Story and Photos by Sean McNamara, For Lootpress
FAIRMONT – With each team possessing high expectations coming into the 2022 season, North Marion and East Fairmont kicked things off Thursday night at East-West Stadium in Fairmont, with the visiting Huskies from NMHS coming away with a 40-19 victory over the Bees.
After ending last season with a Class AA quarterfinal loss at home against Bluefield, the Huskies were facing the tall task of replacing 2021 all-state wide receiver Tariq Miller and two-year starting quarterback Brody Hall for the 2022 campaign. New starting quarterback Casey Minor and junior wide receiver Landon Frey answered the call, helping propel the Huskies to 396 total yards of offense and four combined touchdowns between the two of them.
“I feel good,” Minor said after the game. “It’s new, but I feel right for the spot and I’m ready to go.”
Minor set the tone on the ground and through the air, rushing for a team-best 114 yards and a touchdown while completing 8-of-9 passes for 148 yards and three scores.
The junior signal caller employs more of a hard-nosed running style than his predecessor, Hall, did, but he feels he has found his place in the offense.
“I pretty much always have the option of taking off and running,” Minor said. “But I’ve always got that arm in my back pocket. I was pleased with (how the offense moved the ball).”
Minor’s top target on the night was Frey, who hauled in all three of Minor’s touchdown passes as part of a five-catch, 115-yard, three-touchdown night.
“Casey did a really great job of finding me when I was open,” Frey, who had TD catches of 72, 17 and 2 yards, said. “The line did really well giving him enough time. I think we did really well. We ran the ball well and moved it down the field.”
With Minor and Frey settling into their roles, the Huskies jumped on the Bees early, starting with a 1-yard TD run from senior Gavan Lemely that capped a 10-play drive to open the game.
The Bees, who entered the season with expectations in their own right after narrowly missing the playoffs last season, took over possession, fumbling on their fourth play offensively, allowing the Huskies to recover and losing 28 yards in the process.
The fumbles were the story of the night for the Bees, who lost three in the game.
“It was huge,” East Fairmont coach Shane Eakle said. “We talk to our guys about keeping the ball high and tight and making sure we possess the ball. Give North a lot of credit, they ripped the ball out. We had two drives that got killed and they made some plays off of that.”
North Marion senior Harley Sickles was responsible for stipping the ball out twice, allowing Minor, Frey and linebacker Tyler Curry to all tally fumble recoveries.
“We were pushing them, getting in there and making (EFHS QB Ian Crookshanks) get out of the pocket,” Sickles said. “We have a big circuit we do in pregame. We strip at the ball and hold them up.”
“That was pretty much the game plan,” Minor added. “Stay in coverage, let them run around a little bit and then get to them.”
After that first fumble recovery in the first quarter, Minor capped an eight-play drive with a 4-yard TD run to put the Huskies up, 12-0.
Another EFHS fumble several drives later set up a Minor-to-Frey 72-yard TD strike, giving North Marion a 19-0 lead.
A 35-yard field goal from EFHS’s Connor Tingler and a 17-yard TD pass from Minor to Frey made the score 25-3 at halftime.
North Marion got the only score of the third quarter when Minor hit Frey from 2 yards away to make the score 32-3, allowing the Huskies’ JV players to take over the rest of the way.
The varsity defense from North Marion held the Bees well under 100 yards in the game, something that Eakle attributed to the play of Curry and Minor at linebacker as well as the NMHS defensive front.
“We knew they were pretty good at the linebacker position,” Eakle said. “Their up front guys were able to handle our up front guys. With some of those mismatches we weren’t able to get the running game going so we were leaning on the pass. Now they’re able to tee off a little bit because we weren’t able to run the ball effectively.”
The NMHS reserve units played all but one series in a fourth quarter that saw the Bees score on a 32-yard run from Dominic Fantasia and a 38-yard pass from Crookshanks to Hoyt Michael.
A Quinton Harbert to Landon Cowger 51-yard TD pass capped the scoring for the Huskies, who came away with the 40-19 win.
East Fairmont tallied 203 total yards in the game, more than half of which came in the fourth quarter.
“At times we saw flashes of hope,” Eakle said, noting a recovery of a NMHS muffed punt that the Bees fumbled back to the Huskies the next play in the third quarter. “I thought at times defensively we looked solid, just we were on the field a lot.”
Crookshanks finished the game 10-of-18 passing for 114 yards with Fantasia leading the charge rushing with 123 yards and Michael leading the receiving efforts with four grabs for 51 yards.
Now 1-0 on the season, North Marion will hope to build off of what it accomplished Thursday next week when it travels to Preston to take on the Knights.
“We feel good,” Sickles said. “Our line did good, and everybody did what they were supposed to do tonight and we won.”
Next up for the Bees will be a Big 10 clash next week against the Grafton Bearcats.
Passing; 10-11-0;10-18-0
NM: Casey Minor 15-114 1 TD, Parker Kincell 7-43, Gavan Lemley 14-39 1 TD, Aaron Hoffman 4-12, Trevor Mullett 3-7, Isaiah Sigley 1-4, Landon Stemple 1-(-2), Quinton Harbert 1-(-3). TEAM 4-(-28). Totals 50-187. EF: Dominic Fantasia 10-123 1 TD, Nicholas O’Dell 3-0, Ian Crookshanks 10-(-6), TEAM 1-(-28). Totals 24-89.
NM – Casey Minor 8-9-0 148 yards 3 TD. Quinton Harbert 2-2-0 61 yards 1 TD. EF: Ian Crookshanks 10-18-0 114 yards 1 TD.
NM – Landon Frey 5-115 3 TD. Harley Sickles 2-13, Landon Cowger 1-51 1 TD, Aaron Hoffman 1-20, Brody Hess 1-10. Totals 10-209. EF: Hoyt Michael 4-51 1 TD, Alex Culp 3-36, Avery Brown 2-23, Rockett Nichols 1-6, Tristan Boone 1-(-2). Totals: 11-114.
NM – Gavan Lemley 1- yard run (kick failed)
NM – Casey Minor 4-yard run (kick failed)
NM – Landon Frey 72-yard pass from Minor (Isaiah Sigley kick)
EF – Connor Tingler 35-yard field goal
NM – Frey 17-yard pass from Minor (run failed)
NM – Frey 2-yard pass from Minor (Sigley kick)
EF – Dominic Fantasia 32-yard run (Tingler kick)
NM – Landon Cowger 51-yard pass from Quinton Harbert (Landon Stemple run)
EF – Hoyt Michael 38-yard pass from Ian Crookshanks (Tingler kick)
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