With roughly 4 minutes to play, Bridgeport had two opportunities to potentially tie the game at 22 in Friday's home opener at Wayne Jamison Field against Morgantown.

Both times, however, the Mohigans came up with a big defensive stop to halt the Indians and they held on for a 22-14 victory.

With the win, Morgantown improves to 2-0, while BHS falls to 1-1 in a game that featured a pair of hard-nosed teams that came in ranked No. 7 and No. 4, respectively, in the WV MetroNews Class AAA power rankings.

It also marked the second win in as many years for the Mohigans against the Tribe, as they won last year at Pony Lewis Field in Morgantown, 10-6.

The Mohigans seemingly took control of the game after Jake Anderson intercepted a pass around the 10-yard line and returned it for a touchdown extend the lead to 22-6 late in the third quarter.

However, the Indians responded quickly. Zach Rohrig returned the ensuing kickoff 33 yards to put the ball on the BHS 34. A run of 7 by Josh Love, a run of 12 by Rohrig and a run of 12 by Love set up Rohrig's fourth rushing touchdown of the season, this one covering 35 yards. Alex Moses punched in a two-point conversion and Bridgeport trailed 22-14 with 2.5 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Bridgeport defense, which had actually played well since allowing two first-quarter touchdowns, forced a Morgantown punt to get the ball back with 8:20 to go in the game.

Taking over at their own 6, the Indians began marching down the field methodically. On fourth-and-3 from the Morgantown 31, Rohrig broke outside to the left picked up 2 yards and dived toward the first down marker, coming up just inches short resulting in a turnover on downs.

"I was standing right behind the play and I knew it was close but I didn't think he made it," Morgantown coach Sean Biser said. "We kind of thought that play might be coming but we couldn't just run guys out there because they were hurting us inside with the trap. That's the thing about their offense, you can't take everything away."

The BHS defense stood tall once again and forced a punt to get the ball back with 2:18 to go. On the third play of the drive, Rohrig was stripped of the ball while fighting for extra yardage and Morgantown's Jaylon Hill recovered to seal the victory.

"Those plays, the pick six by Jake, our defense came up big," Biser said. "And we had to because they were playing really well on defense too. Everybody wants to talk about their offense but I think their defense has always been just as good.

"This is a great win for us. It gives us some confidence. We answered some questions on if we were going to be a physical football team."

After forcing a three-and-out to start the game, the Mohigans needed just three plays to get on the scoreboard. Two of them came from A.J. Thomas as he caught a 16-yard screen pass from Maddox Bowers and followed with a 25-yard touchdown run on a sweep to the right. Aiden Stire ran it for the two-point conversion and an 8-0 lead for Morgantown.

The Indians moved the ball a bit better on their second possession. A stretch of five consecutive runs by Rohrig resulted in two first days and moved the chains to the Morgantown. The drive stalled from there thanks to illegal procedure and holding penalties. After an incomplete pass from Spatafore, Bridgeport was forced to punt again.

A bad snap resulted in a 30-yard loss for the Tribe and prime field position for the Mohigans at the BHS 16. Bobby Powell picked up a gain of 11 on a sweep to set up first-and-goal from the 6. BHS made Morgantown work for the final 5 yards. But Powell found the end zone on a 1-yard run on fourth down. Stire kicked the PAT to make it 15-0 with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.

Rohrig had a stretch where he carried the ball on six straight plays on the ensuing possession. Tanner Hathaway capped the 11-play drive with a 15-yard touchdown run, his first of the season.

Josh Love was stopped just short of the goal line on the two-point conversion attempt but the Indians were on the board, trailing 15-6 with 6:59 left in the second quarter.

Maddox completed a 14-yard pass to Andrew Phares on a fourth-and-7 play from the BHS 44 to extend a Morgantown drive before the BHS defense tightened up.

After a 5-yard run from Caleb Nutter gave the Mohigans a second-and-5 from the BHS 30, Bridgeport's Aidan Sparks met Powell on a sweep and brought him down for a 1-yard loss.

Cale Culicerto broke up a Maddon pass to force fourth down. Another incomplete pass gave BHS the turnover on downs and made sure the score stayed 15-6 at halftime.

"Our defense played well," BHS coach Tyler Phares said. "Coach (Casey) Stewart made some really nice adjustments. He did a good job at halftime, finding ways to shut them down. The kids did a great job fighting back and getting more physical as the game wore on.

"There's no question our kids fought the entire game. The effort was there. It's just the details. We were a hair away numerous times. We have to learn from it and get better, that's all we can do."

Rohrig finished with 185 rushing yards on 33 carries to go along with his touchdown. He now has 2,214 career rushing yards, jumping into 11th place on the school's all-time list.

Love finished with 68 yards on 10 carries and Hathaway added 27 yards on four carries and the one TD.

Bridgeport outgained Morgantown, 232 yards to 151 yards.

Bowers completed 8-of-12 passes for 86 yards. Nutter had a team-high 22 rushing yards.

The Indians return to action in Week 3 on the road at John Marshall.