Mitchell B. Koerber
Student Sports Journalist
Friday night was one of the most heartbreaking first football games for the Pocahontas County High School Warriors. While the first quarter evoked excitement and pride, the remainder of the game held disappointment and misfortune, resulting in Tucker County piling on a 40-7 win, against the Warriors at Warrior Field.
Leading the kick-off with thunderous enthusiasm, #2, junior, Griffin Taylor played remarkably as this year’s starting quarterback for the Warriors. Plagued with a multitude of bad snaps, that would cost the team, the young QB struggled to get the wheels moving for his offense. With two seconds left in the first quarter, after stopping the Mountain Lions on a fourth and long from the Warriors’ own 20-yard line, a terrible snap from the center tumbled between Taylor’s legs and, after a scuffle, the ball was spotted on the Warriors’ own one-yard line. Ending the first quarter did not stop the bleeding of bad snaps. On the kick-off of the second quarter, the snap sailed over Taylor’s right shoulder and screamed out of the back end of the endzone. A Safety. The first score on the board for the night was a fumbled safety, and it cost the Warriors two points.
Later, Linebackers Coach Seth Doss would remark, “We had a season’s worth of mistakes, all in a single game.”
Coach Doss doesn’t see the mistakes of Friday night stopping Pocahontas County though. “I feel like we can play with anyone, as long as we don’t beat ourselves first,” he said. “There is still a lot of football to be played this season. “Don’t count us out yet.”
The Warriors only touchdown of the night came from #34, junior, Austin Price. Price continued his excellent play from last season by executing a glorious interception on a Mountain Lions’ planned screen pass. Price did not fall for the screen and with 8:04 left in the second quarter, he jumped in front of the sneaking halfback attempting to come out of the back field for the pass. Intercepting the ball on the 19-yard line, the Mountains Lions witnessed the football-and-track-star’s speed, as he easily closed the 19 yards between him and the endzone.
The remainder of the game belonged to the Mountain Lions.
In an exclusive interview with Head Coach Doug Burns, for The Pocahontas Times, Burns said, “Give Tucker [County] credit. They made more plays than we did to get the win.
“We made way too many mistakes and continued to shoot ourselves in the foot all night long. The good news is that everything is fixable, and we need to just get to work and get ready for the next one.”
That next one will be against the Meadow Bridge Wildcats Friday, September 5, at Warrior Field.
Kick-off is 7 p.m.
