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WHEELING - From championship games, to Ohio Valley Athletic Conference All-Star games to regular season contests, there have been many, many unbelievable football games held at Wheeling Island Stadium, including both the old and new venues.

However, Friday night Wheeling Park and Parkersburg South may have taken things to a new level at the historic Island ballyard.

Senior Hunter Ferguson's fifth touchdown run of the night, this one on a nine-yard burst in overtime, capped an amazing game, in which the Wood County Patriots erased a 17-point second half deficit, before rallying for a wild 77-71 victory over the Park.

The remarkable victory keeps Head Coach John Bolen's South team alive in the West Virginia Class AAA playoff hunt with a regular-season finale next week in Moundsville against John Marshall. The Patriots have reeled off sixth straight wins after beginning the season 0-3 and were sitting at number 14 entering the week.

For first-year Head Coach Chris Daugherty, it was a season in which his Patriots defeated Morgantown in the opener before his injury riddled club lost their final nine.

The game itself would feature 22 total touchdowns and 1,060 yards of total offense, not counting the hundreds of yards that accumulated on kick returns for both sides. South would finish with two kickoff returns for touchdowns while Park would have a punt return for a score. The local Patriots would also get great field position all night thanks to Marcus George and Zach Morris on special teams.

There were also a total of eight touchdown that covered 41 yards or more in the game.

The 77 points allowed was the most ever by a Park team, erasing the 61 they gave to Steubenville a few years ago, but the 71 were one point shy of a school record for points scored.

Wheeling Park would actually lead by 17 points twice, once at 52-35 with 1:55 to go in the third quarter and again at 59-42 with 10:33 to play in the game. The telling factor in the contest was the five extra-point kicks and one two-point conversion the Ohio Countians could not convert in the second half.

With the Park leading 65-56 with 8:38 to go, Bolen's squad would move 72 yards on just three plays, with Ferguson chewing up the final five with 7:44 to go. Michael Molinari's point-after would cut the deficit to 65-63.

Daughterty's squad would have a rare three-and-out on the night and the visitors would move 54 yards with Ferguson giving them the lead with 2:08 remaining. Senior quarterback Cody Swearingen's two-point run would make it 71-65 South.

But a 44-yard George kickoff return would set the Park up for some late-game heroics and on second-and-10 from the South 22 Morris would take a pitch and throw a touchdown pass to DeVaughn Palmer with just 19 ticks showing to knot the count at 71-71, leaving the home-standing Patriots just a PAT away from a huge upset