Wildcats force six turnovers in victory

By Steve Keenan

MEADOW BRIDGE — Meadow Bridge was downright larcenous in Friday night’s matchup with Tug Valley.

The Wildcats parlayed three of the Panthers’ six turnovers into touchdowns, including two in the opening half, en route to a 38-8 thrashing of their Mingo County foe.

As the Meadow Bridge prevent unit came up with big play after big play on the evening, it gave the offense a short field on several occasions. And strong line play and some nifty running by the two-back attack of Nathan Neely and Billy Trump did the rest of the damage.

Neely rambled 24 times for 158 yards and a TD, a 2-yarder that staked the ’Cats to a 24-0 lead as the first period expired. And running mate Trump responded with 173 yards on 17 carries, including a 34-yard gallop that was Meadow Bridge’s second tally. Neely set up Trump’s score with one of his two pass interceptions on the night.

Meadow Bridge led 32-0 before the Panthers reached the end zone for the only time on the night, a 2-yard burst by Chad Damron with 4:22 remaining until halftime.

“They jumped all over us early,” Tug Valley coach Mike Smith said. “We couldn’t stop them. They did an excellent job, and we didn’t tackle them.

“They’ve got a nice football team.”

The hosts got things started early with an 11-play, 55-yard opening drive that resulted in Eric Halstead’s 1-yard scoring burst. That drive featured two separate fourth-down conversions, a 7-yard Rob Hypes burst on a fourth-and-3 and a 27-yard run up the gut by Neely on a fourth-and-8 from the 28.

The last down was also good for Meadow Bridge on its fourth score. After Neely’s and Trump’s six-pointers, the Wildcats reached paydirt on a fourth-and-7 pass from Halstead to Hypes that pushed the margin to 30-0 with 6:14 left in the second. Tyler Bennett, who made it 32-0 with the conversion run, had set up that TD by recovering a fumble which bounced off Tug Valley’s blocked-to-the-ground Austin Vance on a punt.

In the final frame, Trump picked off a Cody Varney pass at the Wildcats’ 30, then the senior speedster raced 47 yards on the first play to precede Hypes’ second score of the contest, a 4-yarder in which he seemed to receive some pushing help from the TV line from 2 yards out.

While he was pleased with the victory, Meadow Bridge coach Larry McClintic still found some fault with his squad afterward.

“We got up 32-0, and we let them score on that one drive too easy,” he said. “Plus I was a little disappointed in the second half when we didn’t capitalize on a couple of chances. We got a little too cautious, but we didn’t want to let ’em back in the game.”

All told, the winners registered 383 yards in total offense, including 360 on the ground.

— E-mail: skeenan@

register-herald.com

Meadow Bridge 38, Tug Valley 8

TV (0-2) 0 8 0 0 — 8

MB (2-0) 24 8 0 6 — 38

First Quarter

MB: Eric Halstead 1 run (Nathan Neely run), 8:02

MB: Billy Trump 34 run (Justin Bennett pass from Halstead), 4:30

MB: Neely 2 run (Halstead run), 00:07.6

Second Quarter

MB: Rob Hypes 7 pass from Halstead (Tyler Bennett run), 6:14

TV: Chad Damron 2 run (Chris Estep run), 4:22

Fourth Quarter

MB: Hypes 4 run (run failed), 8:55

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — TV: Damron 13-47-1, Aaron Perry 5-45, Estep 12-38, Austin Vance 3-13. MB: Trump 17-173-1, Neely 24-158-1, Halstead 2-0-1, Hypes 4-8-1, Bryan Gwinn 2-23.

PASSING — TV: Cody Varney 1-5-2-9-0, Vance 1-4-1-9-0. MB: Halstead 2-8-0-23-1.

RECEIVING — TV: Estep 2-18. MB: J. Bennett 1-16, Hypes 1-7-1.

TURNOVERS — TV: Chris Estep (blk punt). MB: Neely (2 int), T. Bennett (fr), Korey Persinger (int), Trump (int), Gwinn (fr)