By Tom Bragg
For Lootpress.com
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – In a game with standout players all over the field for both teams, nobody’s star shined brighter than Parkersburg South’s Robert Shockey.
The South junior quarterback ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more as the Class AAA No. 1 Patriots ran away from No. 4 Hurricane on Saturday afternoon at Erickson All Sports Facility for a 58-27 win to punch their ticket for Wheeling and a spot in next week’s state championship game.
Shockey, a likely contender for the Kennedy Award as the top high school football player in West Virginia this season, led a balanced Parkersburg South attack that carved up a previously stout Hurricane defense all afternoon.
“Robert has done that all year long,” Parkersburg South coach Nathan Tanner said. “He’s just a really good football player and I think that was highlighted today. He made a lot of plays for us.”
South (12-1) opened the scoring in the first quarter when Shockey capped off a five-play, 67-yard drive with a short touchdown run, but the Redskins (10-3) had an answer. Running back Jeremiah Riffle took a handoff around the right side of the line and went 19 yards down the sideline to level the score a 7-7.
Shockey made one of his few mistakes on the following drive when Hurricane’s Joey Quijano tipped a pass in the air and to himself for an interception that led to another Redskins touchdown, this one on a one-yard run by Mondrell Dean late in the first quarter.
South, however, struck back on the first play of the second quarter. Shockey used his legs to avoid some intense pressure from Hurricane’s defensive front and found Triston Walker open for a 45-yard touchdown.
Hurricane sophomore quarterback Noah Vellaithambi was picked off on the following drive, and South went right back to work with Gage Wright rumbling for a 20-yard touchdown to put the Patriots up 21-13. Micah Jones would add a 32 yard field goal to set the halftime score at 24-13 in South’s favor.
“We knew what we were up against, but it was a matter of execution and taking care of the ball,” Hurricane coach Donnie Mays said. “I don’t think that we were in sync in the first half. I think we got it going a little bit, then we got in a funk again. You can’t do it. You can not do those things.”
Wright broke the game open by taking the opening kickoff of the second half 90 yards for a touchdown and the rout was on for the Patriots. Shockey would score again on a 17-yard run late in the third quarter and add another on the ground early in the fourth quarter as South put the game all the way out of reach and punched its ticket for the Super Six next weekend at Wheeling Island Stadium.
“[Shockey] is a good player,” Mays said. “They’ve got a good team and that running back [Wright] runs really hard, so it forces you to stay in the box. Whenever you have to load up to stop him, the quarterback becomes a runner.”
Shockey finished Saturday’s state semifinal win with 16 carries for 73 yards along with the three touchdowns while completing 15 of 22 passes for 262 yards with two touchdowns and the one interception. Wright, meanwhile, led all players with 137 rushing yards on 12 carries with two touchdowns.
For Hurricane, the talented duo of Riffle and Dean were held in check for the most part by South’s stout defense, with Riffle running 22 times for 98 yards while Dean was held to 58 yards on 12 carries. Vellaithambi completed 14 of 28 pass attempts for 95 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the loss.
“I feel like our defense has kind of been overlooked the last couple of weeks,” Tanner said. “Everyone talks about our offense, but I tell our kids that especially in the playoffs and big games you’ve got to be able to run the football and you’ve got to be able to stop the run. Hurricane is a really good football team and there is a reason they made it this far, but I’m super proud of our guys for stepping up and playing really stingy defense today.
“The Riffle kid and the Dean kid, they’re powerhouses back there running the football. We knew that’s what they wanted to do, run the rock, but our kids really settled in after we gave up two scores and just made it real stingy on them. We were able to put a lot of pressure on their quarterback – we have a saying, pressure either busts pipes or makes diamonds. That’s something we preach every week and I feel like our guys put a lot of pressure on him.”
With Saturday’s win, South will move on to the Super Six for the first time since the Patriots won the Class AAA state championship in 2003. They will face No. 2 Huntington, which knocked off defending state champion Martinsburg 28-21 on Saturday in a rematch of the 2021 Class AAA title game.
H 13 0 8 6 – 27
PS 7 17 14 21 – 58
FIRST QUARTER
PS – Shockey 4 run (Jones kick)
H – Riffle 19 run (Johnson kick)
H – Dean 1 run (kick failed)
SECOND QUARTER
PS – Triston Walker 45 pass from Shockey (Jones kick)
PS – Wright 20 run (Jones kick)
PS – Jones 32 field goal
THIRD QUARTER
PS – Wright 90 kick return (Jones kick)
PS – Shockey 17 run (Jones kick)
H – Lucas Rippetoe 2 pass from Vellaithambi (Rippetoe 2-point conversion)
FOURTH QUARTER
PS – Shockey 26 run (Jones kick)
PS – Wright 90 run (Jones kick)
PS – Cyrus Traugh 27 pass from Shockey (Jones kick)
H – Elijah Riviera 41 pass from Vellaithambi (kick failed)
Statistics
Rushing: (H) Riffle 22-98-1, Dean 12-58-1, Vellaithambi 3-58, Riviera 2-2; (PS) Wright 12-137-2, Shockey 16-73-3, Traugh 3-8.
Passing: (H) Vellaithambi 14-28-95-2-1; (PS) Shockey 15-22-262-2-1.
Receiving: (H) Murrell 2-23, L, Dues 3-23, Riviera 2-42-1, Montgomery 2-1, Rippetoe 2-12-1, T. Dues 2-13, Riffle 1-1; (PS) Traugh 6-140-1, Walker 4-90-1, Reams 3-15, Garretson 2-23, Wright 1-1.
