Junior fullback Jason Thompson tossed a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maynard with 1:06 remaining, lifting the second-ranked Pioneers to a heart-stopping 26-22 win over 10th-ranked Logan, Friday night, at Logan Stadium.
The Pioneers capped a perfect 10-0 regular season with the victory, while earning Harmon his 100th career victory as the school’s head coach.
“We have a series of plays we run all the time in practice, but a lot of times we don’t run them in games until the right situation arises. It was one of those situations,” Harmon said of the game-winning score. “Fortunately, we had player that we have a lot of trust in and he made the play there. This is the time of year you need to do things like that.”
In keeping with the Halloween theme, Harmon said the winning play was called “Friday the 13th.”
“Because everybody’s afraid of Jason,” Harmon said.
Thompson’s pass capped an 11-play, 84-yard scoring drive, which included a 20-yard pass from Joey Ferguson to Maynard and a 27-yard connection from Ferguson to Rodney Endicott. It also erased a 22-19 Logan lead that the Wildcats had taken on the previous possession.
The Cats (6-4) stormed back from a 19-7 deficit entering the final quarter thanks to a 2-yard run by Chris Tolliver with 7:42 left in the contest and a 56-yard scoring scamper by Cody Baisden with 4:56 left to play.
“Games like this...you have to learn to play under duress,” Harmon said. “As far as the game was concerned, we didn’t deserve to win it. We made enough mistakes to lose, we didn’t execute at times when we needed to and we put our backs against the wall. The good thing was that we answered the bell when we had to.”
Wayne had taken its 12-point second half lead thanks to a 13-yard TD run by Ferguson on the opening possession of the third quarter and a 40-yard run by Justin Gilkerson with 14 seconds left in the period.
Gilkerson finished with a game-high 191 yards on 26 carries, helping the Pioneers to a 390-253 edge in total offense.
The opening half was a perpetual series of “what might have beens” for Wayne.
The Pioneers average starting point on their first five possessions was the Wildcat 41-yard line, but the huge edge in field position produced just one touchdown.
Jeremy Maynard got a piece of a punt by Logan’s Brandon Gearhart on the game’s opening possession, giving Wayne the ball at the Wildcat 34-yard line. But a 2-yard run by Jason Thompson was followed by three straight incompletions by quarterback Joey Ferguson and Logan regained possession.
After the Wildcats were forced to punt again, the Pioneers drove from their own 46 to the Logan 13, but Thompson fumbled on a first down carry and Logan recovered at its own 5-yard line.
The Cats were again forced to punt just four plays later, but Gearhart was forced to run after bobbling the snap and was stopped after a one-yard gain, giving Wayne the ball at the Logan 21.
The Pioneers finally took advantage of their prosperity when, three plays later, Ferguson connected with Brandon Fletcher on a 20-yard touchdown pass to give Wayne a 7-0 lead at the 2:20 mark of the opening stanza.
Logan countered with a seven-play, 66-yard scoring drive of its own on the ensuing possession, with Chris Tolliver’s 9-yard TD run culminating the march and Josh Wilson’s PAT kick tying the game at 7-7 with 10:56 left in the half.
Wayne also saw a 13-play drive on its ensuing possession end on downs at the Logan 4 and, after another bad snap on a Logan punt attempt gave the Pioneers the ball at the Wildcat 36, the potential scoring threat died on downs at the Logan 20.
Mullins pleased with Cats’ effort against Pioneers
By PAUL ADKINS, Sports Editor
Despite losing 26-22 to No. 2-ranked and unbeaten Wayne on Friday night in the regular season finale, Logan coach Gary Mullins talked afterwards about it being a program-changing game.
The Wildcats took the defending Class AA state champion Pioneers to the brink before Wayne was able to score the last-minute go-ahead touchdown.
Logan football has come a long way.
Just three or four years ago, the Wildcats didn’t stand a chance against Wayne, let alone to almost pull off a huge upset.
Did Logan have a program-changing game? Most definitely.
“I think that we did,” said Mullins, the fourth-year Logan coach. “We’ve talked a good game over the last three years but we’ve never been able to put it on the field against a great team like this. We practiced so hard this week and watched film and studying everything that they do.”
Logan Stadium was electric.
It was a playoff-kind of atmosphere.
The crowd was loud and into the game.
The cowbells were ringing.
Blue and Gold filled the stands.
“I’m real proud of our fans,” Mullins said. “This was a small college atmosphere tonight with the scene that we had. I just hope that they cherish this forever because they’ve got nothing to be ashamed about. This was amazing. This was better than what I played in front of in college at Fairmont State. We didn’t have crowds like this. What a great atmosphere. We’ll be back here next year against Man and we hope we can do the same thing here next year.”
Friday was Senior Night and Logan’s 14 seniors n Nick Adams, Thomas Adkins, Cody Baisden, Frank Dillon, Thomas Dillon, Brandon Gearhart, Dion Greenlee, Patrick King, Andy Mayhorn, Tyler Perry, Kyle Saunders, Robert Shell, Trey Taylor and Chris Tolliver n will probably always remember this one.
“We took our best shot. Tonight, we took our best shot but it just wasn’t quite good enough,” Mullins said. “We hope and pray that we get an opportunity to do it again because to play a game like this you will remember it the rest of our life. We cherished watching these seniors on this field one last time because this is a special group.”
Despite the loss Logan finished the season 6-4 n its first winning campaign since 1993 and first under Mullins.
Logan is in the Class AA playoffs for the first time since 2005 when Logan finished 5-6 and lost to Weir in the first round.
“I don’t think that we’re that far away. I think our program has grown a lot in the last four years,” Mullins said. “These seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen all worked hard in the off-season. This senior group when they came in as ninth-graders said they wanted change. I felt like they did it.”
Mullins said Logan’s defense performed well.
“We felt like we had a good game plan against them defensively,” he said. “Five times in the first half they started inside our 40 and our defense played super good. We just ran out of gas a little bit there at the end as our defense got a little bit tired. But we were still there to make plays. But to have it pretty much come down to the last play of the game against the best football team in the state of West Virginia I think that we can build on that. Now our goal is to win the first playoff game in school history.”
Mullins said Logan played toe-to-toe with Wayne.
“We did everything that we could do to win this ballgame,” he said. “Those guys don’t have anything to hang their heads down about. They played with everything that they had. We’re tickled to death and we wanted to prove tonight that we could play with anybody in this state at any time. We felt that we did that. I’m happy with the boys. They don’t anything to be ashamed about.”
Mullins said it was an excellent prep football game.
“I think they played great and we played great,” he said. “That was a wonderful high school football game. I think it would be hard-pressed to find a better game in the state. We’re just happy that we could say that we were a part of it, and hopefully, we can meet up again at Wayne somewhere in Round 2 of the playoffs.”
Logan will make its third trip to the playoffs in school history.
The Wildcats are 0-2 all-time, falling 66-0 at Weir in 2005 and losing 14-13 to Martinsburg back in the 1990 Class AAA playoffs.
“We’re not just happy to be there,” Mullins said. “I felt like when we played Weir we were just happy to be there. We took our four-hour drive and took a butt-kicking but this time we’re not happy.”
Logan won’t officially know who it plays until Sunday when the WVSSAC is holding meetings with the playoff-bound coaches at Parkersburg.
However, early projections on Friday night and into Saturday had 6-4 Logan as the No. 13 seed, playing at No. 4 Berkeley Springs (8-2).
It will be determined today whether the game would be played this coming Friday night or next Saturday afternoon.
“We played them (Wayne) tight but now we have to get over this disappointment. We’re 0-0 and whoever that we play is 0-0,” Mullins said. “And I’m pretty sure that if we give this effort right here that we can play with anybody in the state. It’s a great day to be a Wildcat fan and we’re looking forward to next week.”
Logan played the game without three injured starters n Travis Bryant, Derrick Perrin and King. Perrin suffered a season-ending neck injury earlier in the season at Chapmanville.
“Without those guys I don’t think that we did too shabby,” Mullins said. “A lot of guys played that didn’t play in our first three victories and they went toe-to-toe with the best team in the state in Double-A. I’m just so proud that I coach these kids.”
In Friday’s game, freshman quarterback David Brown was 7-of-19 passing for 81 yards and two interceptions.
Tolliver had four catches for 29 yards and a two-point conversion. Adkins had one catch for 32 yards. Josh Wilson had one grab for 18 yards. Shell had one catch for two yards.
Tolliver ran with the ball 12 times for 98 yards and two scores. Baisden had eight attempts for 81 yards and one TD. Shell had six carries for 52 yards.
Baisden led the defense with 11 tackles.
Shell and Jasyn Blankenship had 10 tackles each.
Sammy Pansera and Donnovan Turner had nine tackles each.
Taylor had seven tackles and Mayhorn four.
Wilson, Adams and Perry had three stops each.
Josh Thompson and Gearhart had two tackles apiece.
Keith Browning, Jason Spurlock, Allen Broughton, James May and Tolliver all had one tackle each.
Pansera, Keith Browning, Spurlock, Broughton and Blankenship all had one special teams tackle each.
Pansera caused a fumble.
Taylor and James Meade each recovered a fumble.
Taylor intercepted a pass.
Wilson had a pass breakup.
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