Gallery by Greg Barnett
Bluefield – Bluefield found itself in a boat race Thursday and despite losing a paddle and falling behind, it rode a late current to the finish line.
Facing fourth-and-10, freshman QB Max Simpson connected with Kisean Smith for a 23-yard touchdown pass with four seconds left as the Beavers erased a 40-21 deficit with nine minutes to go to claim a 42-40 victory over Class AAA Greenbrier East in Mitchell Stadium.
Simpson, who had completed just 5 of 7 passes for five yards across his first two games, erupted Thursday finishing 15 of 31 for 380 yards with three touchdown passes and an interception. He threw for 315 yards in the second half alone.
His performance offset the spectacular display by his counterpart Brody Hamric who completed 18 of 29 passes for 334 yards and five touchdown passes.
For an offense that produced just seven points in its first two games, Thursday’s outburst was welcome for the Beavers, however unlikely it seemed.
Jeff King, who caught a 65-yard touchdown pass for the Beavers and accounted for 101 of their 141 first-half yards on just four touches, exited the game before halftime with an ankle injury and never returned. Already thin at the skill positions and struggling to keep up, the Beavers abandoned their heavy run formations, spread the ball and let Simpson take to the air. He proved effective, finding Willis Wilson eight times for 191 yards and a score.
“Max, you didn’t know what he would do but he did what he had to do,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “I mean, I’ll give him credit, so we’ll have to get better off that. When you get in these games, you got to have players make plays. You get them in the right place but they’ve got to make plays. And they did. And that last throw, he made a pretty good read because he had time.”
Missing King, the Beaver offense faltered after a pair of consecutive touchdown drives that staked the hosts to a 14-8 lead in the second quarter. East’s offense hummed, as Hamric connected with Nate Shuttle for a 49-yard touchdown catch and Brady May found pay dirt on the following drive from four yards out just before the break.
Despite King’s absence, the shift to a spread attack paid dividends with Bluefield scoring on a four-play, 79-yard drive, capped by a vulturing 2-yard run from Ty Patton to make it a 22-21 game in favor of East. But the next two Beaver drives proved fruitless, resulting in a punt and interception.
Hamric took advantage, engineering three consecutive touchdown drives that ended in passes of 15 yards to Donavin Penn, 36 yards to Kaden Stone and 64 yards to Shuttle, respectively.
The killer for East? The 2-point conversion attempts after all three scores failed. It finished just 2 of 6 on conversion attempts.
“Our kicker’s hurt right now,” assistant coach Aaron Baker, who was filling in for a sick Ray Lee, said. “We got a backup kicker. He does a good job. He practices hard. We’re just not very confident in what we’re doing right now extra-point wise. And did it come back to bite us in the butt? Maybe, but we got some 2-point conversions as well. I wouldn’t change anything. I’d make the same decision again to keep going for two because I thought we were moving the ball well offensively enough to score some of those two-point conversions and to give ourselves that lead that we needed. It got up to 19 at one time, if you think about it, yeah, three points would have won the game. Made it with 21, but you know, those are the decisions you live with, and you either live with them or you die with them. And today it just wasn’t for us.”
Trailing by 19 points and seemingly lifeless after Hamric’s connection with Shuttle, the Beavers found life with their underclassmen duo of Simpson and Willis. The two hooked up for completions of 37 and 29 yards on the following drive, scoring on another two-yard plunge from Patton to make it 40-28.
After a Jaden Francisco sack on third down ended East’s next drive, Simpson went back to the well, connecting with Wilson three more times, including for the 38-yard strike that brought the Beavers back to within a score. It featured an escape to Simpson’s left and a heave downfield to an open Wilson.
“The (defensive back) got caught looking at me so I just threw it over his head,” Simpson smiled.
East set up shop at the Bluefield 26 following a flurry on penalties and failed onside kick attempts with 2:14 to play. Though its attempts to burn the clock largely failed. A Brady May run was stuffed for a loss of two yards and on second-and-12 with Bluefield holding onto its last timeout, East opted to take to the air in an attempt to end the game. The attempt fell incomplete, stopping the clock.
A run for two yards and and an incompletion on fourth down gave the ball back to the Beavers, who needed 74 yards and a score with 1:14 left on the clock. A 13-yard completion to Tyrese Powell moved the sticks on third down before Simpson was sacked on the ensuing play, forcing the Beavers to spike the ball and face third-and-16 with 33 seconds left.
With nothing open, he threw up a prayer that was answered by Wilson who grabbed a ricocheting ball for a 43-yard completion at the East 23.
“I was just nervous, but I knew I had to get it, especially since I sold on two go routes, I had to.” Wilson smiled.
Despite the miracle Bluefield wasn’t in the clear needing a spike to stop the clock and coming up empty on its next two plays. The fourth time proved to be the charm as Simpson rolled right to avoid pressure before dropping the winning score in Smith’s hands.
The win was an uplift for a program that came into the season with championship aspirations, ones that dampened after a 63-7 loss to Princeton last week.
“This win gave us hope and we needed hope,” Simon said. “We got it because we could have quit and we were down. Shoot, we’re looking with a few minutes left in the game and we’re down two scores and wow! Am I happy? Yeah.”
Patton led the Beavers in rushing with 58 yards and two scores. Shuttle was East’s top receiver with eight catches for 147 yards and two touchdowns.
Bluefield improves to 1-2 and will step out of Mitchell Stadium for the first time this season when it travel to Beckley next Friday. Greenbrier East drops to 1-2 and will aim to rebound at Alleghany, Va. next week.
Scoring
