Although the Bridgeport High School football team has won the battle up front more often than not through the years, it’s a process that usually builds throughout the course of the game.

 

In Friday’s regular-season finale against Morgantown at Pony Lewis Field, the dominance was there from the first snap and it never let up.

The Class AAA No. 7 Indians crushed the No. 12 Mohigans, 42-7, to improve to 6-1. Now they head off to playoffs for the 27^th consecutive year, which is a running state record.

 

The Indians will be the No. 5 seed in the AAA playoffs and will be at Wayne Jamison Field next week to take on No. 12 Washington in the opening round. Time and day will be finalized at the playoff meeting in Parkersburg on Sunday.

 

Before any of Friday night’s games were played, everybody was under the impression that the playoff field would not be finalized until Saturday evening when the new WVDE color map came out.

 

It was expected that any playoff team that was red or orange on that map would be eliminated and the brackets would be backfilled starting with the No. 17 school in the final SSAC ratings and working down.

 

By the time everybody got home from their games, that had all changed as SSAC executive director Bernie Dolan announced on WV Metro News’ Friday Game Night that whatever the Top 16 is, is what the playoff field will be with some caveats. More on Dolan’s announcement HERE

 

While the playoff format was being tweaked, BHS was busy bullying Morgantown around in the trenches.

 

“It really didn’t let up all night especially on offense,” Bridgeport coach John Cole said. “We were getting a good push and we were able to run right at them.”

 

The Indians finished with 402 yards of total offense, all on the ground (they didn’t attempt a single pass in the contest). Three players, Cam Cole, J.T. Muller and Hayden Moore all surpassed 100 rushing yards against Morgantown. It’s the first time since 2015 that BHS had three players accomplish that when Dylan Tonkery, Dante Bonamico and Zack Spurlock did it against Robert C. Byrd.

 

The Tribe’s opening covered 62 yards on seven plays. Cole and Moore carried the ball on six of the plays. And. Muller had one attempt. Moore scored his 10^th touchdown of the season on a 1-yard keeper to cap the drive. Austin Springer kicked his first of six PATs to make it 7-0.

 

After forcing the Mohigans to turn the ball over on downs, the Indians chewed up the remainder of the first quarter with an 11-play drive that extended briefly into the second quarter.

 

Cole surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season with a 5-yard pickup on the final play of the first to set up a second-and-3 from the 3. Cole finished off the drive with his 12^th rushing touchdown of the season.

 

MHS took advantage of it’s hurry up no-huddle wing-T attack to make it a one-possession game. Caden Biser had two big runs of 15 and 29 yards to move the chains before Cam Rice found the end zone on an 11-yard run.

 

The Mohigans then had their turn to come up with a big defensive stand. On the sixth play of the ensuing BHS drive, a Cole run of 10 yards set the Indians up with a first-and-goal situation at the 5. Two runs by Muller got the ball to the 2. Two runs by Moore got the ball to the 1 and no further.

 

Fortunately for the Tribe, they forced a three-and-out and a punt from Rice went just 14 yards. Six plays later, Muller was into the end zone with a 2-yard run and the Indians took a 21-7 lead with 17 seconds left in the first half.

 

Yards and even first downs were hard to come by for Morgantown after its lone scoring drive. The Bridgeport defense held the Mohigans to 280 total yards, all of which came on the ground. The Indians also played stronger defensively in the second half which has been a bit of an issue in the two previous games against Spring Valley and Huntington.

 

“I don’t know that we saw that coming,” Coach Cole said. “Our defense really stepped up in the second half. It’s just like when you play our offense, when you play their offense it takes a while to read what’s going on and Coach (Sean) Biser threw some things at us that we didn’t see. Morgantown is a good team. They have size and they have speed. They have more speed than us. If they get to the edge on us, we are in trouble.”

 

Muller had the longest run of his career on the first BHS snap of the second half, busting loose for a 79-yard run. Rice made a TD-saving tackle for the Mohigans but on the next play, Cole was into the end zone on a 2-yard run.

 

The BHS defense kept forcing three-and-outs from the Mohigans and the Indians’ offense kept running the ball down Morgantown’s throat for the remainder of the third. Moore and Cole added TD runs of 39 and 31 yards, respectively to help push the lead to 42-7 and a running clock for the final quarter.

 

Cole finished with 127 yards on 16 carries with the three scores. Muller added 122 yards on nine carries and Moore put up 108 yards on 14 carries. For good measure, J.D. Love added 38 yards on five carries, three of his attempts coming on third-down plays that extended drives.

 

“Any of those backs will be the first to tell you that they couldn’t do it without the play of the line,” Coach Cole said. “But all of those backs are also good at finding those holes.”

 

Biser and Rice paced the MHS offense with 92 and 87 yards, respectively. The team’s leading rusher on the season, Deandre Crudup, was kept in check with six carries for 9 yards.

 

The Mohigans, who finish the regular season at 3-3, will be No. 17 in the final SSAC ratings.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows J.T. Muller and Hayden Moore celebrating after a touchdown. Second photo features J.D. Love, Moore and Phil Reed teaming up for a tackle. Third photo is of Cam Cole, fourth is of Cameron Jones and bottom photo is of Muller geting into the end zone. All photos by www.benqueenphotography.com