Chapmanville’s Dylan Wiley is brought down by Logan’s Nigel Wallace (4) and Bubba Shepherd (6) in Friday’s game at LHS. (Photo/Paul Adkins)
With the Tigers playing Logan, a team with another high-octane, spread offense, how would Chapmanville’s defense stack up?
Would Chapmanville give up 50 points?
Maybe 60 points?
The Tigers answered those critics and made them eat crow on Friday night as Chapmanville’s defense stepped up to the challenge and led the Orange and Black to a 35-20 win over county rival Logan at Logan Stadium.
It was huge win for Class AA No. 10-ranked Chapmanville, which improved to 4-1 on the season and beat the Triple-A Wildcats for the fourth straight year.
Logan, ranked No. 12 in Class AAA, dropped its second straight game, fell to 3-2 on the season and saw its 2010 homecoming game spoiled by the Tigers in front of a huge, standing only crowd.
Chapmanville was led offensively by senior running back Jake Robinson, who rushed for 249 yards on 26 carries and scored two touchdowns on runs of 3 and 66. Robinson had rushed for 408 yards and scored seven touchdowns in Chapmanville’s 69-66 shootout win at home over Poca last week.
Tigers’ senior tailback Dustin Botsch scored three touchdowns on runs of 6, 5 and 1 and played against his former Logan teammates for the first time.
Chapmanville celebrated in one of the end zones following Friday night’s win and sang the Chapmanville Regional High School Fight Song.
Tigers’ coach George Barker praised his team’s defensive effort.
“I thought that we put together a great scheme,” he said. “We executed most of the night. When they have great athletes like they (Logan) do it’s hard to keep them out of the end zone all of the time but I thought that we did a good job.”
Chapmanville’s defense seemed to be able to pressure Logan quarterback David Brown for most of the night. The Tigers were able to rally from a 14-13 deficit at the half.
“I thought Coach (Bo) Berry did a great job on calling the defense,” Barker said. “It was just a super night for us playing against a great ball team. We were proud of them.”
Leading by one at halftime Logan was to receive the second half kickoff. Chapmanville, however, surprised the Wildcats with an on-side kick and Tigers’ kicker Craig Johnson was able to execute. Chapmanville’s Joe Woody fell on the ball at the CRHS 49-yard line.
The Tigers then put together a nine-play, 51-yard drive, capped off by Botsch’s 5-yard touchdown run with 7:58 left in the third quarter. Josh Easterling passed to Zach Thompson on the two-point conversion and the Tigers led for good, 21-14.
Logan got down into the red zone on its next drive but Brown was thrown for an 11-yard loss on a sack by Dustin Smith and Brown was stopped at the 3-yard line on a fourth-and-goal play from the 16.
Chapmanville punted on its next drive and Logan was able to punch in a score with a 20-yard TD pass from Brown to Khaleel Reynolds just before the end of the third quarter. Gary Miller’s potential game-tying extra point kick, however, sailed wide left, leaving the score at 21-20 in favor of the Tigers.
With 9:37 left in the game, Logan’s Nigel Wallace intercepted Easterling at the Wildcat 5-yard line. Logan’s drive, though, was stalled after Robinson threw Brown for a 13-yard sack.
Chapmanville then struck right back.
After a 54-yard run by Robinson to the Logan 10, Botsch plunged in from 1-yard out with 4:46 left in the game to make it a 27-20 ballgame. The Tigers elected to go for two and make it a two possession game but Easterling’s successful fake and bootleg into the end zone was wiped out due to a holding penalty. Johnson, instead, booted a 30-yard PAT to make it 28-20 Chapmanville.
Logan was still not out of the game and tried to rally back.
After a 29-yard pass to Deyonta Coleman at the Chapmanville 30-yard line the Wildcats were in business.
However, six plays later, Brown fumbled and Woody was able to fall on the pigskin at the CRHS 34-yard line with 3:04 left in the game.
Then it was Robinson who took the ball to the house on the very next play, running 66 yards for a touchdown to put the game out of reach. Johnson’s PAT was good and the Tigers led 35-20 with 2:54 left.
Chapmanville’s Zach Maynard then put the icing on the cake with 1:38 left when he stepped in front of a Brown pass for an interception at the CRHS 20-yard line.
The Tigers then ran four plays and Easterling took three knees to run out the clock and preserve the win.
Barker said it was a great win for his program.
“This is a Triple-A football team and they have Triple-A athletes,” he said of the Wildcats. “We had a good game plan, stuck with it and did a great job.”
Barker, the former head coach of the Logan Wildcats, was once the mentor for LHS head coach Gary Mullins, who served as one of his assistant coaches. Barker left Logan after the 2002 season for his alma mater, Chapmanville.
“I spent a lot of time here and I told Gary last week that the only time I want to see him lose is our game,” Barker said. “We came down here to play as tough as we could.”
It was a disappointing loss for the Wildcats.
“I just didn’t do a good enough job of getting us ready to play,” Coach Mullins said. “It was as simple as that. We didn’t play our ‘A’ game. We just didn’t play well and when we don’t play well it’s my fault. I thought our defense played great. We were on the field for 70 or 80 plays. They had 37 plays in the first half. Our special teams were also outplayed tonight. That’s what I coach. If the special teams played better we could have won the game.”
Chapmanville jumped out to a 7-0 lead early in the game on Robinson’s 3-yard TD run with 5:48 left in the first quarter. The Tigers, in an effort to make the Logan defense stop keying on Chapmanville’s backfield tandem of Robinson and Botsch, went to a third option — Dylan Wiley — with numerous quick screen passes and even a pair of reverses.
“We told them early that they were going to pack it in on Jake but once we got it spread out you saw what happened. He broke a couple of them there at the end,” Barker said. “We were trying to spread them out early and we were able to execute the game plan. We put it together. The kids played hard and they played tough.”
Logan tied it at 7-7 with Brown’s 2-yard TD run and Miller’s PAT kick at the 2:51 mark. After a failed fake punt attempt by the Wildcats, Chapmanville later scored with 6:06 left until halftime on Botsch’s 6-yard touchdown run. Johnson’s extra point kick was wide left but the Tigers led 13-7.
The Wildcats came right back.
On the very next play, Brown fired a 49-yard touchdown pass to Coleman. Miller’s PAT was good and Logan led 14-13 with 5:48 left until halftime.
Logan got the ball back and looked to score once more before the break but Brown’s fourth-and-7 pass at the CRHS 21-yard line was incomplete.
Notebook
n Brown was 14-for-30 passing for 190 yards with two TDs and one interception for the game.
Coleman had seven catches for 122 yards. Stevie Browning had two catches for 22 yards, while David Toney had two grabs for 18 yards. Brandon Horne added one catch for five yards. Street had one catch for three yards. Khaleel Reynolds had his 20-yard TD catch.
On the ground, Brown led Logan with nine rushes for 85 yards.
Street, a junior fullback, had 10 carries for 63 yards. Spurlock had two tries for 12 yards. Coleman had one rush for six yards on a reverse play.
Bubba Shepherd led the Logan defense with 11 tackles. Wallace had eight, while Seth Thatcher had seven stops.
Worm Street had six tackles for the game. Andrew Reynolds and Chris Marcum contributed five tackles apiece. Miller had four, while Spurlock, Toney and Joe Street had three each. Derek Gleason had two tackles. Zach Ellis and Coleman had one each.
Spurlock, Ellis and Marcum each had a special teams tackle. Spurlock and Toney each had a pass breakup.
“This one is on me,” Coach Mullins said. “We did not play our ‘A’ game and that’s the head coach’s fault. I want to apologize to the great Logan fans and our great administration that did everything they could to help us this week. We will get better for Winfield.”
n For Chapmanville, Botsch finished the game with 16 carries for 75 yards and two catches for 11 more yards.
Wiley had four grabs for 28 yards and had two rushes for 17 yards.
Maynard had his one catch of 29 yards. Thompson had three catches for 32 yards.
Easterling completed 11-of-17 passes for 99 yards with one pick.
On defense, tthe Tigers were led by Maynard, who had seven solo tackels, one assist, one special teams tackle, one sack and one interception.
Dustin Smith had four solos, two assists and one sack.
John Toler had three tackles, one sack and one caused fumble.
Tyler Cox had three solos and two assists for the game, while Brandon White and Trevor Payne had three solos and one assist each.
Brandon Ferguson had three tackles, one assist and two special teams stops. Robinson finished with three tackles and a sack, while Woody had three tackles and a fumble recovery.
Jacob Browning had two solos and two assists.
Brad Parsons and Johnson each had two solos and one assist.
Chase Queen had one tackle and one special teams tackle.
Caleb Belcher had one tackle and one recovered on-side kick.
Easterling, Michael Houser, Mark Lawson and Jason Stowers all had one tackle.
The Tigers were penalized eight times for 75 yards. Logan had five flags for 40 yards.
n Chapmanville is scheduled to get back into action next Friday night at 5-0 James Monroe.
It was the James Monroe Mavericks which beat homestanding Chapmanville 33-0 in the first round of the 2008 Class AA state playoffs.
“We know that they are undefeated,” Barker said. “I know that it’s going to be a long bus ride and it’s going to be a tough fight. But that’s just football. We’ll go up there and play the best that we can.”
Logan will be off next Friday night and will have an extra week to prepare for the Oct. 8 home game against Winfield.
“We never play well against them,” Mullins said of the Generals. “We’ve got our bye week and we’ve got two weeks to get ready for them. We’ve got to play well. We’ve got to go 4-2. We just can’t drop three in a row.”
Coach Mullins came right out and said it like it was, this game was not only the season for the Wildcats, but it was also the season for the Tigers.
Coach Mullins did not speak talk, he didn't say it was just another game on the schedual, it didn't matter that much because they weren't in their conference, or that they prepared just like any other another game.
Not only is he the head coach, but LHS possesses a honest and respected teacher.
Coach Mullins should always remember that the pendulum swings and the worm turns.
What is four defeats today might turn into 10 victories tomorrow.
The after game interview was just as impressive as Coach Mullins took responsibility for the loss and shared the same hurt that the home team surely felt.
I would let my Grandson play for you anytime.