Hall's touchdown caps off gritty comeback for Pirates
- Staff
- Aug 30
- 4 min read
WHEELERSBURG — Pirate running back Stephen Hall punched in from one-yard out with 22 seconds remaining to cap off Wheelersburg's 10-7 comeback win over the Archbishop McNicholas Rockets at Ed Miller Stadium on Friday night.
Hall finished with a game-high 23 carries for 83 yards — but it would be his final carry that would be remembered the most.
"Coach told me in the timeout, that I don't care if you run over your teammates, just put your head and get in that end zone and that's what I did," said Hall. "I got a great block from Elijah Brown, without him, I may not score."
The win moves the Pirates record to 2-0 on the season. McNicholas falls to 1-1 on the year.
"A win's a win," said Wheelersburg coach Rob Woodward. "Week two you always make your biggest growth as a team. We did grow in a number of areas. I was really pleased with our guys' effort."
Statistically, the Pirates held the advantage. They out-performed McNicholas in all major offensive stats, including 317-138 in total yards and 19-7 in first downs.
But they still trailed after three quarters of play.
The Pirates got the ball back to begin the fourth and drove inside McNicholas red zone thanks to some tough runs from Hall and a couple completions from Jack Doerr. But the drive would stall as Hall's run on fourth-and-short was stopped a yard short.
Doerr stepped in to take snaps at quarterback for the fourth quarter, as starter Braylon Rucker was still banged up from last week.
Doerr finished 7 of 9 for 79 yards through the air. Rucker finished 10 of 14 for 104 yards passing and ran for another 34.
But McNicholas promptly went 3-and-out, giving the ball back to the Pirates at midfield.
Unable to move the ball on three downs, the Pirates dug into their bag of tricks and tried a fake punt. Even though Cooper Heimbach did complete the pass to Jonah Collier, the sophomore receiver was stopped a yard shy of the line to gain, giving the Rockets the ball back with 4:57 remaining.
On first down, Caleb Naumann gained 5 and Brock Arnold gained 4 on third, setting up a fourth-and-one. Rather than punt, McNicholas decided to roll the dice at midfield and go for it.
But the snap to Arnold was mishandled and Brown came off the edge and made the stop for a 6-yard loss, giving the Pirates the ball back with 2:50 remaining.
"Our defense played lights out. The hits were coming, it was a physical game," said Woodward. "So I can say enough about our defense giving us the chance to win the game."
After a pair of incomplete passes, Doerr hit Hunter Bivens along the far sideline for 15 yards and a first down. A play later, Doerr hit Brady Doss on a drag and the tight end bulled his way down to the 4.
Hall carried the ball two-straight times to the 1, but a mishandled snap on third down put the ball at the 2. A neutral zone infraction moved on McNicholas moved the ball back to the 1 on fourth-and-goal, setting up the winning score.
The rest of the scoring occurred in the first 12 minutes and 10 seconds of the game.
The Pirates took the lead on their first possession of the game, using an 11-play, 72-yard drive to score the games' first points on a 34-yard field goal from Heimbach to make it 3-0.
The score remained that way until the very first play of the second quarter and the Pirates electing to go for it on a fourth-and-inches from their own 38.
As Rucker tried to stick the ball out for the line to gain, the ball was knocked free, allowing Zarius Harvey to scoop up the ball and return it for touchdown.
Andrew Corcoran added the extra point to make it 7-3 in favor of McNicholas just 10 seconds into the second frame.
"At halftime we came in with the mindset that we just had to want it more. We ran the ball in the first half. So we came out in the second half and stayed with it," said Hall.
Woodward offered high praises to McNicholas afterwards and was happy to see his team pull out a close game.
"That's a very good football team. Our guys came out and we battled. It's been a while since we've been down to the wire in a game and came out on top.
McNicholas was led offensively by running back Caleb Naumann with 16 carries for 90 yards.
Miller led all receivers with 4 catches for 75 yards. The junior made a couple key catches at times to extend drives. One of those catches came in the fourth when Miller came back to catch a deflected pass attempt from Doerr and wound up turning the play into an 11-yard gain.
The Pirates are back on the road again next Friday when they face the Jackson Ironmen.
KIPP 0 7 0 0 = 7
Wheelersburg 3 0 0 7 = 10
First Quarter
Wh — Cooper Heimbach 34 field goal, 4:22.
Second Quarter
McN — Zarius Harvey 38 fumble return (Andrew Corcoran), 11:50.
Fourth Quarter
Wh — Stephen Hall 1 run (Cooper Heimbach kick), 0:22.
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McN Wh
First downs 7 19
Rushes-yards 19-97 47-132
Passing yards 41 185
Total yards 138 317
Cmp-Att-Int 6-14-0 18-26-0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1
Penalties-yards 6-51 7-55
Punts-average 4-37.75 3-44.67
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Individual Leaders
RUSHING — McNicholas: Caleb Naumann 16-90, Brock Arnold 3-7; Wheelersburg: Stephen Hall 23-81 TD, Elijah Brown 7-10, Braylon Rucker 7-34, Jack Doerr 3-minus 6.
PASSING — McNicholas: Steven Meltebrink 6-14-0 41; Wheelersburg: Braylon Rucker 10-14-0 104, Jack Doerr 7-9-0 78, Cooper Heimbach 1-1-0 3.
RECEIVING — McNicholas: Lucas Broughton 1-12, Connor Powderly 1-7, Brody Conrad 2-5, Mitch Ganim 1-4, Caleb Naumann 1-1; Wheelersburg: Xavier Miller 5-75, Brady Doss 4-57, Kenyon Evans 2-24, Hunter Bivens 5-17, Landon McGraw 1-11, Elijah Brown 1-5, Jonah Collier 1-3.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — Cooper Heimbach (Wheelersburg) 55 short, 57 short.
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