North Marion arrived at Wayne Jamison Field sporting a four-game winning streak that saw the Huskies holding their foes to a combined total of 34 points in those outings. They left Bridgeport this evening allowing the Indians to surpass that total in just four quarters.

 

Unfortunately for NMHS, it didn’t just have to deal with the Indians’ offense tonight. The Huskies also had to deal with the Bridgeport defense.

 

North Marion didn’t handle either well.

 

In the end, the Tribe made the most of their final home game of the regular season with a 35-7 win against the Huskies on senior night. The win moves Class AA No. 2 BHS to 8-0 on the year, while No. 7 North Marion falls to 5-2.

 

While the Indians piled up plenty of points against a defense that hasn’t yielded many this season, it was the home team’s defense that once again stole the show. Proof of that comes from the final totals.

 

Even though North Marion finished with 134 yards of offense on 30 plays – a good number for the Tribe defense – it’s a bit deceiving. Prior to North Marion’s final offensive series of the game against Bridgeport’s backup defense, the Huskies had just 59 yards of total offense.

 

For the game, North Marion had just 16 yards rushing on 13 carries. Because of that, the Huskies had no choice but to throw more than they wanted to.

 

“Any time you can shut the run down with a five or six-man box that we play and will continue to play, you can cover the pass. We easily made them one dimensional,” said Nicewarner. “They had to throw it at times when you figured they were going to throw it. When you’re able to do that and keep your (linebackers) outside and drop them in coverage, that’s how you play the game.

 

“We’ve done that for eight weeks now and we’re going to need to continue the defense to do that,” the coach continued. “The big thing was that we saw the offense take a big step forward tonight.”

 

The step came early. The bad news for the visitors was that it was on the throat of their collective chances. The Indians couldn’t have scripted a better start to the game a week after they came out listless and were pushed around for large portions of the first half in their game with Liberty. There was pushing done in this opening half – and it was done by the Tribe and continued for the entire second half.

 

By the half’s end, North Marion had just 46 yards of offense – all of which came through the air. Incredibly, the Huskies ran the ball just seven times for a total of negative-two yards. For foes of Bridgeport, that’s usually a recipe for disaster.

 

“It couldn’t have went any better,” said Nicewarner of the start. “(After last week’s start), I even questioned deferring to try and change things up. I told the kids we were going to find out a lot about our team this week and the next two weeks and I was pleased with the way they answered that question. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re there yet, but from everything we saw and the results that we saw I’m pleased with how we started offensively and with the defense again.”

 

BHS managed to take a 14-0 lead after the  first period of play in 12 minutes of action that was reminiscent of some of the Indian teams of years gone by. While both scoring drives were aided by solid field position, they were highlighted by the old three yards and a cloud of dust mantra made famous under legendary coach Wayne Jamison.

 

The Tribe took the opening drive, starting at the North Marion 47, and used 10 plays – including a successful third and four down conversion – before J.T. Harris scored from four yards out on a play from the left side that was sealed on a block by Mackenzie Holmes

 

Koby Kiefer’s point-after kick, the first of two in the opening half and three in the game, made it 7-0 Tribe with 7:01 in the first. Outside of a 17-yard run by Harris that featured a pair of spin moves, no run was for more than five yards in the surge.

 

Unfortunately for the Huskies, the second Bridgeport drive would be more of the same. This time, Bridgeport started on its own 49-yard line and would use 12 plays – with three third-down conversions – before finding the end zone with 35.4 seconds left in the opening period.

 

Once again, Harris did the honors. The senior tailback dove in from one yard out and Kiefer added the point after to make it 14-0 as the first period clock wound down.

 

BHS’s dominance in the first quarter could be seen in the stats. The Tribe had 85 yards and North Marion finished with just two yards. Bridgeport had 21 plays to just one three-and-out series for North. Even worse, Bridgeport had the ball for all but 1 minute and 24 seconds in the first period.

 

Although Bridgeport’s third drive of the game and first of the second quarter didn’t feature a touchdown, it did result in points. Starting at their own 47, Bridgeport’s drive stalled after seven plays and they called on Kiefer to attempt a 37 yard field goal. The junior was up to the task as he easily connected for the three-pointer to give Bridgeport a 17-0 advantage with 8:08 to play.

 

“Field position again was big, even on that first field goal. It allows me to look at things from a four-down series instead of a three-down series,” said Nicewarner.

 

North Marion did begin to show some signs of life after that, but not enough to stop the Tribe. The Huskies got their initial first down with 7:17 to play in the second half, but punted three plays later to give BHS the ball back.

 

Although North Marion did manage to stop the Tribe on their next offensive possession, disaster was still looming. Ironically, the problems began after the visitors got into BHS territory for the first time in the game.

 

After getting to the Bridgeport 48-yard line with less than 30 seconds to play before the half, the Huskies fumbled and senior linebacker Seth Friel scooped it up and BHS was back in business at its own 48 with 19.9 seconds and a pair of timeouts.

 

That scenario, along with a 24-yard pass play from Gordon Swiger to Harris, got BHS close enough for a long field goal try.  And once again Kiefer was up to the task.

 

Kiefer connected cleanly and down the middle for a 45-yard field goal as the first half game clock expired to give BHS a 20-0 advantage. The field goal was the longest of Kiefer’s career.

 

“Koby hit a rough patch two or three weeks ago. He was struggling in practices and struggling at the games and the consistency just wasn’t there,” said Nicewarner. “In the last few weeks, he’s just been on it … His ability to put points on the board for us tonight was huge.”

 

The second half started too much like the first. Because of that, BHS effectively sealed the deal on its first drive of the final two periods.

 

North Marion had an early glimmer of hope as a solid kickoff return and a personal foul penalty on Bridgeport gave it the ball at the BHS 49. On fourth-and-1, the Huskies opted to go for it and Bridgeport’s Friel and Cole Amos stopped the guests cold for a one-yard loss.

 

Once Bridgeport got the ball back, the beginning of the end was at hand. The Indians used an 11-play, 59-yard drive that was capped by a Chapin Murphy three-yard run with 4:25 to go in the third period. The final point-after kick by Kiefer made it 27-0 in the third period.

 

The last BHS scoring drive would prove to be the longest of the game. Bridgeport used 14 plays to cover 73 yards with Holmes doing the honors from four yards out with 8:08 to play.

 

North Marion scored late in the game. Kyle Elliott connect with Zach McIntire for a 33-yard scoring strike and an Austin Nicholson point-after made it 35-7. The score came with 44.1 seconds left.

 

BHS used one of its most balanced attacks of the year on the ground. Murphy led the way with 90 yards on 16 carries, Harris added 62 on 14, while Merica had 42 on six runs. Two other runners, Holmes and Gordon Swiger, had 11 and nine carries, respectively.

 

“I’m trying to find what works best for us. One-two punches are great, but sometimes you may want to do what we did in 2014 where we would start Dante (Bonamico) at tailback one week and Dylan (Tonkery) another week. We’re just trying to find what works best for us,” said Nicewarner.  “By no means is J.T. out or by no means is Chapin the odd man out, but it shows we have to get multiple guys in there.”

 

For the game, Bridgeport finished with 301 yards of offense on 64 plays. The team ran the ball 60 times for 268 yards.

 

“We were able to run right, run left and depending on where they were rotating we were able to control what we were doing against nine men in the box,” said Nicewarner. “Their safeties probably had a ton of tackles for them and if their safeties are making plays against our run game then we’re going to be okay.”

 

The Indians are likely going to move into the No. 1 spot in next week’s WVSSAC standings. Top-ranked Fairmont Senior fell at Jefferson by a 35-24 score.

 

Bridgeport, however, can’t take any joy from the win. Bridgeport will be at state-ranked Keyser, a 50-7 winner against Robert C. Byrd, next week in the panhandle. The Indians will close the regular season a week after that at Fairmont Senior.

 

Editor's Note: Photo by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.