Summersville – Evolving from a shootout to a war, Nicholas County had the tank that led it to victory.
Grizzlies running back Devin Nash rushed for a career-high 523 yards and seven touchdowns, leading Nicholas County to a 63-48 victory over Lincoln Thursday night in Summersville.
Nash scored on runs of 25, 30, 24, 46, 21, 72 and 10 yards in the victory, helping the Grizzlies keep pace in a game that featured 1,035 yards of total offense. He did so, carrying the ball almost 40 times while also playing on defense where he recovered a Lincoln fumble on the goal line with under four minutes to play.
“A lot of offseason work with Jimmy Adkins,” Nash said of his stamina. “I wouldn’t be here without him and our coaches. He runs us. He can run us and we not try but we all try so that’s why we can all play both ways.”
Nicholas County’s offense was largely the antithesis of Lincoln’s which accumulated 370 yards through the air off the arm of quarterback AJ Bart who helped Colton Edwards and Jacob Bart cross the 100-yard receiving threshold in the loss.
Leading 55-48 heading into the fourth quarter, Nicholas County’s defense finally found a solution, holding AJ Bart to 3-of-8 passing for 37 yards in the final quarter, mixing in a sack and the fumble recovery that largely sealed the game. The adjustment came after Bart entered the final frame 26-of-36 passing for 333 yards and four touchdowns.
“The way the game was going we just needed a couple stops and if we could get them – that’s the way it went down – we’d get the victory,” Nicholas County head Matt Morriston said.
“We changed the coverage a little but and switched some things up and that really helped us.” Morriston later added.
Despite the inflated offensive numbers, the early projection was that of a defensive struggle.
Only one of the first five drives of the game produced a touchdown – a 25-yard scoring run from Nash on a drive that started at the Lincoln 31. Eleven of the next 12 ended with touchdowns with the final 15 seconds of the first half featuring an 18-yard touchdown pass from Bart to Bart and a 62-yard flea flicker touchdown pass from Nicholas County QB Coleton Hellems to Spencer Keiper, tying the game at 35 at the break.
The rapid pace resumed in the second half where Lincoln took the lead on a 1-yard run by Connor Rice but a 21-yard run by Nash on the ensuing drive, followed by a successful two point conversion attempt, shifted the scales in the Grizzlies’ favor 43-42.
Bart answered with a 39-yard scoring strike to Edwards to reestablish the Cougars’ lead at 48-43 but Nash’s 72-yard touchdown run on the next play from scrimmage, his longest of the evening, gave the Grizzlies the lead for good at 49-48. A fourth-and-4 conversion attempt on Lincoln’s next drive was snuffed out by the Grizzlies, breaking a steak of 10 straight drives that ended in a touchdown.
Nash expanded the lead four plays later with his seventh and shortest touchdown run of the night, this one from 10 yards out to push the advantage to 56-48 after the PAT.
A 1-yard plunge from Hellems in the fourth provided the first two-score lead of the game at 63-48, but Lincoln drove the length of the field, getting down to the Nicholas County 1 on its last charge.
A second-and-goal quarterback sneak attempt was fumbled and recovered by Nash, effectively ending one of the best single-game performances in state history.
“I knew it was going to be a sneak,” Nash said. “They were on the one-inch line. I was sitting down there ready and I see them sneak it in and I jump the center, rip it out of the quarterback’s hand – strip fumble. Cover it up, took it this way.”
Nash added 65 more rushing yards in three plays on the final drive to salt the game, having another long run called back due to offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties away from the play.
“I got tired but it’s all about pushing through,” Nash said. “My line, if you saw the holes I had, it wasn’t all me. I was running over kids, making kids miss but it wasn’t all me. I wasn’t gettin hit until the second level so that’s a lot of respect to them.”
Nash and the Grizzlies improve to 2-2 and will enjoyed a much-deserved bye ahead of a stretch that currently features four teams (Midland Trail, Independence, Greenbrier East and Roane County) rated inside the top five in their respective classes.
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