FALLS TOWNSHIP, Ohio — For ten minutes on Friday night, West Muskingum’s first-round playoff game looked like a fireworks show. By the second half, it looked like a team that had figured itself out. The Tornadoes outscored Philo 21-0 after halftime to win 35-14 in a Division IV, Region 15 opener, advancing without their starting quarterback, according to the Zanesville Times Recorder.
The first quarter alone produced 28 points, the Times Recorder reported — a complete reversal of the teams’ regular-season meeting on the same West M Athletic Booster Stadium field, when West forced six turnovers and led by 28 at halftime. This time Philo struck with purpose, and star running back Slade Sprankle’s 59-yard touchdown run in the first quarter sent the Electrics to a 14-7 lead, the Times Recorder reported.
West answered in the phase that would decide the night. Carter Smith returned a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 14, the first of three special-teams plays that haunted Philo, according to the Times Recorder. Even so, the Tornadoes reached halftime level despite outplaying stretches of the half — Philo’s defense twice held on downs in the red zone in the second quarter, and West gave the ball away twice on interceptions, the Times Recorder reported.
The adjustment after halftime was on defense. West held a 341-217 edge in total yards, including a 174-16 advantage in passing, and Sprankle — who ran for 115 yards in the first half — was limited to 43 after it, according to the Times Recorder. Head coach Nathan Brownrigg told the Times Recorder the Tornadoes moved to more eight- and nine-man fronts and changed their linebacker alignment, acknowledging that what ended up working was not really what the staff had planned all week.
West played the game short-handed. Jake Welch filled in for injured starting quarterback Noah Morrison and finished 13-of-26 passing for 162 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, the Times Recorder reported, while Dente Tyson, Malacahi Davis and Logan Serdy combined for 28 carries and 165 yards on the ground.
The tie broke on West’s first possession of the second half, when Serdy scored on third-and-goal from the 4, seven plays after a Philo fake-punt pass fell incomplete from the Electrics’ own 32, according to the Times Recorder. The play that sealed the momentum came midway through the third quarter: Philo punter Griffin Harper, rushed and trying to punt on the move from his own 30, lost the ball, was kept from recovering it, and a Tornado — Roberts, in the Times Recorder’s account — picked it up and ran it in untouched.
Philo’s coach, Lincicome, took the blame for the fourth-down gambles, telling the Zanesville Times Recorder: “That’s 100 percent on me. I put us in some bad situations and should have been smarter with how I handled some fourth-down situations.” He added, in remarks reported by the Times Recorder, that he gives his punter the green light because he trusts his players — “Sometimes you look like a million bucks, and sometimes you look like two cents.”
It has been a landmark fall for West Muskingum athletics beyond football. Earlier this week, Stant’s big save lifted West Muskingum soccer to its first regional berth since 2007, and elsewhere in the region Friday, Dover pulled away from Columbus South 41-7 and Garaway blanked Elgin 42-0 behind Miller’s four touchdowns.
Brownrigg, for his part, refused to look past the celebration. “Right now, I’m going to enjoy tonight,” he told the Times Recorder. “We’ll evaluate where we are, figure out which guys need to step up over the next couple of days, and then get to work.” He also praised his players’ response to Philo’s fast start, telling the Times Recorder the Tornadoes talk constantly about toughness — physical, mental and emotional — and did not let Philo’s big plays turn into more big plays.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: West Muskingum is 9-2 and moving on, and it did so with a backup quarterback and a defense that pitched a second-half shutout, per the Times Recorder. What is not yet known is Morrison’s status for next week, or how much of Friday’s improvised defensive plan carries over against a very different opponent.
What happens next: the reward is the hardest assignment in the region. West travels to face two-time defending regional champion Indian Valley (10-0) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, in the regional quarterfinal — the first meeting ever between the two programs, according to the Times Recorder.
Photo: David Brossard, CC BY-SA 2.0