Gallery by Tina Laney
The playoff win Friday night by Oak Hill was by no means a masterpiece.
It was, however, historic.
Scoring 20 straight points to break a scoreless halftime tie, the Red Devils cruised by Lewis County in the rain, sleet and snow at John P. Duda Stadium for a 27-6 win.
The triumph gave Oak Hill its 10th win of the season which had not happened since 1950.
“It has been a long time since (Oak Hill) won 10 games and the kids deserve it,” Oak Hill head coach Davon Marion said. “I told them before the game that they worked hard to be in this moment. They have worked hard since last December to get to this point. Now it was time to go take advantage of it.”
The opening half was a scoreless stalemate with the Red Devils missing on some key chances and short-circuiting drives with numerous penalties.
Lewis County struggled to find any offense over the first two quarters, but did have one promising drive end with a fumble at the Oak Hill 35-yard line.
To open the second half, the Minutemen went old school, snapping the ball straight to Maddox Gillespie who had played on the line the first half.
Gillespie and Alex Good both combined to once again move the Minutemen inside Red Devil territory at the 33-yard line.
At a crucial point in the contest, the Oak Hill defense once again rose to the challenge, stopping the visitors in their tracks on the next four plays.
Taking the ball at their own 30-yard line after a false start penalty, the Red Devils went 70 yards in seven plays for the first score of the contest. The scoring drive was aided in large part by ground production from James Green and a 33-yard strike from Devin Richardson to Zy Lewis.
Halftime adjustments once again aided the Red Devils to finally find their elusive score.
“The Gillespie kid is a ball-player,” Marion said. “We have played some really good defensive ends and lineman this year. Watching his tape I felt like he was the best run-fit defensive lineman that we would see this year. He played huge in the first half. We gave Devin a little more control of the offense to make adjustments and audible at the line. We started running away from him and it played to our advantage.”
A pair of big plays on special teams gave Oak Hill all of the points it would need for the historic win.
The ensuing kickoff from Elisha Jones took a big hop over the Lewis County return man who was tackled at the 4-yard line. Unable to move the ball, the Minutemen were forced to punt deep in their own territory.
When the snap hit the ground and was dropped, Oak Hill swarmed the punter, giving the ball back to the Red Devil offense at the Lewis County 2-yard line. One play later, Richardson was in the end zone for a 13-0 lead.
“Coming out I felt like we played a good first half, especially on defense. Then we come out in the second half and give up 13 points kind of bang, bang and we are not built for that,” Lewis County head coach Dustin Cogar said. “We were trying to keep it sloppy, keep it tight. Mother Nature broke there for a second and they showed their firepower with the spread game, but I am proud of my team.”
The scoring outburst put Oak Hill in complete control the rest of the way.
“As coaches, we felt like the only way they would score on us was if we gave them something cheap,” Marion said. “Our defense understood the adjustments we were making when we found the things that worked. The defense pulled through. We knew if we held them down a little bit, our offense would get going.”
An interception by Luke Endicott after some heavy pressure from Green up the middle set the Red Devils up at midfield early in the fourth quarter. Ten plays later, J.D. Mauritz rolled in from one-yard out for a 20-0 lead.
“They just stymied us at the line of scrimmage. It has been a long season and we are undersized,” Cogar said. “About every game we go into, we are undersized. We tried to find match-ups and I thought we found them here and there. We had a promising drive to start the second half, but then we just got tired.”
Owen Acord popped free for a 66-yard score with just under four minutes to play for the Lewis County score. Oak Hill answered immediately with a 65-yard scoring jaunt from Cade Compton for the final 27-6 margin.
Oak Hill will now play the winner of No. 4 Herbert Hoover and No. 13 Elkins which will be played Saturday at 4 p.m.
“Tonight is what the playoffs are all about, win and advance,” Marion said. “We won and now we will see who we play after tomorrow and start game-planning for them. It was sloppy and a little cold. It took us a half to get fired up a little bit. I felt like if we could get anything on offense we would be good.”
“We just needed the snow to stop and the wind to stop, then we would be alright,” Marion went on to say. “We left a couple plays out there in the first half, but I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. These were some adverse situations, but the fought hard and pulled through. We had three guys score tonight, so the offense is finding its way. It wasn’t 30 (points), but we will take 27.”
LC: 0 0 0 6 – 6
OH: 0 0 20 7 – 27
Third quarter
OH: Devin Richardson 3 run (kick no good)
OH: Richardson 2 run (Elisha Jones kick)
Fourth quarter
OH: J.D. Mauritz 1 run (Jones kick)
LC: Owen Acord 66 run (rush failed)
OH: Cade Compton 65 run (Jones kick)
Stats
Rushing: (LC) Eli Jones 4-29, Isaac Pickens 7-13, Alex Goodman 20-57, Owen Acord 7-99-1, Devon Bellamy 1-2, Maddex Gillespie 5-18; (OH) Richardson 7-42-2, Mauritz 14-53-1, James Green 3-31, Tyler Ashmore 4-19, Cade Compton 1-65-1, Mike Spack 1-8, Carson Treadway 4-37.
Passing: (LC) Jones 0-3-1, Gillespie 0-1; (OH) Richardson 6-15-1-60-0
Receiving; (OH) Armonyi Hicks 1-6, Treadway 2-7, Owen Grose 1-7, Spack 1-7, Zy Lewis 1-33.
