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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Manns puts on show as Eagles romp Huntington

HUNTINGTON — Woodrow Wilson featured a Manns among boys Friday night in its 34-7 victory over Huntington at Bob Sang Field.

Senior tailback Marcus Manns carried 23 times for 274 yards and five touchdowns to lead the top-ranked Flying Eagles (8-0). Manns made the game appear easy on a foggy, rainy night when nothing was without difficulty for everyone else.

“He is (a special player) and we’re real proud of him,” Woodrow coach John H. Lilly said. “He carried the load for us, because we were in adverse conditions in the rain and mud. It poured down rain the whole time.”

“Marcus Manns was the man on the field,” Highlanders coach Richard Williams said after his team fell to 2-6. “Everybody else was playing in mud, but it didn’t look like he was.”

Huntington stayed in the game early. Manns’ 70-yard touchdown run with 7:12 left in the second quarter was the only score until 37 seconds left before halftime when Manns scored again on a 4-yard run to give Beckley a 14-0 halftime lead.

The Highlanders actually threatened to score first, lining up for a 19-yard field goal attempt on the first play of the second quarter. Huntington, though, faked the attempt from the 3-yard line and lost three yards. Eight plays later, Manns broke loose on his 70-yard TD run.

“That play has worked for us in the past,” Williams said. “Beckley did a super job of sitting on it.”

Beckley’s second touchdown hurt much more. The score, set up by a botched punt, took some wind out of the Highlanders. Eagles’ quarterback Ian McCulloch completed just one pass all night, but it came on this drive — a crucial 23-yarder to Tyler Coleman for a first down at the Huntington 7 with 52 seconds left before intermission. The pass set up Manns’ second touchdown.

Another Huntington miscue led to Beckley’s next score. The Highlanders fumbled their first play from scrimmage in the third quarter and the Eagles recovered. On the next play, Manns raced 33 yards around right end for a touchdown to make it 21-0.

Manns scored again from 20 yards with 2:40 left in the third quarter to make it 27-0. The speedy tailback added a 12-yard scoring run with 10:57 left in the game to give Beckley a 34-0 lead.

Huntington scored with 26 seconds left when Marc Maynard made a crowd-pleasing sliding catch for a 16-yard touchdown pass from Heath Thomas to set the score.

“Give Beckley and their coaches a lot of credit,” Williams said. “I have a lot of respect for them. Our guys gave a good effort, but Beckley responded like a No. 1 team responds.”

Huntington wasn’t without its chances. The Eagles fumbled five times, losing four. The Highlanders, though, did the same thing. Huntington also got two interceptions from Tarryn Page.

“We thought we might be able to throw some on them,” Williams said. “But their play and the conditions made that difficult to do.”

Beckley outgained Huntington 338-154 and never punted.

“I thought our offensive line did a great job,” Lilly said. “Anytime that you’ve got a running back that has the night that (Manns) had, you know you’re offensive line is doing a good job.”

“We did some good things,” Williams said. “Tarryn’s two interceptions showed that we never quit.”



Woodrow Wilson 34, Huntington 7

WW (8-0) 0 14 13 7 — 34

H (2-6) 0 0 0 7 — 7

Second Quarter

WW: Marcus Manns 70 run (Chris Yambrick kick)

WW: Manns 4 run (Yambrick kick)

Third Quarter

WW: Manns 33 run (Yambrick kick)

WW: Manns 20 run (kick failed)

Fourth Quarter

WW: Manns 12 run (Yambrick kick)

H: Marc Maynard 16 pass from Heath Thomas (Burns kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — WW: Emeka Eneje 7-25, Manns 23-274, Ian McCulloch 3-(-10), Adam Parkulo 1-0, Marquel Ali 3-(1), Wessley Walker 1-12, Phillip Cox 2-7, Josh Pryor 2-4, Kevin Starkey 2-0, Deon Staunton 1-4. H: Fuller 7-15, Taylor 13-12, Thomas 8-10, Lee 1-7, Maynard 1-19, Page 2-23.

PASSING — WW: McCulloch 1-2-1-23, Manns 0-1-1-0. H: Thomas 6-19-0-87.

RECEIVING — WW: Tyler Coleman 1-23. H: Young 1-14, Fuller 2-21, Maynard 2-39, Taylor 1-13.

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