Beckley – On the spookiest night of the season Gage Burdette haunted the Oak Hill Red Devils.
The sophomore running back starred on both sides of the ball Friday rushing for 216 yards and three touchdowns while adding an interception and a strip sack in Beckley’s 49-13 victory over Oak Hill on Halloween night in Beckley.
The output pushed Burdette over 1,000 yards on the season after rushing for just 65 as a freshman a year ago. But his highest leverage plays came on the defensive side where a fourth-and-goal pressure at the Beckley 3 led to an incompletion; his interception ended a drive in Beckley territory and his strip sack was scooped and returned for a touchdown by Preston Clary, pushing the lead to three scores in the fourth quarter.
“He’s a warrior man,” Beckley head coach Street Sarrett said. “He loves the game of football and plays where he needs to be playing. He just loves the game and takes pride in putting that Beckley uniform on on Friday nights and that’s what we want out of our players.”
Five turnovers and a slew of penalties that cost them over 90 yards hampered the Red Devils.
The miscues plagued an offense that struggled to sustain drives, going a combined 2-of-15 on third and fourth down conversion attempts. Overall eight of Oak Hill’s 11 drives ended in four or fewer plays
“Just trying to find a rhythm,” Oak Hill head coach Davon Marion said. “They gave us a few looks on defense for them tonight. They blitzed us heavy and we haven’t really seen that since the Princeton game and they’ve got a good coaching staff and a good team. So they watched some tape and seen some things that worked against us and so they executed, made us a panic attack little bit and we could never really get in rhythm.”
The penalties and turnovers were painful early.
An encroachment and pass interference, both on fourth downs, extended the Flying Eagles’ opening drive, one that ended in a 1-yard touchdown plunge for Burdette. The first turnover of the night, a Beckley fumble recovery on the kickoff proved harmless as the Red Devils held for a turnover on downs, knotting the game when Cade Compton found pay dirt from two yards out.
The hosts answered back on the next play from scrimmage as QB Gage Price connected with receiver Preston Clary for a 41-yard touchdown catch that saw the senior receiver do most of the work after the catch.
Burdette ended Oak Hill’s next drive with a sideline interception but the Red Devils pieced together their longest drive by plays and second longest by yards on their following possession.
A 12-play, 61-yard trek put the Red Devils on Beckley 3 on fourth-and-goal but Burdette disrupted the playing, pressuring Oak Hill QB Antoine Hicks to backpedal. Hicks’ heave to an open receiver fell incomplete with Burdette in his face.
“I saw – they weren’t that good, of course,” Burdette said with a smile. “When they had trips to (the right) and I was on the backside, their protection wasn’t that good.”
With under two minutes to play, the Flying Eagles hit the pedal, scoring once more with some assistance from their foes.
A pair of 15-yard penalties helped Beckley march 97 yards in eight plays with Price finding A.J. Thomas on a 25-yard touchdown pass off of play-action with four seconds remaining.
Oak Hill responded with a three-play 57-yard scoring drive out of the break, the highlight play coming on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Hicks to Owen Grose, cutting the deficit to 21-13 after a missed PAT.
The offenses largely quieted down until Price’s 2-yard touchdown run pushed the lead to 28-13 with 3:32 to play in the third.
After Oak Hill intercepted a Price pass in the fourth, Burdette began to bust the game open, strip-sacking Hicks from behind. Clary returned the fumble 21 yards for a 35-13 lead.
“That’s the key to defense – third-and-longs and getting off the field,” Sarrett said. “Making people punt and stopping them on fourth down when they go for it. Our defense, after that first series in the third quarter they really buckled down and played.”
Burdette put the finishing touches on the game with rushing touchdowns of 66 and 14 yards.
“I saw the backside cutback because my line, they do a lot of it,” Burdette said. “I saw the backside one time and the next time I ran it I hit it and scored.”
The victory puts Beckley, which entered Friday night rated No. 10 in Class AAAA, in position to host a playoff game for the first time since 2001 while effectively eliminating that same possibility for the Red Devils.
“You gotta finish,” Sarrett said. “We let some games get away from us that we shouldn’t have. We just need to take care of our business next week against (George Washington).”
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