Oak Hill thumps Lincoln County, grabs milestone win

Sep. 15—oak hill — Davon Marion will most assuredly take the "W" as his team strives to remain in the postseason playoff hunt.

But that doesn't mean he has to be satisfied.

Because he wasn't.

Marion's Class AAA No. 17 Oak Hill Red Devils rolled to a 35-0 halftime lead en route to a 42-12 vanquishing of the Lincoln County Panthers Friday at John P. Duda Stadium.

According to Oak Hill assistant coach David Gorby, the win was the 500th all-time football victory in Oak Hill/Collins high school history, and Gorby said the Red Devils are only the 28th West Virginia program to reach that plateau.

The win came in front of a crowd that included pending inductees of the school's 2023 sports hall of fame. The Class of 2023 members were introduced prior to the game and will be inducted during a special ceremony Saturday at the Oak Hill Holiday Lodge.

"You know, as a coach, you know you take all victories," said Marion. "All victories are sweet, but I'm all about the little things. I don't think we played particularly well.

"We made a lot of mistakes. I thought we laid down some. Execution was a little hit-and-miss, and I'll be happy with a win at all times, but we gotta get better and that's the key."

"I tell the kids in the locker room, it's about us, it's not about the other team," he added. "If Oak Hill doesn't beat Oak Hill, then we'll be fine. A few plays got away from us early in the game, but we buckled down, cleaned up some penalties and things and started executing and got rolling."

Malachi Lewis threw for 111 yards and one touchdown on 10-of-13 passing and ran for another six-pointer, and teammate J.D. Mauritz carried 13 times for 91 yards and two touchdowns as the Red Devils cruised en route to improving to 3-1.

Oak Hill took advantage of timely defense and special teams play to power its first-half surge. Mauritz's first score, a 41-yard gallop, was set up by an Aaron Higginbotham fumble recovery after a solid hit on the Lincoln County quarterback by David Spaulding.

The second score, Lewis' 15-yard run late in the first quarter, occurred after a blocked punt by the Red Devils' Mikey Spack which was covered by Carson Treadway.

Elijah Gray's 26-yard scoring reception from Lewis early in the second quarter resulted from a Lincoln County fumble on a short pooch kick by Oak Hill that was covered by Treadway.

Oak Hill's James Green then reached the end zone on a 4-yard run to complete a possession which featured, among other plays, Lewis completions to Spaulding (16 yards) and Gray (17).

The final score of the opening half, a short run by Mauritz, capped a drive that featured a 20-yard Mauritz burst, a Spack comebacker reception of 12 yards, and catches by other Red Devil receivers.

Spaulding concluded Oak Hill's scoring in the third quarter when he hauled in a 35-yard reception from Levi Kiszka, and Jackson Pino tacked on his sixth successful PAT kick on the evening to stake the hosts to a 42-0 margin with 6:55 left in the third frame. Zychaeus Lewis set up that score with a 45-yard return of his second interception on the night.

The Panthers got two late TD runs (27 and 10 yards) from Logan Sponaugle.

"We're just trying to get better every day," Marion said. "We used tonight to get better and I felt like we did that. Like I said, it took a second to get our offensive guys and everyone rolling, but once we start rolling, we're fine.

"We'll celebrate it, of course. You want all victories, but there's plenty of things as a coach that I seen that we can get better at and that's what we'll do next week."

Oak Hill travels to Ripley for a 7 p.m. game next Friday.

"You know, we've got another big game next week," Marion said. "I tell these guys every week that the next game is bigger than the last and we want to climb and be in the AAA rankings.

"That's our goal: To finish somewhere in the top 16, so each week and each game gets bigger and bigger."

Lincoln County (1-3) visits Woodrow Wilson next Friday.

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LC (1-3) 0 0 6 6 — 12

OH (3-1) 14 21 7 0 — 42

First quarter

OH: J.D. Mauritz 41 run (Jackson Pino kick), 8:59

OH: Malachi Lewis 15 run (Pino kick), 2:05

Second quarter

OH: Elijah Gray 26 pass from Lewis (Pino kick), 11:53

OH: James Green 4 run (Pino kick), 8:39

OH: Mauritz 2 run (Pino kick), 1:21

Third quarter

OH: David Spaulding 35 pass from Levi Kiszka (Pino kick), 6:55

LC: Logan Sponaugle 27 run (kick failed), 4:53

Fourth quarter

LC: Sponaugle 10 run (kick failed), 9:05

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — LC: Logan Sponaugle 6-45-2, Drew Banks 6-30, Austin Adkins 4-44. OH: J.D. Mauritz 13-91-2, James Green 2-9-1, Malachi Lewis 2-11-1, Tyler Ashmore 3-19, Levi Kiszka 4-8, Zychaeus Lewis 1-9, Cade Compton 3-8, Team 1-(-13)

PASSING — LC: Lucas Johaim 7-11-2-36-0; OH: Malachi Lewis 10-13-1-111-1, Levi Kiszka 3-4-0-61-1, Antoine Hicks 1-1-0-1-0

RECEIVING — LC: Austin Adkins 1-5, Drew Banks 3-14, Austin Dunlap 2-13, Logan Sponaugle 1-4; OH: J.D. Mauritz 1-(-3), David Spaulding 3-56-1, Zychaeus Lewis 2-23, Elijah Gray 2-43-1, Armonyi Hicks 1-8, Je'zer Battle 1-7, Mikey Spack 1-12, Owen Grose 1-8, Chase Crosier 1-18, Curtis Cunningham 1-1

TAKEAWAYS — LC: Lucas Johaim (INT); OH: Aaron Higginbotham (FR), Carson Treadway (FR), Zychaeus Lewis (2 INT), Jackson Pino (FR)

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