SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — Nicholas County wore down Oak Hill in the second half of Friday’s Class AA showdown as the third-rated Grizzlies pulled away to hand the No. 7 Red Devils their first loss, 47-26.
“The big thing we had was controlling the line of scrimmage and I thought our offensive line did a real good job controlling them up front,” Grizzlies coach Gene Morris said. “That gave us plenty of time to get the ball into peoples’ hands and plus it opened up some running lanes.”
With the contest tied at 20 at halftime, Nicholas County got the ball to start the second half and put together a seven play drive that covered 65 yards, taking the lead for good on Jared Sagraves’ 13-yard touchdown pass to Luke LeRose.
Kyle Groves made the point-after kick to put the Grizzlies in front, 27-20, just 2:43 into the second half.
Oak Hill (4-1) was nearing the red zone on its first drive of the second half, but quarterback Khori Bass had the ball stripped on a 7-yard run and the Grizzlies’ Zach O’Dell recovered with 7:16 on the third quarter clock.
The turnover swung all the momentum in Nicholas’ favor, and one play after Sagraves’ 46-yard pass to Nick Kiser, the quarterback ran for a 4-yard touchdown to put his team on top, 33-20.
The score stayed that way over the remainder of the third quarter, but the Red Devils got to within 33-26 on a 2-yard TD run by Logan Lawhorn on the second play of the fourth quarter.
But the Grizzlies needed only three plays to regain their two possession lead with tailback Jacob O’Dell following his 35-yard run with a 7-yard touchdown scamper. O’Dell also ran in the two-point conversion, leaving Nicholas with a 41-26 lead with 10:43 to play.
“We knew coming into the game that we had to score some points to win, because defensively we’re just not very good right now,” Oak Hill coach Jason Blankenship said after watching his team give up 47 points a second straight week. “We have trouble stopping the inside run and they exposed us and did a great job with the inside run and then mixing it up with play action and getting some big plays.
“We just had too many mistakes and too many turnovers. They have some football savvy kids that made plays.”
The Grizzlies got the ball back after forcing a turnover on downs and Sagraves threw his fourth TD of the night — a 13-yard pass to Kiser, who caught three of the scores.
“Jared Sagraves did a good job throwing the football all around and Jacob O’Dell ran it extremely well,” Morris said. “He made some nice runs when they had us stymied at the line of scrimmage. He bounced and did some real nice things for us.”
Both defenses made plays early on, with the Grizzlies’ Tyler Sedlock intercepting Bass in the red zone on the game’s first series, before the Red Devils forced a Nicholas punt after the Grizzlies picked up a pair of first downs.
A high snap on an Oak Hill punt resulted in a safety with 1:47 left in the opening quarter, giving the Grizzlies the game’s first points and a 2-0 lead.
On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, Sagraves found Kiser for a 39-yard touchdown pass, leaving Nicholas with an 8-0 advantage.
However, Oak Hill answered quickly in the form of Abraham Farrow’s 63-yard TD run, and the Red Devils trailed 8-6 after their two-point try was unsuccessful.
A 5-yard TD run by Jacob O’Dell with 9:14 left in the second quarter gave the Grizzlies a 14-6 lead. The Red Devils, however, immediately responded and tied the game at 14 just 45 seconds later after a 4-yard TD run by Aaron Peerce was followed by Bass running in the two-point conversion.
Sagraves’ 36-yard TD pass to Kiser put Nicholas back in front at 20-14, only for Bass to find Farrow for an 18-yard TD pass with 3:41 left in the opening half that pulled Oak Hill even.
“We made a couple halftime adjustments to bracket (Farrow) a little more and try to almost double him sometimes to try to take him away,” Morris said. “We thought if we could take him away, we had a better opportunity as far as them hitting the big plays.”