“With this win, I think we beat every team in the county,” Gilbert Coach Gordon Carter said.
Gilbert struck first blood against the Panthers with a 28-yard touchdown run by running back Josh Carter with a little under five minutes in the first quarter, one of two touchdowns by Carter in the game.
Tug Valley would turn the ball over on downs to Gilbert on its next drive only to recover a fumble made by Carter.
However, the Panthers were unable to take advantage of the recovery which set up a scoring drive for the Lions at the top of the second quarter.
From there, the second quarter would prove very fruitful for the Lions, scoring three of their four touchdowns in that 12-minute stretch, which included another score by Carter and two touchdowns by wide receiver Cody Houck.
With successful completions of three of their four two-point conversions, the score was 30-0 Lions at the half.
The remaining half of football saw the Lions and Panthers battle back and forth but never reaching the end zone for either team.
The Panthers’ only scoring attempt came in the third quarter, coming up short on a 30-yard field goal attempt.
The Lions’ came close to scoring again in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, but a penalty on the play called for the down to be replayed and quarterback Ashton Cline took a knee to run out the clock.
“We pretty much shut Gilbert out in the second half,” Tug Valley coach Josh Duty said. “We moved the ball but just couldn’t get it across the goal line. Gilbert tightened up when they needed to.”
“We were coming off a big win at Matewan, but had a week off in between. I thought we’d be a little flat,” Coach Carter said. “And at first we were flat, but the kids responded and played good football for the rest of the night.”
Gilbert had 507 total yards with Josh Carter leading the way with 200 yards on 12 carries, with two touchdowns and two two-point conversions. The game put Carter over the 1,000-yard mark for the nine-game season.
Cameron Ellis had 94 yards on 12 carries and Cody Houck ran the ball for 50 yards on six carries with two touchdowns.
Quarterback Ashton Cline passed for 100 yards completing 4-of-11 throws.
“I am really proud of Carter. He has really stepped up and ran the ball hard for us. He has had some great games for Gilbert and I hope we can move into a playoff spot so they can have at least one more game,” Coach Carter said.
Carter also gave a lot of credit to Duty and the Tug Valley Panthers, in particular quarterback Cody Varney.
“Their kids never quit and they had a lot of heart and lot of determination. They didn’t play like they were an 0-9 football team. They just had a lot of bad luck this season along with a killer schedule.”
Tug Valley had the fourth toughest regular season schedule in West Virginia this year, according to Coach Duty.
“You have to admire my kids’ guts to be willing to face that type of schedule. We want to build on this. This was the schedule and the year where the program was supposed to fold, but these kids put a stop to that,” Duty said.
Duty went on to say he hopes to have a more realistic schedule next year. The game marked the end of the high school football careers for many of the seniors playing, 13 from Tug Valley and nine from Gilbert.
The win improved Gilbert to 6-3 and kept the Lions’ playoff hopes alive. The Lions are projected to earn the 16th and final spot but would most likely have to travel to play at No. 1-ranked Weirton Madonna for a Class A first-round game. The playoff brackets will be released on Sunday by the WVSSAC.
Tug Valley closed out the season 0-10.
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