Photos by David Pennock

Bob Madison

Shepherdstown Chronicle

The soft rains that came earlier in the day were gone. But in their place came a steady wind that had an effect at times on both teams when Jefferson held its Senior Night for band members and faced unbeaten Martinsburg.

Opportunistic Martinsburg shelved the Jefferson upset plans and remained undefeated with a 42-6 win that kept it atop the Class AAA rankings in the state. The Cougars take a 4-4 record into tonight’s Homecoming game versus South Hagerstown, now 5-3 after beating Williamsport last Friday.

When the Cougars recovered their onside kick to begin things, the weather-reduced home crowd anticipated a possible quick-start to the Jefferson scoring.

But after Jefferson’s only first down of the first period a poor snap to quarterback Isaac Myers lost 10 yards … and Martinsburg rolled through a 28-point first half in machine-like order.

By halftime, the Bulldogs had scoring passes from Tyson Bagent to Isaac Brown, Michael Boaitey and Stephen Edmonds as well as Alex Jones’ long punt return touchdown.

The Cougars also managed only one first down in the second quarter as their tries at running at the Martinsburg defense were mostly stopped for short yardage or losses.

The Cougars would intercept Bagent three times. Martinsburg was even successful with own onside kick but then Richard Ramseier quickly intercepted Bagent.

With the crowd dwindling as the second half brought colder temperatures and continued winds, the Bulldogs were stung by a Myers-to-Scooter Gaskins scoring pass of 53 yards that were the first points of the half.

But Martinsburg quickly countered with an 18-yard run from replacement quarterback Grant Harman. And the lead was restored to 29 points. Harman fled down the sidelines for an 85-yard score early in the last quarter to complete the colder-by-the-minute scoring.

Caiden Heck had been Martinsburg’s most useful defender on a night where the Bulldog interior line had made gaining any yardage along the ground an adventure for the Cougars.

Martinsburg took care of the business it had in Shenandoah Junction and will try to wrap up an unbeaten regular season when it faces once-beaten Musselman.

It’s Homecoming at Jefferson . . . and the Cougars would all but guarantee themselves a playoff berth for the third consecutive season should they defeat South Hagerstown in front of the old grads, new grads and familiar homeside faces.