Oct. 5—ROMNEY, W.Va. — No. 5 Northern took an early 7-0 lead on Hampshire, then the Trojans scored 37 unanswered points to stun the Huskies in a 37-15 victory on Friday at Rannells Field.
“I thought our guys were fired up, we wanted this game tonight,” Hampshire head coach Donny Evans said. “We had a great week of practice, and our guys showed some hunger tonight.”
The Trojans (3-3) put themselves in an early hole three plays into the game.
A fumble was recovered by Luke Ross, setting the Huskies (2-3) up at its own 46.
Ross punched it in four plays later from the 14.
“We started out exactly how we wanted to,” Northern head coach Phil Carr said. “We got a turnover, few plays later we’re in the end zone. Awesome start to the game, but then we couldn’t keep drives going.”
Three plays into Hampshire’s ensuing drive, Landon Eversole lobbed a deep pass to Vinny Greear.
He was untouched the final 60 yards on the way to a 75-yard touchdown.
“Whenever you get a big play, it always brings motivation,” Evans said. “The guys get fired up after that. I felt like it jump-started us a little bit.”
Eversole finished 11 of 16 for 204 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.
Late in the first quarter, the Trojans took over on their own 26.
Two plays later, Roscoe Dean found a seam down the right sideline and was gone for a 59-yard touchdown.
Trailing 13-7 after a blocked extra point following Dean’s score, Northern had possession to open the second quarter.
On third down, Colson Kinser jarred the ball out on a strip sack, and Wyatt Swanger took it to the house on a 35-yard scoop-and-score.
“That’s just that extra touchdown that we needed,” Evans said. “Kind of gave us that little cushion, help the guys be a little more aggressive on defense.”
The Huskies took over and tried a trick play with a running back pass. An underthrown ball was intercepted by Greear.
The Trojans drove 74 yards in response, 25 coming on a pass from Eversole to Andrew Loy.
Greear took a handoff, broke one tackle and was gone for a 35-yard score to end the drive.
“Our inability to maintain drives hurt us,” Carr said. “We put them back on the field and put our defense in bad situations because we couldn’t maintain first downs. We could get one, and then we’d falter and have to punt.”
With less than two minutes remaining before halftime, Eversole threw a deep ball to Greear down the right sideline.
Greear finished with seven receptions for 176 yards, combining for 211 yards of offense with a pair of touchdowns.
“Vinny’s an athlete, he’s one of our playmakers,” Evans said. “We try and get the ball to him as much as possible. He’s always on the verge of scoring on a big play.”
It picked up 27 yards to Northern’s 32, and set up a 49-yard field goal by Bryson Richardson with nine seconds left.
Leading 30-7 at halftime, the Trojans added six more points on its opening drive of the second half.
On third and six, Eversole threw a swing pass to Greear, who broke two tackles down the left sideline and picked up 38 to move the chains.
“We bounced off some guys, can’t do that,” Carr said of the missed tackles. “They spread us out, that made it tough. We had to cover people, and when you don’t have as many guys in there to shut the running game down. But we were in position several times to make plays, and we bounced off.”
Two plays later, Dean walked in from the seven.
Dean led Hampshire with 85 yards on 14 carries and two scores.
The Huskies answered on the next drive, highlighted by a 44-yard swing pass from Liam Stewart to Luke Ross.
Ross led all players with 94 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown.
It set Northern up at the Trojan 15, and two plays later, Caleb Hinebaugh scored from the 12.
Stewart threw to Hinebaugh for a two-point conversion.
Hampshire outgained Northern 358-272 and held the Huskies to 2 for 10 on third down.
The Trojans also forced two turnovers and recorded four sacks.
“I thought our D-Line played a lot better,” Evans said. “The last several games, we’ve been giving up 300 yards on the ground. I thought we did a lot better job this week.”
Both teams play Friday at 7 p.m.
Hampshire travels to East Hardy (3-3) which defeated Pocahontas County 54-6 and Northern hosts Uniontown (3-3) which is coming off a bye.
“We kind of put our backs against the wall if we’ve got any chance at all of hosting a playoff game,” Carr said. “It’s a must-win on Homecoming with Uniontown.”
Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Email him with scores and story suggestions at jkendall@times-news.com.
