Huntington 34 Westfall 21

 

Using online rosters, so let's hope they are updated. From MaxPreps and Hudl.

Friday night took me to the Chillicothe area to watch the SVC battle between Westfall and Huntington. Westfall entered 5-2, while the Huntsmen came in 4-3. The nice-sized homecoming crowd would be treated to a tight first half and a point explosion in the second.

Hard Running Joey Wright got things going for the Mustangs with a 51-yard run; if not for Jonah Yates making a nice tackle, this would have gone for a touchdown. At the 9:50 mark of the opening quarter, Wright plowed through the heart of the Huntsman defense and broke a 20-yard run off, taking the ball just four yards shy of pay dirt. A 3-yard touchdown run from Eli Wright followed by the PAT from Carson Deskins made this a 7-0 game, with 8:37 left in the quarter.

Dalton Nichols fielded the ensuing kickoff deep in his own territory and took off downfield; he looked like he might take it to the house, but a nice hustle play by Wright stopped Nichols on the 19-yard line.

Frankie Hirsch, a hell of a safety, also starts at quarterback for the Huntsmen, and he would find #8 LJ Cooper for a gain of nine. The 3-play, 19-yard drive came to a close on the third play, with Isaac Taylor plowing in from 2 yards out. The two-point conversion try was stuffed by the Mustangs' defense to leave this a 7-6 game, with 7:22 showing on the clock.

There would be two more significant plays in the quarter; the first came from the Huntsmen, with 6:33 left, with Rhett Phipps and Jackson McNeal making a hurt sandwich out of Wright for a loss of two. Phipps and McNeal both would go on to have very good games. Both of those guys hit you like you called their momma a name, and the price is a hurtful one to pay. Wright ended the quarter with a 5-yard run to set up the offense at the 1-yard line to start the second quarter.

The Huntsman defense would stand strong on the Mustangs' fourth down play as they stuffed Quinn Eberly to force a turnover on downs. Later in the quarter with 7:41 remaining, the Huntsmen defense came up big again when Hirsch picked off the Eberly pass in the end zone to keep this a 7-6 game.

The Huntsmen defense was back at it with 5:27 left in the half when McNeal got to Wright for a loss of two, setting up a third and four. Wright would atone for the loss at the 3:23 mark when he bullied his way to a 26-yard run. McNeal and Carson McNeal teamed up to stop Eberly for a loss of two, with 3:07 showing on the clock. The Huntsmen defense was up to another third-down task, with Phipps stopping Wright for a loss of three, and to make matters worse for the Mustangs, they were backed up another 15 yards because an unsportsmanlike flag was thrown. In the final seventeen seconds of the half, the teams would trade interceptions. Making the pick for the Mustangs was Eberly, and for the Huntsmen, on a halfback pass thrown by Eli Wright, Hirsch made his second pick.

Huntington would get a gain of nearly 20 yards when Hirsch hit Carson McNeal, with 6:51 left in the third. That would be the only pass on the thirteen-play drive that totaled 56 yards. The drive was capped off on a 2-yard run by Taylor to make this a 12-7 game, with 2:58 left in the quarter.

With a little under 2:00 left in the quarter, freshman Calvin Hirsch read the play like a book and easily picked off the Eberly pass. The quarter ended on a 10-yard run by Evan Thomas, setting the Huntsmen offense up at the Mustangs' 30-yard line to start the fourth.

Just eleven seconds into the final frame,, the fireworks started when Taylor shrugged off a tackle on his way to a 29-yard touchdown run. He also converted the two-point conversion run to give the Huntsmen a 20-7 lead.

Twenty-four seconds later, Wright would go 69 yards for a touchdown to make this a 2014 game.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Mustangs pulled off a sweet-looking onside kick with Kaden Mercurio making the recovery. It would take just two plays for the Mustangs to go the 43 yards for their next score. Eberly did the honors by using his feet to go 40 yards for the score to make this a 21-20 game, with 10:52 left.

The Huntsmen offense looked calm as they took the field. They slowly worked the ball downfield. using 2 pass plays and 7 running plays to set them up at the Mustangs' 33-yard line. Hirsch dropped back and let go of a little screen pass that McNeal caught, made a move, broke a tackle, and sprinted to the end zone to put his team up 26-21 with 7:17 left.

The final firework came in the form of a pick six from nearly 60 yards out by Calvin Hirsch, followed by the two-point conversion run by Frankie Hirsch to give the Huntsmen the 34-21 lead, with 5:23 left.

Frankie Hirsch was not done acting like former NFL all-time pick leader Paul Krause as he picked off another pass with 4:49 left in the homecoming victory.

My stats

Westfall

49 plays

290 yards

Passing, 3-10 6 Int's

Huntington

44 plays

227 yards

Passing, 4-9, 1 TD, 1 1Int

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