Blues Get ‘Back On Track’ PM Racks Up 379 Yards Of Offense In Win Over Bath
The Parry McCluer High School football team’s nightmare of a month came to an end Halloween night.
The Fighting Blues (5-4), losers of two of their previous three games in October and on the short end of three of their last four contests, piled up 379 yards of total offense and shut down a depleted Bath County team to earn their first Pioneer District football victory of the season, 28-12, and to celebrate a successful senior night on Friday in Buena Vista. With the win, the Blues improved to 1-2 in the district.
“We needed that one,” said PM head coach Jeremiah Brockenbrough. “We needed to get back on track and do what we do best: play fundamentally-sound football and control the play clock.”
After paying tribute to six seniors – Zavion Dunn, Jonavan Dunn, Nathan Glass, Timothy Lesher, Landon Orren and Jacob Shafer – in a pregame ceremony, PM set the tone early in this one. On the first play from scrimmage, Parker Snider ripped off a 60-yard run that set up a first-and-goal at the Bath County 5-yard line. Two plays later, Shafer plunged into the end zone from a yard away, and when Quentin Rosser booted the first of his four successful extra-point kicks, the Blues led 7-0 just 1:02 into the game.
“That was big, especially when we elected to take the football to start the game,” said Brockenbrough. “If you do that, you better be sure you are going to score.”
“When I applied for the job as football coach, it was because of this group of seniors,” the PM coach said of the six players honored before the game. “They are a special group. They helped us build the foundation.”
Shafer and Snider, among a group of four PM starters returning to the lineup after injury, both eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark for the Blues Friday night. Shafer carried the ball 20 times for 116 yards, while Snider picked up 104 yards on 14 tries as the Blues churned out 307 yards rushing and 379 total yards in the game. Nathan Glass added 53 rushing yards and completed 6-of-8 passes for 72 yards.
At the same time, the PM defense stifled the Chargers (4-4 overall, 1-2 district). Bath County, playing without leading rusher Ethan Bryant, who did not dress, managed only 169 yards of total offense and only seven first downs. Quarterback Hunter Kirby accounted for almost all that yardage, completing 5-of-12 passes with one interception for 85 yards and rushing for 78 more on 21 carries.
“Defensively, we had two busted plays,” said Brockenbrough. “We put them in third-andlong situations and were able to get them off the field on fourth down. We did a good job doing what we were supposed to do.”
Back in his linebacker spot, Shafer paced the PM stop unit with 10 total tackles (four solo, six assists) while forcing a fumble and recovering another. Snider had nine assists, including half a sack, while defensive lineman Timber Thomas was in on eight tackles, including a tackle for loss.
“If there was a player of the game on the offensive and defensive sides of the line of scrimmage, it was Timber Thomas,” the PM coach said. “He was lights out all night long. He was getting double-teamed on defense and still made tackles. Offensively, I started flopping him to both sides of the line, they knew what we were doing, and we still got positive yardage.”
Still, the Blues couldn’t put Bath County away in the first half. And when Kirby completed a 10-yard fourth-down pass to Jake Boguess for a TD and PM ran out of time on a late second-quarter march, the Blues took a 7-6 lead into intermission.
The score remained that way until late in the third period when Glass dove into the end zone on a quarterback sneak from a yard out. The Chargers responded immediately, with Kirby finding Owen Perdue on a 56-yard TD pass. For the second straight time, the two-point conversion failed, and PM held a slim 14-12 advantage with 2:01 remaining in the third quarter.
That’s when the Blues took complete control, thanks to a pair of clutch fourth-down plays. PM, which was 0-for-3 on fourth down in the first half, got the first conversion when Glass kept a drive alive with a 30-yard scamper on fourth-and-12 from the Bath County 37-yard line. Two plays later, Shafer scored from the five, capping an eight-play march and pushing the PM lead to 21-12.
The second big fourth-down play came from the Bath 22-yard line, as Glass connected with Brody Coleman for 17 yards on fourth-and-10, to the BC five. Shafer again got the TD, completing the 13-play drive from a yard away to extend the advantage to 28-12 with just 1:10 left in the game.
“We drew the play up, a designed bootleg rollout, for [Glass] to either throw it or run it,” Brockenbrough explained. “The first one he was able to take off running and make one guy miss. The second one, the same play as before, he let the ball go, and it was a great play.”
Outside of Bath County’s long TD pass, the Blues dominated the second half. PM held the ball for more than 16 minutes in the final two quarters, including the final TD drive that took over seven minutes off the clock. Bath mounted an 11-play drive, which was thwarted by a Jordan Brockenbrough interception, to open the third period, but the Chargers ran only eight plays for the rest of the game.
“We game-planned this week to be able to run the ball the majority of the night,” Brockenbrough said. “We only wanted to throw it when we had to.”
The Blues will travel to Eastern Montgomery for the final game of the regular season on Friday in Ellison, looking to extend their eight-game winning streak against the Mustangs (1-8, 0-3). Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
BC 0 6 6 0 12 PM 7 0 7 14 28 First Quarter PM – Shafer 1 run (Rosser kick) Second Quarter BC – Boguess 10 pass from Kirby (pass failed)
Third Quarter PM – Glass 1 run (Rosser kick) BC – Perdue 56 pass from Kirby (pass failed) Fourth Quarter PM – Shafer 5 run (Rosser kick) PM – Shafer 1 run (Rosser kick) BC PM
Rushes-yards 26-84 51-307 Passing yards 85 72 Comp-Att-Int 5-12-1 6-8-0
INDIVIDUALSTATISTICS RUSHING – BC, Kirby 21-78, Perdue 2-8, Randozzo 2-(-1), Team 1-(-1). PM, Shafer 20-116, Snider 14-104, Glass 5-53, Brockenbrough 4-14, Z. Dunn 1-6, Conner 3-6, Coleman 1-5, J. Dunn 1-2, Team 2-1.
PASSING – BC, Kirby 5-12-1 85. PM, Glass 6-8-0 72. RECEIVING – BC, Boguess 3-17, Perdue 2-68. PM, Snider 3-41, Coleman 2-18, Conner 1-13.
