SHADY SPRING (WVDN) – Greenbrier West sauntered into a rain-soaked H.B. Thomas Field on Friday night looking for a signature win. A 5-0 start, all by shutout, had the Cavalier-faithful feeling confident in the outcome. A dangerous Shady Spring squad had other ideas and was eager to prove themselves against one of the best teams in Class A if not all southern West Virginia.
The Cavaliers have gotten off to fast starts in four of their first five games, taking the opening drive in for a score. West wanted to set the tone against the Tigers and elected to receive the ball. Evan Vandall returned the kickoff to the Cavalier 38-yard line, setting Greenbrier West up with good starting position. Ty Nickell carried the Cavaliers to the midfield stripe on his first carry. The Tiger defense buckled down and bogged the Cavaliers down for three plays, setting up a fourth and nine. The Cavaliers kept the offense on the field on fourth down and drew Shady noseman John Hinkle offsides. With a more manageable four yards to gain, the Cavaliers looked to Nickell for a first down. Nickell took an option pitch off right tackle and was slowed down by Shady linebacker James Sellards. Nickell drug Sellards toward the first down mark and was met by Tigers outside linebacker Myles Greenway at the West sideline. Officials brought the chains out for a measurement and the Cavalier drive ended an inch short of a first down.
Bolstered by the big stop, the Tigers were ready to test the Cavalier defense. Adam Richmond, a 6’1”, 205-pound tailback, has led a one-two punch for the Tigers all season. Richmond broke three tackles on his first carry, taking the Tigers into Cavalier territory. Following an incomplete pass, Richmond gashed the Cavaliers for ten yards up the gut, followed by a 6-yard gain up the middle for Sellards. Another short gain by Sellards was followed by a sweep to the right by Richmond, then an S-trap up the gut by Sellards. With a first and ten just outside the West ten, the Cavaliers tried to buckle down and protect their 5-game scoreless streak. Richmond was dropped after a short gain on a toss to the left. Sellards was undercut at the six-yard line by Nickell on second down. On third down, Richmond slipped through two Cavalier tackles and into the endzone. A high snap doomed the Tigers PAT attempt but Shady led it 6-0 with 5:29 to go in the first quarter.
Earlier in the week, West head coach Toby Harris said he’d be eager to see how his team would handle adversity. Trailing for the first time all season, Harris’ Cavaliers would get their chance to handle a deficit.
A short kickoff played right into the Cavaliers’ hands. Starting at their own 38-yard line, Ethan Holliday ran a counter to the right for a gain of eleven yards. Cole Vandall followed with a quarterback keep up the middle for eight yards. Nickell started to his right but made a hard jump-cut to the left. As he rounded the left edge, he fed a would-be tackler a hard stiff-arm and zeroed in on Richmond at the 30-yard line. Nickell spun through Richmond’s tackle as a wave of Shady defenders crashed in from behind. Nickell gained 20 yards on the play, but more importantly, served notice that West had backfield firepower of their own. A false start against the Cavaliers was a momentary setback. Nickell carried for three yards then took a screen pass for a gain of eight. An offsides call on Shady was followed by a 12-yard Nickell touchdown over the right side. Once again, Nickell stuffed a Shady defender with a nasty stiff-arm at the goal line. Hayden Ridgeway nailed the extra point, and the Cavaliers had a 7-6 lead with 2:44 left in the first quarter.
Trey Franklin boomed the kickoff to the Shady 14-yard line, forcing Richmond to retreat to catch the ball. Richmond bobbled the catch but recovered and started up the field. As he reached the 30-yard line, Richmond brushed up against one of his blockers and fumbled the ball forward. Dalton Heath, who was angling in for the tackle, covered the loose ball for the Cavaliers at the Tiger 35-yard line. Nickell burst over the left side on first down, following the blocks of Holliday and Cole Vandall. The hole was opened up by Reney Cordial and Jacob Whitt, providing a clear running lane for an eleven-yard Nickell gain. Greenbrier West went right back to the same play with Nickell gaining six yards. Holliday slipped through for a 12-yard gain on a counter, and West went right back to the power play over the left side for a six-yard Nickell touchdown. Ridgeway’s PAT made it 14-6. In a span of fifty-eight seconds, West had gone from down by six to up by eight.
The Tigers didn’t seem to be fazed by the quick deficit. Starting at their own 39-yard line, Shady began to march back down the field. Green rolled out and hit Mackey for a 16-yard completion. Richmond carried up the middle for seven yards followed by a Sellards rumble to the 30-yard line as the first quarter expired. A false start penalty and a Whitt sack set Shady back to a third and eighteen, but Green stood tall in the pocket and delivered a perfect ball to Brian Locklear to get Shady in a fourth and one situation. Richmond and Nickell collided at the West 20-yard line, but the Tigers were awarded a first down.
Feeling the Shady momentum, the Cavaliers defense stiffened. Nickell dropped Richmond for a loss on first down and Trent Parker pressured Green into a second down incompletion. Richmond took a swing pass on third down and tried to reverse field but took big shots from Cole Vandall and Heath for a loss of four, setting up a fourth and fifteen scenario. Mackey motioned left to right and looped out of the backfield into the middle of the field. Green stood in the pocket but had to release the ball just as Heath knocked him to the ground. The throw was high, but Kadin Parker was called for pass interference when he incidentally bumped Mackey at the five-yard line. Armed with a new set of downs, Richmond burst up the gut to the five. Another false start backed the Tigers to their own ten followed by a Richmond sweep to the nine. Green had to rush a throw on third down when Jacob Nutter came free off the left edge, but the pass fell incomplete. Colten Henderson lined up for a 26-yard field goal try but Daron Vaughan burst through the middle to block the kick. The Cavaliers had weathered the storm and took over on downs.
West couldn’t get any momentum on the next drive and punted after a three-and-out series. Agee’s 34-yard punt flipped the field slightly, setting the Tigers up at their own 43-yard line. After two runs up the gut produced only three yards, Shady Spring looked to throw the football. Green took a three-step drop and started to look left. Nickell blitzed off Green’s left side and jarred the ball loose. Cordial covered it for the Cavaliers, setting West up at the Shady 43-yard line.
Nickell took advantage of the turnover he forced with a 19-yard run on first down. A lucky bounce to Nickell on the next play kept the Cavaliers from a turnover of their own. Nickell gashed Shady for twelve yards on the next play. Now at the eleven, the Cavaliers tried to slip Cole Vandall up the middle on a dive, but he was stuffed after a gain of four yards. Nickell did the work from here, starting right and cutting back into the heart of Shady’s defense for a six-yard score. Tucker Lilly did a nice job handling a wide snap and Ridgeway sent the PAT through the uprights for a 21-6 lead with 1:14 left in the first half.
Both teams started slowly in the second half. The Cavaliers held Shady in their first set of downs, but an inadvertent facemask call gave the Tigers a fresh set. Shady still couldn’t capitalize and punted the ball away. The Cavaliers could do no better. Holliday carried the Cavaliers to one first down, but the drive stalled afterwards, and Agee was forced to punt.
Pinned at their own 15-yard line, Shady handed to Sellards for a gain of five up the middle. Cordial wrapped up Sellards on second down for a short gain, and two pivotal plays swung momentum the way of Greenbrier West. Nutter blitzed off the Cavaliers left side and sacked Green at the 14-yard line, lifting him off his feet. Nickell bull-rushed the middle of the line on the punt and forced Henderson to get the ball away quickly. The result was a wobbler that hit at the Shady 25-yard line and kicked back toward the punt team. The ball was downed at the 20-yard line.
If the Cavaliers have shown improvement in the 2022 campaign, one area has been taking advantage of a short field. Vandall connected with Lilly on first down, and Lilly weaved his way to the Tiger four-yard line, but a flag negated the play. Vandall raised up to throw on second down but was flushed from the pocket. Giving up ground, Vandall was dropped at the Shady 31 for a loss of ten. A flag was thrown on the play, backing the Cavaliers further from the endzone. The Cavaliers anticipated a heavy rush from the Tigers on second down and slipped a screen pass over the middle to Heath. Heath gained 16 yards setting up a manageable third and ten for West. Nickell did the dirty work from there, carrying over the right side for a gain of fifteen yards and a first and goal. After a loss of five yards on first down, Nickell again broke loose in the Shady secondary and ran over Landon McCall at the goal line for a 10-yard touchdown scamper. Ridgeway remained perfect on the night, hitting the PAT for a 28-6 lead with 2:45 to go in the third quarter.
Franklin pinned the Tigers at their own 20-yard line on the next drive with a kick resulting in a touchback. Shady couldn’t muster much of an attack as West defensive coaches Kelly Vaughan and Jared Robertson turned up the pressure. Nutter registered two sacks of Green as the game transitioned into the fourth quarter, forcing Shady to punt the ball to the Cavaliers. The Cavalier possession would be short-lived, though. Vandall took a shotgun snap and looked right. With three receivers in the pattern, Vandall lofted a pass over the middle to Lilly that sailed high and settled into the waiting arms of Richmond. To further add insult to the Cavaliers, Lilly was flagged for a personal foul for tackling Richmond after he had given himself up on the play.
If Shady hoped to mount a comeback, now was their opportunity. Sellards bulled his way over the right side for a 6-yard gain. Richmond got the call on second down, but Holliday met him in the hole and stopped him for a one-yard gain. Sellards attempted to run a counter on third down, but Whitt wrapped him up low and Vandall drove him into the turf for a loss of a yard. Facing a 22-point deficit and a rapidly declining fourth quarter clock, Shady had to go for it on fourth down. Green stood in the shotgun as the snap spiraled back. The Cavaliers brought pressure off the edge and Nutter got to Green, forcing him to unload the ball quicker than he wanted. As Cordial finished off Green and knocked him the ground, his pass fell short of Sellards who had slipped out of the backfield into the left flat. Turnover on downs.
The two teams traded three-and-out possessions before the Cavaliers could get their offense on track again. Nickell burst into Shady territory with a 14-yard run over the left side. Kadin Parker then weaved his way through the middle of the Tiger defense for a gain of thirteen followed by a sweep to the right that gained seven more yards. Momentum was on the Cavaliers’ side. Vandall slipped through the middle and angled left on a fullback dive for a gain of fifteen yards as West gashed Shady’s defense to set up a first and goal. Nickell pinballed his way into the endzone from five yards out for his fifth rushing touchdown of the night. The kick failed but the Cavaliers were ahead by a comfortable 34-6 margin with 5:57 remaining in the game.
The Cavaliers embarked on their final scoring drive of the night after a three-and-out from the Tigers. The drive was ignited by an Agee catch and run for twelve yards in which he broke one tackle and dragged another defender past the first down marker. A delay of game penalty followed by a holding call looked like it might derail the Cavalier drive, but a bruising 10-yard run by Nickell set West up with a third and four situation. Parker slashed through the Tigers for seven yards on a counter play and a fresh set of downs. Nickell rumbled right for twelve more yards and the West train was rolling again. The Cavaliers slipped Vandall through the left side where he ran through two tackles on his way to a 29-yard touchdown to seal the win. Ridgeway’s fifth PAT made it 41-6 with 1:22 remaining.
The Tigers would add a window-dressing touchdown with 31 seconds remaining on a Green to Mackey touchdown pass. Nutter sacked Green on the conversion try. That set the final score at 41-12.
Nickell rushed for over 200 yards for the fifth time in his career, putting him in sole possession of second place on the Cavalier 200-yard game list. Nickell trails only Trent Walker for the most 200-yard games in West football history and broke a tie he shared with Marvin Moore, Mailk Boatwright, and Noah Brown. It was his third 200-yard rushing game this season. Nickell also tied Brian Gray (10/3/2008 at Summers Co.) and himself for the second most rushing touchdowns in a game with five. Nickell previously had five scoring runs on September 16 against Webster County. Nickell’s 21 rushing touchdowns are tied with Brian Gray in 2008 for sixth-most in a season. Nickell’s average per game of 202.3 yards and his average per carry of 11.3 yards would both set Greenbrier West records if the season were over now.
Jacob Nutter was named the Rock 95 McDonald’s Player of the Game. Nutter had six total tackles and three sacks. Nutter now leads the team with four sacks on the season.
Greenbrier West 14 7 7 13 – 41
Shady Spring 6 0 0 6 – 12
1st – (2:44) Ty Nickell 12-yard TD rush (Hayden Ridgeway PAT)
1st – (1:46) Ty Nickell 6-yard TD rush (Ridgeway PAT)
2nd (1:14) Ty Nickell 7-yard TD rush (Ridgeway PAT)
3rd (2:45) Ty Nickell 10-yard TD rush (Ridgeway PAT)
4th (5:47) Ty Nickell 5-yard TD rush (Kick failed)
4th (1:22) Cole Vandall 29-yard TD rush (Ridgeway PAT)
Passing: GW (4-6, 46yds INT) Vandall 3-5, 33yds INT; Lilly 1-1, 13yds: SS (5-16, 54yds TD) Green 5-6, 54yds TD
Rushing: GW (45-311yds, 6TD) Nickell 27-203, 5TD (12, 6, 7, 10, 5); Cole Vandall 7-40 TD (29); Kadin Parker 5-40; Holliday 4-32; Lilly 2-(-4): SS (49-141yds, TD) Richmond 22-104yds TD (7); Sellards 13-49yds; Green 5- (-23); Brody Seabolt 1-14; Dylan Ritchie 0-5
Receiving: GW (4-46yds) Dalton Heath 1-14; Agee 1-13; Lilly 1-9; Nickell 1-8: SS (5-54yds, TD) Mackey 2-31, TD (14); Locklear 1-17; Bailey 1-10; Richmond 1-(-4)
Turnovers: GW – Heath FUM Rec; Cordial FUM Rec: SS – Richmond INT
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| Ty Nickell runs through the rain and the Shady Spring defense in Friday night’s 41-12 win. |
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| Head coach Toby Harris shares a victorious smile with Ty Nickell after the Cavaliers’ 41-12 win at Shady Spring. |
