By Sean McNamara
SHINNSTON – Two of the seven remaining unbeaten teams in Class AA matched up in Shinnston Friday as the WVSSAC Class AA top-rated Huskies of North Marion took on the seventh-rated Lincoln Cougars, with the visitors from NMHS coming away with a 35-17 victory.
Helping to spark the victory for North Marion (4-0) was the play of Jeff Cowger, a junior who had a receiving touchdown, blocked a punt and recovered it for a touchdown, intercepted a pass and recorded three sacks in the win.
“He had a great game on both sides of the ball,” NM coach Daran Hays said of Cowger. “He blocked well all night. He’s just an inspirational heart and soul leader for us.”
Cowger and the rest of the North Marion defense made things difficult on Lincoln QB AJ Bart all evening, holding the Lincoln signal caller to 9-of-24 passing for 84 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Key to that defensive success against the Lincoln passing game was both the North Marion pressure and the secondary coverage from Brock Martin, Landon Frey, Richie Eddy, Cowger and Trevor Mullett.
“When he had time he threw the ball well,” Lincoln coach Rob Hawkins said of Bart. “I thought he did a good job staying in there. It’s a great learning experience for him. This is obviously the best defense he’s played against. Overall, I didn’t think he played bad. We had a couple drops, and he had a couple more where he threw good balls, but the coverage was really good.”
North Marion got the scoring started on its opening drive with a 31-yard touchdown connection between Casey Minor and Brock Martin on fourth down to give the visitors a 7-0 lead early in the opening quarter after Brady Anderson connected on the PAT.
On the ensuing drive, after Lincoln drove into North Marion territory, quarterback AJ Bart was intercepted by Cowger to give the Huskies possession back.
“Our secondary communicates a lot,” Cowger said. “That’s one of the biggest things on the team is that we communicate really well. I think that’s one of the things that took Lincoln by surprise.”
That momentum was short-lived, however, as Quinton Harbert came on to quarterback a series and was picked off by Lincoln’s David Burdette.
Now with possession as the first quarter turned into the second, Bart took advantage of the NM turnover and hit Aiden Rice with a 14-yard touchdown pass to tie the game up at seven after Liam Gallagher’s PAT.
Minor then returned at quarterback for the Huskies and orchestrated a drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Cowger, putting North Marion up, 13-7, after the PAT was blocked.
The Husky defense then began to tighten up as Cowger recorded sacks on consecutive plays to force a Lincoln punt and set up another NMHS touchdown drive, this one culminating with a 10-yard touchdown run by Aaron Hoffman.
At the half, North Marion led, 21-7.
The third quarter saw both defenses make key plays, with the only score coming on a 28-yard field goal from Gallagher with a minute to go in the period.
Now down 21-10, the homecoming crowd at Lincoln came alive as it appeared momentum had shifted in favor of the home team, a shift that took a considerable step up after Lincoln got a defensive stop and took over control early in the fourth.
A defensive stand by the Huskies forced Lincoln’s Maddox Perine back to punt and Cowger blew past the line and blocked the kick, falling on it in the end zone to put the Huskies up, 28-10.
To close out the game, Mullett recorded an interception and scored on a 51-yard TD run with 6:09 left before Bart scored on a quarterback keeper with less than a minute to go to make the final score 35-17, North Marion.
“I’ve said it all week, we know how good North Marion is,” Hawkins said. “Now we have to find out how good we are. I thought for the most part we did a good job competing. They made big plays. We didn’t. Ultimately that’s the tell of the game.”
In front of its fired-up crowd on homecoming, the Cougars recorded 198 yards of total offense and forced two North Marion turnovers, both of which came on interceptions by Burdette and Noah Sears, respectively.
Burdette and Swiger rushed for 58 and 57 yards, respectively, while Sears posted a team-best 44 yards on four receptions.
Next up for Lincoln is are road trips to Lewis County and Robert C. Byrd before the Cougars finish off the season with Liberty, Philip Barbour and Bridgeport.
For North Marion, Minor, who was less than 100 percent and did not play defense in the game, completed 8-of-11 passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. In total, North Marion recorded 285 total yards of offense.
Hoffman rushed for a team-best 92 yards while Mullett ran for 59 yards and Martin caught a team-high four passes for 64 yards.
As North Marion moves forward with a road trip to Fairmont Senior next up, and tests against Lewis County, Elkins, Roane County, Herbert Hoover and Liberty on the schedule, Cowger hopes his team can build on this win and keep the momentum going.
“I think we’re playing well,” Cowger said. “I think this is a good road game to see how we play on the road. I don’t want to say that we played the best we could, but it was definitely a dogfight, and we came out with the win.”
NM;LIN
First Downs;12;16
Rushing Yards; 175;114
Passing Yards; 110; 84
Total Yards; 285; 198
Passing; 8-13-2; 9-24-2
Fumbles; 2;1
Fumbles Lost; 0;0
Penalties; 8-85;7-65
Individual Statistics
Rushing: NM: Aaron Hoffman 13-92 1 TD, Trevor Mullett 5-59 1 TD, Landon Frey 2-22, Casey Minor 5-4, TEAM 2-(-2). Totals 27-175. LIN: David Burdette 13-58, Nate Swiger 12-57, AJ Bart 9-(-3) 1 TD, Aiden Rice 1-3). Totals: 36-114.
Passing: NM Casey Minor 8-11-1 110 2 TD, Quinton Habert 0-2-1. LIN: AJ Bart 9-24-2 84 1 TD.
Receiving: NM: Brock Martin 4- 64 1 TD, Jeff Cowger 1-6 1 TD, Landon Frey 3-40. LIN: Noah Sears 4- 44, Brayden Edgell 2-17, Aiden Rice 2-16 1 TD, Maddox Perine 1-7.
NM;;7;14;0;14;;35
LIN;0;7;3;7;;17
Scoring Plays
First Quarter
NM – Brock Martin 31-yard pass from Casey Minor (Brady Anderson kick)
Second Quarter
LIN – Aiden Rice 14-yard pass from AJ Bart (Liam Gallagher kick)
NM – Landon Cowger 6-yard pass from Minor (kick failed)
NM – Aaron Hoffman 10-yard run (Minor run)
Third Quarter
LIN – Liam Gallagher 28-yard Field Goal
Fourth Quarter
NM – Jeff Cowger blocked punt return TD (Anderson kick)
NM – Trevor Mullett 51-yard run (Anderson kick)
LIN – AJ Bart 1-yard run (Gallagher kick)
