by Jamie Harris
The stage was set on a beautiful Saturday, October 28, afternoon at Morgan Field for the final regular season football game for the Berkeley Springs Indians. The Indians (0-9) were hosting the Braxton County Ea- gles (1-7) on a rare Saturday game and the last chance for the Indians to end a 19-game losing streak for the season. Before the game the senior members of band, cheer, and football were recognized before the home crowd.
Braxton County took the opening kickoff and marched down the field behind a punishing run game. The Eagles put the first touchdown on the board with a touchdown pass to go up 7-0. Berkeley Springs offense took over after the ensuing kickoff and after a few sputters went to work. However, an Aiden Cain pass was intercepted by an Eagle defender to give the ball back to the visitors.
Braxton County’ s second offensive possession resulted in another touchdown with three seconds left in the first quarter. The extra point was good and the Eagles were out to a fast 14-0 lead over the Indians.
Berkeley Springs got the ball back and went to work again to start the second quarter. Behind a mixture of run and pass the Indians moved down into the red zone of the Eagles. This time the Indians found the end zone as Aiden Cain found Adam Rippeon for a seven yard touchdown reception. The extra point at- tempt was no good, but the Indians cut the Eagles lead to 14-6.
Braxton County took the ensuing kickoff and went back to work with their of- fense. With around 2:47 left in the second quarter the Ea- gles punched in another touchdown and with the extra point extended their lead to 21-6. That score would stay that way up to the halftime intermission.
After a great performance from the BSHS band at the intermission the Indians came back out for the second half of the game. Berkeley Springs took the Eagles kick- off and sent their offense back out on the field. Once again behind a mix of run and pass the Indians moved the ball down the field to the Eagles 33 yard line. There the coaching staff reached into their bag of tricks and a flea
flicker resulted in Aiden Cain finding freshman Kyle Moore for a 33 yard touch- down pass. Moore did an out- standing job of getting his feet down before hitting the goal post for the touchdown. The conversion was no good but the Indians trailed 21-12 with 5:02 left in the third quarter.
The Indians defense held the Eagles offense in check and forced a punt. The Indians tried to get going but a strong of penalties pushed the ball back to the Berkeley Springs 24 yard line. Facing a third and fourteen the Indians once again dug into their bag of tricks. This time a wide receiver flea flicker saw Kyle Moore launch a pass the Braxton County sideline that quarterback Aiden Cain grabbed and sprinted un- touched 76 yards for an Indians touchdown with 19 seconds left in the third quarter. Axel Robles extra point was good and the Indians were back in the ball game trailing 21-19.
Braxton County got the ball back to start the fourth quarter and immediately started working down the field. Moving down to the Indians 32 yard line the Eagles offense was stopped on fourth down by a fired up Berkeley Springs defense.
Starting at their own 32 yard line the Indians would start the march down field be- hind legs and arm of Aiden Cain. The Indians got inside the Eagles five yard line as Cain found Rippeon on a deep out. On the next play Cain took the ball and was stopped at the one yard line and the ball popped loose. As an Eagle player scooped the ball up and headed down field. However, the officials had already blown the play dead and the Indians were still alive. The next snap Cain took the ball in for the score to give Berkeley Springs a 25-21 lead. However, Cain was injured on the play and had to sit out the ensuing two point conversion play. Kyle Moore stepped into the quarterback position and calmly hit Adam Rippeon for the two conversion pass to increase the lead to 27-21.
Braxton County got the ball back with a chance to move the ball 53 yards for the win. However, the Indians defense behind a rowdy crowd shutdown the Eagle at- tack and forced an incomplete pass on 4th & 20. With the ball back in their hands the Indians offense grinded out the final 1:54 to end the 19 game losing streak and pick up their first win in 730 days.
The Indians were led on offense by Aiden Cain (12-16 passing, 157 yards, & 2 touchdowns, 27 rushes for 97 yards & a touchdown, and 1 reception for 76 yards and a touchdown). Also contributing to the offensive output was freshman Kyle Moore (1-1 passing, 76 yards, & 1 touchdown, 3 receptions for 70 yards, and a touchdown), Jacob Shekey (5 rushes for 22 yards, 4 receptions for 38 yards), Luke Burch (3 receptions for 22 yards), and Adam Rippeon (2 receptions for 27 yards).
With the win the Indians give their head coach Wes Eddy his first victory at the helm. Berkeley Springs finished the season 1-9 and will return a lot of underclassmen who saw playing time this season.
