By Steve Hemmelgarn
PARKERSBURG - Parkersburg South won for the second straight week Friday night after an 0-3 start, thumping visiting Marietta 48-19 at the Erickson All-Sports Facility as lead Patriot running back Hunter Ferguson rushed for 179 yards and hammered his way to four short-yardage touchdowns.
South put the game away by outscoring Marietta (1-4) by a 26-6 margin in the second half to break away from only a nine-point, 22-13, halftime lead.
But the Tigers scored first when running back Perry Wheeler, who rushed for 132 yards, broke loose to dash 81 yards before being tripped up from behind at the South 1, from where he took it in for a 7-0 lead at 7:48 of the first quarter.
The Patriots, though, tallied the game's next three TDs. First, Ferguson rambled 40 yards up the middle to the Marietta 13, followed by Jeffrey Kidder's 11-yard run to the 2, from where Ferguson pounded it into the end zone at 4:21 of the first period before adding a two-point conversion on a run for a 8-7 Patriot edge,.
On South's next possession, Kidder, who netted 90 yards rushing on 12 carries, ripped off back-to-back runs of 12 and 16 yards to put the pigskin at the Marietta 23, setting up a score four plays later on the initial play of the second stanza as Ferguson plowed a yard to paydirt for a 15-7 lead.
Ferguson tacked on a 1-yard dive into the end zone with 2:21 left before halftime, but the Tigers' Billy Grizer returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, making it only the nine-point spread at the half.
Kidder's return of the second-half kickoff to the Marietta 32 eventually led to Michael Molinari's 40-yard field goal at 7:33 of the third quarter for a 25-13 advantage, and Hunter Barton's 48-yard punt retrun to the Tiger 5 a minute and a half later led to another Ferguson one-yard TD jaunt at 5:26 of the third for a 32-13 lead.
But Marietta wasn't done yet as at 2:31 of the third, Matt McKitrick tossed an 18-yard scoring strike to Grizer, who earlier in the Tiger drive had hauled in a 32-yard aerial to get the Tigers to the South 23, to pull Marietta within 32-19 heading into the last period.
In the final quarter, Molinari booted his second three-pointer of the game from 33 yards out at 9:16, then his midfield interception set up Cody Jarrell's 2-yard scoring run with 3:47 to play after Cody Swearingen's 27-yard pass to Garrett Foggin to the Tiger 2.
And Jacob Douglas closed out the scoring with 48.1 seconds left on a 20-yard romp into the end zone.
Story from The Marietta Times 9-26-2009.