by Jamie Harris
Last Friday, September 8 the Berkeley Springs Indians varsity football team hit the road for a trip to Marion County. The Indians came into the contest with a 0-2 record and were looking to pick up win #1 against the East Fairmont Bees. The scene was set at the famed East West Stadium in Fairmont and when the kick-off started the game, the Indians quickly found out they were in for a long night.
In the first quarter East Fairmont’ s defense pinned the Indians offense inside their own six yard line. On the next play the Bees defense got the Indians sophomore quarter Jackson Ambrose and sacked him for a safety and a quick 2-0 lead. After the ensuing kick-off, the East Fairmont offense wasted no time in scoring a touchdown and increasing their lead to 9-0.
The East Fairmont defense struck again as they picked off an Ambrose pass and returned it for a touchdown to push the score to 16-0. The Indians offense continued to sputter, and East Fairmont took over at their 35 yard line. The East Fairmont running back broke free and scampered 65 yards for a touchdown and with six minutes left in the first quarter East Fairmont was in control 23-0.
It continued to get worse for Berkeley Springs as the Bees got the ball back with three minutes left in the first quarter. East Fairmont scored once again this time on a 28 yard touchdown pass and pushed the score to 30-0. Unfortunately for the Indians the home team was not done scoring in the first quarter. Another Indians interception led to another East Fairmont touchdown pass to make the score 37-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter continued to see Berkeley Springs struggle to get any offensive rhythm. East Fairmont got the ball back and this time used a nine play drive to score another touchdown off a pass to push the score to 440.
The Indians defense was finally able to get a stop on the East Fairmont offense late in the second quarter. However, East Fairmont used a 27 yard field goal to extend their lead to 47-0 at the half.
With the lopsided score the third and fourth quarters were cut down to be six minutes each with the fourth quarter having a running clock.
The Indians finally got on the scoreboard at the end of the third quarter when the defense recovered a fumble deep in East Fairmont territory. With .7 seconds left in the third when Conner Duvall scored the Berkeley Springs touchdown and the Axel Robles extra point made the score 47-7.
The running clock in the fourth quarter ended the game pretty fast and East Fairmont sent Berkeley Springs to a 0-3 record with the 47-7 win. The Indians finished the game with a total offense of minus three yards due to a lot of penalties throughout the game.
The Indians (0-3) will be back in action this coming Friday, September 15 when they host the Keyser Golden Tornado at 7 p.m. This will also be the Hall of Fame game as the newest members of the Berkeley Springs High School Athletic Hall of Fame will be introduced to the home crowd.
