Sports
Recap: Parkersburg South’s Season Ends With 70-0 Loss To No. 1 seed Capital [Video]
By: Josh Vermillion
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Domination.
One word is all it takes to define the Friday’s first round playoff matchup between No. 16 Parkersburg South and No.1 Capital. As one would expect from a No. 16 versus No. 1 game, Capital took off early and never landed as they cruised to the 70-0 victory at Laidley Field in Charleston.
Capital’s backfield general, Tyhree Pratt, had himself a day throwing the ball. Pratt put up huge passing numbers, ending the game with five touchdowns on 310 yards passing. Those numbers would have been higher too, but two touchdowns were on screen passes behind the line of scrimmage that count as rushes.
The game started with a quick three-and-out for the Patriots, and Capital took over in great field position. On the fourth play of the drive, Pratt hit Silas Nuzario on the short route, and the sophomore did the rest. He took the ball 48 yards to the house, and the rout was on.
Pratt did a great job of leading the offense the entire half. On the Cougars’ five scoring drives in the first half, they took an average of 60.8 seconds per possession. That includes two straight possessions where it only took a single play for Pratt to find a receiver and add to his touchdown total.
Throughout the entire first half, Capital had only one possession in which they didn’t come away with a touchdown, and that didn’t come until the 9:33 mark in the second quarter. They were completely dominating whenever they had the ball.
It was a completely different story for the visiting Patriots. They were having problems getting anything going all game. They had some success on their second drive, but Garret Gilkeson got sacked for a 14 yard loss on third down, and they were forced to punt. On their next possession, they fumbled on the second play. Then, they went three-and-out on three straight possessions.
Parkersburg South finally got a little bit of momentum going on their final drive before halftime. With the help of two personal foul penalties against the defense, the Patriots had it inside Capital’s red zone for the first time all game. Much like the rest of the game had gone for them though, they committed some penalties of their own, and ended up turning the ball over on downs just before the halftime whistle, down 35-0.
The Cougars came out of the locker room and continued to pour points on the scoreboard. They matched their first half output perfectly, putting up 35 more points and shutting down the Patriot offense. Capital nearly quadrupled Parkersburg South’s offensive production, outgaining the Patriots 610-157.
Despite possessing the ball for twice as long as Capital, Parkersburg South just couldn’t convert on their opportunities. They found some success on the ground, but couldn’t do much through the air as Gilkeson finished with only 31 yards through the air.
The Patriots, who finished 2-8 last season, saw huge improvement this year, but their season ends with a 6-5 record. Capital improves to 10-0 on the season, and will take on the winner of the Wheeling Park vs. Lewis County game in the Class AAA state quarterfinals next week.