Winning is starting to become a theme around Fairlea.
The 10th ranked Greenbrier East Spartans were without leading rusher Ian Cline and lost tight end, Braden Bragg, in the first quarter to an injury, and still had no issues running through, around and over the Mingo Central Miners 55-12 on Friday, Oct. 1 on Miner Mountain.
East is now officially halfway through the season and sits at 4-1.
The Spartans started quickly.
Two 6-yard Lucas Mccallister runs had the defense focused on him, but on the third play, quarterback Monquelle Davis kept the football and raced 56 yards for a touchdown and East led 7-0 just 59 seconds into the game.
Davis ran for five yards on the first play of East’s second series then McCallister, who started in place of Cline, went for four tough yards up the middle. After Bragg’s injury two plays later, sophomore Jake Pate caught a 13-yard pass for a first down. The drive stalled but ended with a 31-yard Noah Dotson field goal and a 10-0 Spartans lead.
Both teams traded a couple of turnover on downs the next several minutes and into the second quarter, but the East defense changed the momentum when Ethan Holliday recovered a Miner fumble to give the ball back to his offense.
On the very next play Davis found Craig Barnhouse on a long 54-yard TD strike and the Spartans took a 17-0 advantage with 9:26 left in the first half. It was Barnhouse’s first score of the season.
Holliday then stepped up again and this time picked off a pass from Mingo Central’s Cade Porter.
With little time to go, Davis hit Pate for 33 yards then found Bryson Ormsbee for 25 more. Those would set up another field goal by Dotson, this one from 22 yards and East took a 20-0 lead into halftime.
As good as the first half was for the Spartans, the second was even better.
Levi Wagner snared an interception and that was followed by more fireworks on offense when backup quarterback Gavin Bennett threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Davis, who swung out to wide receiver often in the second half. That score made it 27-0, Spartans.
Barnhouse then forced another Miners turnover when he picked off Porter as well and that set up Gavin Bennett’s brother, Garrett for a strong 7-yard touchdown run. The score was set up earlier in the possession by a 41-yard run by McCallister. At that point, East led 34-0.
Pate got in on the interception parade and picked one off late in the third quarter. Davis then caught another TD pass, his second of the night, and the Spartans went up 41-0 to end the third.
Garrett Bennett added a 42-yard TD run and Donavin Penn got a 3-yard touchdown run.
Garrett Runyon had a 91-yarder for Mingo Central late, but the Spartans got the dominating effort win.
East had 519 yards of total offense including 300 on the ground. They also had 22 first downs and held the Miners (1-4) to just four.
Davis was named the McDonald’s player of the game. He ran for 95 yards and a TD, threw for 152 yards and a score and caught two touchdown passes.
McCallister had 12 carries for 85 yards. Garrett Bennett had four carries for 60 yards. Pate and Barnhouse had 54 and 67 yards receiving, respectively.
East forced six turnovers on the night. The Miners now have 15 turnovers in their last three games. They also played without Norman Kennedy, their best player.
The Spartans host Oak Hill this Friday night, October 8.
