By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
WINFIELD, W.Va. – It has been a long time since Winfield has been able to call itself a championship football program, but after Friday the Generals are making room in their trophy case.
In a battle of two of the top Class AA teams in West Virginia, No. 5 Winfield dominated for long stretches of play en route to a 34-14 win against previously unbeaten No. 1 Scott.
The Generals’ standout backfield duo of Bray Boggs and Caden Beam led the way on the ground, with Boggs running for exactly 200 yards and 3 touchdowns while Beam finished with 115 yards and one touchdown. As a team, Winfield ran for 404 total yards and controlled the clock to claim its first conference championship since 1988.
“In big game, your big players have got to step up and they did,” first-year Winfield coach Eddie Smolder said after the win. “I challenged them and they really played their best football tonight. It came down to them wanting it – they wanted it really bad and it showed play after play.”
Winfield (8-1) opened the scoring in the first quarter when quarterback Brycen Brown hit Jace Miller with a pass for an eight-yard touchdown. Scott took the Generals first shot, but did not fold. The Skyhawks (8-1) forced a turnover on downs the next time Winfield had the ball, and on the Generals’ next possession fell on a fumble by Beam near the sideline. After a three-and-out of its own, however, Scott wouldn’t be as successful at slowing down the Generals’ rushing machine.
A Scott punt pinned Winfield at its own 30-yard line midway through the second quarter, but Boggs took the first play of the drive 70 yards through the Scott defense for a touchdown. A missed extra-point set the score at 13-0.
Scott suffered another three-and-out following the Winfield touchdown, setting up Winfield near midfield with a little more than five minutes to play in the half. The Generals then grinded out an 11-play, 58-yard drive that finished with less than 30 seconds to play in the second quarter on a two-yard touchdown run by Boggs.
“They’re a good football team and you can’t let those things happen,” Scott coach Jeremy Dolin said. “Especially when you’re midfield and force a turnover down 7-0. We’ve got to capitalize on those situations.
The Generals got the ball to start the second half and went right back to work. Winfield did not throw a single pass on a 16-play, 67-yard scoring drive capped off on a two-yard touchdown run by Beam. The drive took nearly 10 minutes off the clock as Scott did not run an offensive play in the second half until the 3:10 mark in the third quarter. It appeared as though Winfield had snatched all of the air out of the Skyhawks following the touchdown, Scott came into the game as the state’s top-rated Class AA team for a reason.
The Skyhawks worked fast, with quarterback Matt Frye scoring on a short, fourth-down run less than two minutes later. Scott’s kickoff after the touchdown was high and short, and when the ball came down Winfield’s kick-return team tried to let the ball go out of bounds, but Scott pounced on the live ball and two plays later was back in the end zone on another short run from Frye to make the score 26-14 with just 14 second separating the two Skyhawks’ touchdowns late in the third quarter.
“I just told them to stick together,” Smolder said. “Adversity is going to happen, and it hadn’t really happened until that point.
“They responded well. They picked it up. We’re not going to play perfect and I give Scott credit. They’re the No. 1 team in the state for a reason. They’ve got good receivers and a good quarterback and they’re going to hit a couple.”
The Generals had an answer – another long drive that ended with points. Boggs scored his third touchdown of the game from one yard out to cap an 11-play, 62 yard drive that put the final nail in Scott’s coffin and clinch the Cardinal Conference championship for the Generals.
“When you can run the football, that allows your defense to not be on the field for very long and that was key to what we did tonight.”
Winfield closes the regular season on the road next week at Point Pleasant while Scott looks to rebound from its first loss at home in Boone County against Nitro.
S: 0 0 14 0 – 14
W: 7 12 7 8 – 34
First quarter
W: Jace Miller 8 pass from Brycen Brown (kick good)
Second quarter
W: Bray Boggs 70 run (kick failed)
W: Boggs 2 run (2-point failed)
Third quarter
W: Cadem Beam 2 run (kick good)
S: Matt Frye 5 run (kick good)
S: Frye 4 run (kick good)
Fourth quarter
W: Boggs 1 run (2-point good)
Stats
Rushing: (S) Cardon Brinegar 11-42, Preston Cooper 3-0, Matt Frye 5-(-14); (W) Bray Boggs 19-200-3, Caden Beam 20-115-1, Brycen Brown 15-72, K’Juan Pearson 3-17.
Passing: (S) Frye 10-20-118; (W) Brown 1-2-8-1.
Receiving: (S) Brayden Clark 4-79, Brinegar 2-38, Jayden Shaps 2-17, Cooper 1-4; (W) Jace Miller 1-8-1.
