Box Score Friday night's game at Wayne Jamison Field between Class AAA No. 8 Bridgeport and No. 4 Parkersburg South had a little bit of everything.
The Indians sported camo jerseys in honor of Military Appreciation Night, they had a touchdown pass, they had a special teams touchdown. There was fog, there was a loud musket from the Patriots' mascot when fired had as heavy trail of smoke as the fog.
Yet when it was all said and done, BHS (now 6-1 on the season) used a recipe that has worked pretty well for them all season - a dominant defense and a heavy dose of Zach Rohrig on offense – to get an impressive 48-13 victory that will have major implications in next week's SSAC playoff ratings.
The Indians led just 14-7 at halftime but Alex Moses returned the second half kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown, a play that seemed to deflate the Patriots (4-2) and set the tone for BHS to go on and outscore South, 34-6 in the final two quarters.
"That absolutely deflated them," BHS coach Tyler Phares said. "That's something we have been talking about. In our kickoff return we have two special athletes back there. And we felt at some point it was going to show. We're always close, just a block or two away. We've really harped on them about busting one in a big game and for Alex to come out and rip one off to start the second half was awesome to see."
Parkersburg South standout running back Gage Wright has garnered a lot of "Kennedy Award candidate buzz" and rightly so as he entered Friday's game with 1,202 rushing yards with 15 touchdowns on the ground among his 21 total touchdowns.
Wright finished with 119 rushing yards on 16 carries, one rushing TD and one receiving touchdown against Bridgeport but those numbers were well below his averages. And he had only 10 yards in the second half.
If there was any lingering doubt if Bridgeport's own standout running back in Rohrig belonged on the list of Kennedy contenders, he cemented his name in the conversation with 177 yards on 26 carries and three touchdowns.
Rohrig surpassed 1,000 yards for the season and currently has 1,122 yards on 131 carries and 14 touchdowns. He also edged closer to 3,000 career rushing yards as he now has 2,971 which is good for eighth place on the school's all-time list in the modern era.
"There's no doubt he belongs in that conversation," Phares said. "Not a lot of people talk about Zach Rohrig. We've talked about it numerous times. He's a kid that makes our offense goes. He does the little things. He does have a great offensive line in front of him but he will make people miss. He will make big plays whenever we need him to. He battled through some injuries this week. He wasn't 100 percent healthy but he came out here and proved to everybody that he is one of the best players in the state."
Rohrig missed a large portion of practice leading up to the South game with a groin injury.
"Right now, I feel great, but we just won," Rohrig said. "Tomorrow morning, Sunday morning is when I'm going to be feeling it."
Rohrig has always been one to give the credit to the guys blocking for him and the play of the team's defense in a big win and this one was no different as he was quick to point out the team defensive effort that limited Parkersburg South to 13 points after averaging 61 per game in its first five.
"Shutting down Gage Wright, that was key," Rohrig said. "He's one of the best running backs in the state. He had a few big runs and we expected that but we kept him in check and that was huge for us."
Although Parkersburg South ran 11 plays on the game's opening drive, the BHS defense made them work for any positive yardage they got as the Patriots only advanced 30 yards. The Indians entered the game with 58 tackles for a loss and got three more on this drive – two by strong safety Cam Martin and one by linebacker Mark Biafore. They would go on to finish with seven bringing their season total to 65.
After forcing a punt, the Indians took over on their own 17. The big play of the ensuing eight-play drive came when Rohrig ripped off a 30-yard run and a South personal foul face mask penalty tacked on 15 more yards to put the ball in the red zone.
Two plays later, Martin scored on an 18-yard touchdown run. The PAT kick was no good but Bridgeport drew first blood and led 6-0 with 3:55 left in the first quarter.
The Indians defense came up with another big stand on South's next possession and forced another punt. However, South's defense tightened up and forced a turnover on downs.
South was putting together an impressive drive that featured runs of 22 and 26 yards by Wright and the Patriots had it at the BHS 11 before Martin recovered a fumble to give BHS the ball back.
Bridgeport turned the ball over on downs as senior defensive tackle Tyson Wagoner made a couple of big stops on the drive.
Again, the Patriots advanced into the BHS red zone before Cale Culicerto forced a fumble and recovered a fumble at the 8.
The very next play saw Jack Spatafore connect with Donovan Williams for an 84-yard pass and Rohrig finished things off with his first TD of the game, from 4-yards out and added the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 5:12 left in the first half.
Wright found the end zone on a 22-yard run to make it a one-possession game with 1:43 before halftime.
Rohrig's 22-yard touchdown run with 2:38 to play in the third quarter put the Indians up 28-7. After forcing another South turnover on downs, Spatafore and Williams hooked up again as Williams reeled in a juggling catch right around the goal line for a 37-yard touchdown.
The Patriots came right back and scored for the second time as Wright caught a 52-yard touchdown pass from Turner Garrettson on fourth-and-7.
Rohrig's final touchdown run covered 32 yards and gave the Indians a 41-14 lead at the 9:08 mark of the fourth quarter. Timmy Jeffress, who stepped in for Tanner Hathaway (who missed the game with a neck injury) at the wing, capped off the scoring for the night with a 26-yard touchdown run.
"It's something we've been trying to do with our program for years is build as much depth as possible," Phares said. "You lose your starting wing (Hathaway) and your starting blocking back (Aidan Sparks who got banged up during the game) and you have two juniors in Timmy Jeffress and Jon Bender step up and play fantastic for us.
"I have to give a huge shoutout to Coach (Justin) Carey and Coach (Casey) Stewart, they coached their tales off getting the defense ready. We thought keeping them in front of us was going to be key and rallying to the football and making tackles would be big. Toward the end of the game, we felt like we could shine a bit and started blitzing more. The kids stepped up.
"Cale Culicerto proved he is one of the better corners in the state. We had a few kids step us for us. John Dotson came in and did a great job for us. Sparks had to come out and Bryson Lowther went in and did a fantastic job. I'm proud of all of those kids on defense, they all stepped up for us."
The Indians finished with 516 yards of total offense with 356 on the ground and 160 through the air.
Jeffress finished with 67 rushing yards to complement Rohrig. Martin added 47, Moses had 39 and Josh Love finished with 26.
Spatafore finished with 141 passing yards. Rohrig also completed a 19-yard pass to Moses. Williams caught two passes for 121 yards with the TD and Jeffress had a 20-yard catch.
The Indians will be back at Wayne Jamison Field next Friday with their homecoming game against Preston.
