By Rick Kozlowski, for Lootpress
SPRING MILLS — The top two Class AAAA football teams in West Virginia demonstrated their offensive prowess right away when they faced each other Friday night.
Both No. 1 Spring Mills and second-rated Martinsburg scored on their first offensive possessions.
Then the defenses of each team took over and limited teams averaging nearly a combined 100 points for the rest of the game in an Eastern Panhandle Athletic Conference showdown between two undefeated teams.
No. 2 topped No. 1 by a 17-12 score as Martinsburg maintained its dominance of Eastern Panhandle opponents. The Bulldogs haven’t lost to a team in their area of West Virginia since 2007.
Martinsburg faced its toughest test in many years against EPAC teams.
“It was a really good high school football game,” said Martinsburg coach David Walker, whose team won its 22nd game in a row.
Both teams’ stars — each among the candidates for the state’s Kennedy Award — played major roles for their teams.
Martinsburg quarterback Koi Fagan ran 15 yards for a touchdown to open the game, part of his 159-yard rushing night, and Spring Mills quarterback Max Anderson threw a touchdown pass to his younger brother on the Cardinals’ second play and then ran for a touchdown that briefly gave his team a third-quarter lead.
“I told the guys it’s a game of inches,” Spring Mills coach Marcus Law said.
In the end, though, the Cardinals, living in rarified air for the first time in the school’s decade-old existence, needed a few more yards, as well as points.
Instead, Mason Walley, who missed considerable practice time this week with an illness, broke up a deep pass intended for former Bulldog player Chayse Shipley near the goal line.
“He did a nice job,” Walker said. “He was fresh.”
The pass from Anderson was on target, but the defensive play clinched Martinsburg’s ninth victory.
“When the defensive back ripped out the pass, it’s ballgame,” Law said.
The inches to Spring Mills turned into miles.
After Martinsburg took the 7-0 lead, Max Anderson tossed a 37-yard touchdown pass to his brother Xavier.
However, the extra-point kick clanged off the left upright.
That was after an original kick sailed true and through but was nullified by an inadvertent whistle.
Spring Mills missed an opportunity to go ahead in the second quarter as Martinsburg’s defense stood up to Anderson on a quarterback power run on a fourth-and-3.
“I’ll put the ball in Max’s hands all the time in that situation,” Law said.
The ball in Anderson’s hands turned into a 30-yard touchdown run.
Needing to recover from the missed PAT kick, the Cardinals went for two points. A pass completion fell short by a yard — 36 inches.
Spring Mills’ lead lasted only 3 1/2 minutes as the Bulldogs, running at race pace for the second time since their quick, first-quarter TD, scored on Brian Dick’s 30-yard run on a simple belly play.
It came in one play as Fagan ran out of his shoe on an amazing 8-yard run in which he broke seemingly all 11 of defenders for the Cardinals.
“We saw that they couldn’t handle our speed on offense,” Dick said, “because we’re in pretty good condition.”
The speedy tempo the Bulldogs used messed with the surprised Cardinals’ defense.
“It’s been something we’ve been working on,” Walker said. “We felt we needed to control the pace of the game.”
Law said it presented problems.
“We go to tempo,” Law said, “but not to the extreme they go for.
“A couple of times they got us. We have to be aware of that.”
Martinsburg added a field goal by kicker Sam Collins, his third in three attempts.
Both coaches were pleased by the outcome, though Walker decried some penalty issues with his team.
What Law took from the game was the knowledge his team is competitive with Martinsburg,
“Now we know what it takes,” Law said.
Some fans were talking after the game about hoping to see the two teams play each other in the state championship game, if pairings and results allow it.
“If we do play them again in Charleston, I do know it’ll be close, but we’ll play a much better game,” Dick said. “This wasn’t a great game for us.”
