threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Dalvin Wheeler to start the second quarter and ended the period with a 19-yard TD toss to Boston Todd for a 30-0 lead at intermission.
Fagan ran 5 yards for a score to start the second half, the series before Kauffman’s interception return.
“If he’s not the best player in the state, then I don’t know who is,” Martinsburg coach David Walker said of Fagan.
Michael Thompson’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Javin Jones ended the Patriots’ scoreless skein that started in 2017.
It was a different cast producing for the Bulldogs in the scoring column against the Patriots.
To Busky, it shows the depth Martinsburg possesses.
“In practice,” he said, “everyone is in the rotation so they can be the next-man up and perform.”
Then, when the defense gets into the scoring, it’s just more names to reach the boxscore.
Now it’s on to the showdown with conference rival Spring Mills in what rates as the regular-season game of the year in Quad-A in West Virginia.
