Anyone worried about a dropoff in Nitro’s high-flying passing game following the graduation of All-State quarterback Josh Moody can rest easy. The Wildcats can still sling it around.
And just as impressive: They can also run the ball and play some mean defense.
Eian Duffy threw for 327 yards and four touchdowns and Takye Porter ran for three scores as visiting Nitro pounded out a 58-0 victory against rival St. Albans in the 89th meeting of the Battle of the Bridge, a storm-delayed affair that concluded Saturday afternoon at Crawford Field.
Nitro’s defense dominated the entire way, holding the Red Dragons (0-2) to a net of minus-85 yards of total offense, which included 10 quarterback sacks. Of SA’s 24 running plays, 19 resulted in lost yardage.
The Wildcats (2-0) seemed energized Saturday after a comparatively lackluster start, leading just 14-0 when thunderstorms suspended the game Friday night with 3:14 remaining in the first half.
Duffy turned in 223 of his 327 passing yards on Saturday and all four of his TD tosses. He’s now thrown for nearly 640 yards and 10 touchdowns in two games after succeeding Moody, who fired 90 TD passes the two previous seasons and averaged about 330 yards per game in the air.
Before Friday’s suspension, Nitro was far from sharp -- failing on a fourth down near midfield on its opening possession, throwing an interception in the red zone and being whistled for six penalties, one of which wiped out a 50-yard TD run by Porter.
“I don’t think we were quite as focused as we needed to be this past week,’’ Wildcats coach James “Boom’’ McKinney said. “We talked to them before the game, and they came out and did better today.
“We’ve still got some things to clean up, but we came out and did well today, so I was proud of them. It was unusual circumstances, so we had that to deal with, but they did a pretty good job.’’
There were actually two delays for lightning in Friday’s portion of play. The first, which came with 7:46 left in the first quarter, took 43 minutes. The second delay then turned into a torrential thunderstorm and a stoppage, with an 11 a.m. resumption Saturday.
When play resumed, Nitro bunched a pair of touchdowns into the final 1:51 of the second quarter – Duffy passes of 12 and 20 yards to WVU commit Malachi Thompson – building the lead to 30-0 at halftime.
Porter added to that with his third scoring run in the third quarter and it was 36-0, ensuring a running clock in the final period. Porter tallied on runs of 1, 2 and 5 yards and ended with 77 yards on nine attempts.
Teammate Tylil Mills led the ground game with 79 yards on seven carries and had three of Nitro’s four 2-point conversion runs. The Wildcats went for 2 on all six of their Saturday TDs since regular kicker Connor Strickland had a soccer game.
Two of the final three scores in the fourth quarter were Duffy passes of 45 and 59 yards to Luke Shafer and Coltyn Lycans, respectively. Shafer had six receptions for 108 yards and Thompson six for 81.
The last Nitro touchdown with 5:10 left was a 27-yard interception return by Malik Brown -- the lone turnover for SA.
The Red Dragons, however, sprang leaks in all phases, especially on Saturday. Besides finishing in minus total yardage, they were assessed 16 penalties for 118 yards. On one drive, they had three illegal procedure calls in a span of four snaps. They also allowed 10 QB sacks as Reece Lilly was under constant pressure and completed just 2 of 5 attempts for minus-1 yard.
This after a promising start Friday in which Isaiah Muhammad batted away a fourth-down Nitro pass to get a defensive stop near midfield, Will Martin picked off a Duffy pass at his own 5 and Chance Campbell boomed a 71-yard punt to flip field position.
“You’re dealing with 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids,’’ said SA coach Derek Stotts, “and asking them to maintain emotion and focus for a night. That’s hard in itself, and then asking them to carry that over into another [day], and it’s almost impossible dealing with a young group.
“We played a veteran team – they’ve got playoff experience and got a lot of seniors over there, compared to the sophomores that we’re dealing with who’s never experienced anything like this. We try to prepare them and keep them in game situations and keep them focused, but we lost focus along the way and that’s 100% up to me.’’
McKinney, meanwhile, likes the potential he sees in his lineup, which produced a balanced offense (491 total yards), 20 tackles for loss, no punts and just one turnover.
“We’ve got a pretty good, well-rounded team,’’ McKinney said. “We’ve got to stay healthy. We’ve got a couple guys dinged, but we’ve got some good players. We’ve got some weapons on both sides of the ball, and if we get everybody on the same page and headed in the right direction, we’ll be all right.’’
Nitro has now taken four straight games against its neighboring rival by an average score of 54-6. St. Albans leads the all-time series, which began in 1931, by a count of 57-30 with two ties.
Nitro 58, St. Albans 0
Nitro;7;23;6;22;--;58
St. Albans;0;0;0;0;--;0
First quarter
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N – Porter 2 run (Strickland kick), :00
Second quarter
N – Porter 5 run (Strickland kick), 8:13
N – Thompson 12 pass from Duffy (Porter run), 1:51
N – Thompson 20 pass from Duffy (Mills run), :11
Third quarter
N – Porter 1 run (run failed), 3:29
Fourth quarter
N – Shafer 45 pass from Duffy (Mills run), 11:42
N – Lycans 59 pass from Duffy (Mills run), 7:15
N – Brown 27 interception return (run failed), 5:10
Team statistics
;;;Nitro;SA
First downs;;21;1
Rushes-yards;;17-164;24-(-84)
Passing yards;;327;(-1)
Passes;;20-33-1;2-8-1
Total yards;;491;(-85)
Fumbles-lost;;0-0;1-0
Penalties-yards;;10-96;16-118
Punts-average;;0;8-42.5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Nitro: Mills 7-79, Porter 9-77; SA: None
PASSING – Nitro: Duffy 20-33-1-327; SA: Lilly 2-8-1-(-1)
RECEIVING – Nitro: Shafer 6-108, Thompson 6-81, Lycans 4-90, Burnette 2-25, Lovejoy 1-19, Porter 1-4; SA: Roy 1-1, Campbell 1-(-2)
