PARKERSBURG - Visiting Huntington scored the first three times it had the football, then used two fumble recoveries for two more touchdowns to lead 30-0 at the half and went on to trounce Parkersburg High 44-0 Friday night at Stadium Field.
The Highlanders, now 4-0, piled up 258 yards in the first half alone and 368 total to just 87 and 189 respectively for the Big Reds, now 2-2.
The Class AAA matchup between Huntington, tied for third in the WVSSAC state ratings, and No. 14 PHS was dominated by the Highlanders right from the very start.
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Photo by Jeff Baughan
Parkersburg's Aaron Roberts is sandwiched between Huntington's Payton Johnson, left, and Marcus Eller. The Big Reds lost, 44-0.
They methodically drove 80, 56 and 80 yards for tallies - two TDs and a field goal - to lead 17-0 at 9:05 of the second quarter before pouncing on a pair of Big Red bobbles at the PHS 6 and 23 and turning the turnovers into scores as well.
In between the two fumbles though, the Big Reds did march 53 yards to the Huntington 15 before the drive stalled out. But a field-goal try from 32 yards out by Codey Roney hit off the top of the right upright and fell off to the side 5:07 before the halftime horn to foil the PHS scoring threat.
The Highlanders tacked on two more TDs in the third quarter on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Mark Shaver and after their third of four fumble recoveries in the game, a 16-yard pass from Clark Wilson to Donte Hendricks set up Marcus Eller's two-yard run to paydirt.
For the game, Shaver led Huntington with 111 yards rushing and passed for another 45, while his Big Red counterpart, Aaron Roberts, hit on 13 of 28 aerials for 124 yards.
Both Paden Christian and Hendricks notched two first-half Highlander TDs while Zach Stephens booted a 26-yard field goal.
For the Big Reds, Chandler Hamilton gained 41 infantry yards to pace PHS, while Dylan Thomas snagged three passes for 42 yards, Hamilton three for 39 and Dan Fox three for 15.
The Big Reds - now 2-0 on the road this season, but so far 0-2 at home - travel next Friday to play at St. Albans at 7:30 p.m. while Huntington is also on the road that night at Cabell Midland, which handed PHS its other home loss by a 49-10 score two weeks ago.
