For many years, Tucker County has occupied both a literal and figurative summit in West Virginia high school Class A football. The Mountain Lions made the postseason their home and cut machete-like through their regular season schedule.
This season, they have climbed down off of the mountain somewhat with two wins against Tygarts Valley and Clay Battelle stacked up against two losses to Pocahontas County and East Hardy. The Warriors’ opening day upset of Tucker County was followed by three consecutive losses, which showed that Pocahontas County had not improved so much as the Mountain Lions took a step back.
One unit that has stepped up for the Wildcats this season, the offensive line, came in Friday night to dominate. Kokosing may grade the road for the West Virginia Department of Highways on Corridor H, but it has nothing on the young men whose relentless effort gave the offensive weapons of the Wildcats a chance to shine.
Tucker County took the opening kickoff to their own 37, but no further as Pendleton County’s David Noble made the special teams stop. They stalled out on their first drive as the defensive line bottled up the first two plays. Tucker County attempted a deep pass on third down, but effective double coverage stymied the play. Pendleton County’s try at the Tucker County defense on its first possession led to a pretty similar outcome, and they punted the ball to the visiting team’s 38.
The Mountain Lions worked to establish the running game in two ways. First, they ran out of a power formation with the quarterback in the shotgun and running backs behind and beside. They also would spread the field in four and five wide receiver sets to stretch the defense out along the line of scrimmage and create running spaces. Pendleton County’s defense generally set all players within five yards of the line of scrimmage, bringing pressure to the point of attack not unlike the concept behind the old Buddy Ryan 46 defense used with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.
Tucker County took the ball with nine minutes left in the first quarter and executed an efficient and disciplined drive. More than 16 plays and eight and a half minutes later, Tucker County gripped the ball, making plays with power runs and the read option. With just under two minutes in the quarter, they had the ball first and goal at the four-yard line.
Snapping bedeviled Tucker County for much of the game. Many came in at the ankles, forcing the quarterback to take an extra second to pop up and start the play. On this occasion, they fumbled, recovered, and lost a yard in the process. On second down with a “naked” gun formation with two wide receivers left and three to the right, no running backs in the backfield, they motioned a receiver from left to right, leaving their receiver covered man-to-man and alone. Excellent coverage forced an incompletion on that down. On third and goal, the handoff went straight into a legion of Wildcats who gang-tackled the back. Travis Owens’ defense ended Tucker County’s fourth and seven pass play and got the ball back for his team.
Braylon Willis made sure his team was not backed up for long, following blockers to the right, then cutting all the way back across the field and turning up the left sideline to the Wildcat 37. Two plays later, quarterback Mason Miller for the first of three times on the day used a hard cadence to pull a gifted five yards from Tucker County via encroachment. The drive, however, got to the Mountain Lion 42 and no further. That did allow Cameron Wyatt’s punt to back them up to the five-yard line to start their next drive.
Within five plays, however, the Mountain Lions pushed to their own 45 and the Wildcats had had enough. Coaches called for fierce pressure from blitzers, often directly up the middle. A holding call backed the Mountain Lions up to second and 20 from their own 35 and they punted to the Wildcat 20 not long after.
With the Wildcats seeing second and nine from their own 21, the Mountain Lions called their first time out. Owens and the receiver paired with him on his side crossed up the defense, leaving both men open for Miller. He delivered to Owens after the receiver outraced the defenders, then took the first score.
The Mountain Lions started at their own 16, but moved to midfield within a few plays. There the Wildcat defense stiffened. On fourth down and three, they tossed a screen pass right but Sam Eason was not fooled. He dropped the receiver and his team picked up possession of the ball.
While Colton Roberson resembles Major Harris in style of play, but Miller looks more like Geno Smith. He has mobility enough to elude and escape defenders, but is more of a classic pocket passer. Zac Smith, head coach, showed that he and his coaches decided to get creative to take pressure off their talented freshman. At the 3:16 mark in the first half on first and 10 at midfield, he called up a jet sweep play for Owens, who ran it 15 yards. Next came a nifty, yet precise and well-executed shovel pass play to a cutting Wyatt, who made his way to the 15. There, Miller got another five-yard gift from his cadence and the defense.
After a roughing the passer call made it first and goal at the six, Tucker County got two stops. One came against Owens, who stepped into the quarterback position to run a “wildcat” style play. (Not Pendleton County Wildcats, but the NFL playcalling fad from about a decade ago.) He didn’t make the endzone then, but leapt high in the air on a crossing pattern on third down to secure the second touchdown.
Pendleton County opened the second half with Owens returning the kickoff to the Wildcat 42. Tucker County mimicked their opponents and tried to pull their defense close to the line of scrimmage to intimidate Miller and create pressure. Generally, this implies that the defense thinks the quarterback can be thus rattled…mission not accomplished.
Miller found Owens as he cut inside his defender, snagged the ball in stride, and turned up field to the 21. On the next play, the defensive back gave Jonah See too much space on the left side. As See floated beneath the coverage, Miller fired the ball to him and the play advanced to the 16. With a short second down to go, Miller went for the score. Britton Lough made his break in front of the coverage, pulled in a pass in complete stride, and scored.
Owens’ kick made it 21-0 with just under 10 minutes left in the third.
Tucker County had the ball for about 50 seconds on their next possession. With their offense unable to establish the pass consistently, Wildcat defenders honed in on the running backs. Holes open in the first disappeared in the third.
Miller took over the offense again on the Mountain Lion 42 after a huge return by Owens. On second down, he found Wyatt on a bubble screen with the receiver taking the ball just inside to the 20.
Then Miller showed his maturity as a quarterback. Rarely did the line allow defenders to provide much pressure all night, but on this play some broke through. Miller stood in the pocket, delivered the ball, and took the hit. While incomplete that time, it showed that he has the moxie of the old school drop back quarterbacks. A few plays after, Willis took a first down pitch, shook off a blitzing linebacker, and dove to the six, making positive yardage out of the play. Not long after, Tucker County had forced a fourth down and goal play at the four, but a throw to Wyatt put Pendleton County on the score board again with six minutes left in the third.
Wildcat defenders got the ball right back. The Mountain Lions had the ball near midfield on second and 10. Their quarterback rolled right with sharks in the backfield water nearby named Liam Simmons, Sam Eason, and Ty Heavner. As they closed on him, the quarterback threw the ball away. Wyatt stepped in front of the receiver and pulled the ball in at the Wildcat 38.
Back in business, Miller wasted no time. Wyatt caught the ball again, this time from his own quarterback, and pushed ahead to the visitors’ 45. Not long after, Wyatt pulled in yet another pass. This time, with Owens’ kick, it pushed the advantage to 35-0 with about four minutes left in the third.
The offense got another chance to work less than 20 seconds later. Wyatt, Eason, and others slammed into the quarterback as he looked to run, popping the ball loose. Pendleton County recovered and took two plays to score on a Willis 33-yard sprint. No conversion this time and the score was 41-0.
Tucker County’s next drive saw them falter early. On second down, Simmons blitzed and got his hand on a screen pass, but the visitors picked up a first down on the next play. They got to the 11 of the home squad, but on third down there, Lough rocked the quarterback as he threw, causing the ball to fall harmlessly to the ground. On fourth down, Wyatt tracked down the quarterback as he rolled out and dragged him down shy of the line of scrimmage…Wildcat ball.
The very next play on first and 10 at their own 11, Miller fired a pass to Owens who was standing almost still by the right sideline. He then raced toward the middle of the field, found a broad opening, and accelerated up field through and past the Mountain Lion defense as they pursued. The kick finalized the score at 48-0 with a lot of game left.
Playing for pride by the final quarter, Tucker County continued to attack. On the first play, they tested the pass defense, but Malcolm Smith got his hands into the play. Trying to fool reserve players coming in on defense, Tucker County called a screen pass. Jackson Wimer, however, got in close and batted the pass down. Not long after, on second and 10 at midfield, Tucker County’s quarterback tried to exploit man to man coverage downfield by See, but the defensive back stayed with the receiver stride for stride. The very next play, Ronnie Thompson blitzed and got his arms around the quarterback who avoided the sack by tossing the ball downfield. Wyatt Haynes’ pursuit on fourth down forced an incompletion and turnover on downs with 7:30 left in the game.
Miller handed off to Cayson Armstrong on the first two plays of the possession, which he ran for 15, then 19 yards. The offense got to the 12 but no further with Pendleton County running base plays at this point.
With under two minutes left, the visitors tried to get up the field. Bryce Propst popped the ballcarrier hard on first down for a minimal gain. On second, Haynes and Noah Kobetic, among other defenders, dropped the runner after a six-yard gain. Haynes got in on the final play, chasing down the quarterback and forcing a bad throw.
Coming up Friday in the homecoming game, Pendleton County hops the Virginia line for the first of three times in the next month. Bath County is 3-1, but with wins over Stonewall Jackson, Pocahontas County, and two weeks ago a 20-0 win over Tygarts Valley.
