LEWISBURG (WVDN) – It was rainy, cold and windy in Fairlea on Friday, Sept. 30, but none of those things could slow down the Greenbrier East Spartans as they defeated the Hampshire Trojans 44-6 and got back on the winning track.
Monquelle Davis and Ian Cline both rushed for over 100 yards and Jake Pate made critical plays at multiple spots as the Spartans improved their record to 2-3 at the now official, halfway point of the season.
East’s defense forced the Trojans to turn the ball over on downs on the game’s first series. Linebacker Weston Pence had a great defensive possession and was in on seemingly every tackle.
East took the ball with a short field to work with, but the offense stalled. However, that allowed for history to be made when Noah Dotson proceeded to drill a 44-yard field goal to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead. The kick is now officially the longest made field goal in Spartan history.
Pence stuffed Trojans quarterback Jenson Fields on the next drive as East got the ball back again.
The drive went six plays and 77 yards and was capped by a 35-yard Cline touchdown run and the Spartans went ahead 10-0 with 2:49 left in the opening quarter.
Hampshire caught the East defense off guard on the very next play when Trojan running back Brennan Brinker ran a wheel route and caught an 80-yard TD from backup quarterback, Landon Eversol, and Hampshire cut the Spartans lead to 10-6 after the missed extra point.
East was forced to punt on the ensuing possession which turned out to be a 66-yarder by Dotson, but the East defense stepped up and forced Hampshire to punt it right back.
The scoring drought broke later in the second quarter when Davis scrambled around and raced 58 yards to the end zone as the Spartans took a 17-6 lead late in the first half.
But the scoring was not over for the Spartans.
Hampshire (2-4) was trying to get down the field to get points before the break, but it backfired when Pate jumped the route and picked off Fields and ran it back 75 yards to the house for a 24-6 lead at halftime.
The crowd became even smaller in the second half due to the continued pouring down rain, but the Spartans kept their foot on the gas.
Cline had an 8-yard scoring run, Pate blocked a punt that Abram Wickline recovered in the end zone and Davis capped the final scoring with an impressive 14-yard run to the corner of the end zone. All those scores came in the third period.
The clock ran continuously with no stoppage in the fourth quarter due to the blowout score and East sent the Trojans back home reeling.
Pate was named the McDonald’s player of the game.
Cline had 141 yards on 19 carries and two TD’s. Davis had 10 rushes for 132 yards and two scores.
The Spartan defense held Hampshire to just 230 yards.
East’s offense rolled up 317 yards and 16 first downs.
On top of Dotson’s school-record field goal and 66-yard punt were six kickoffs that went for touchbacks.
East travels to Oak Hill this Friday for an important, key game against the Red Devils. Oak Hill is coming off a 47-0 loss to Cabell Midland this past weekend and are 3-3 on the season.
Stats courtesy of 103.1, WRON
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