The Shadow
FAIRLEA, WVa– Athletic Director “Jake Phillips”, in his third season as the head coach of the Bath County Chargers, seems to be exactly what the small school has needed. Since his arrival, more students have been coming out to be on the team each year and games are crowded, often with little room in the stands. Phillips has re-created an atmosphere that used to be referred to as “Bath County Football”. He seems to be the metaphoric shot in the arm that Bath County’s sports program has needed.
August 5th was the team’s first practice of the season. The players have been putting in the work over the past two weeks, implementing offensive plays and discussing defensive looks and strategies. All their preparation was tested Friday evening in Lewisburg, WV in a scrimmage against the Patriots of Midland Trail.
Bath got off to a slow start on their first offensive series gaining little to no yardage on their first couple of plays before getting lucky enough to recover their own fumble on a run up the middle and gain about five yards. The next play gained 15 yards as Wyatt Campbell completed a quick pass to the right side before turning the ball over to the Patriots for their first offensive possession.
The Chargers’ run defense looked stout in their first couple of series on the field. They gave up a few gains down the middle, but never gave up more than five yards around the edges. The Patriots found their stride when they took to the air. They capitalized on a few big passes before calling a sweep that went for a gain of 28 yards and set them up for a five-yard touchdown run up the middle.
After shaking off a few mistakes made in the first two or three offensive segments, Bath started to find its rhythm. After a short gain up the middle, Bath’s Cooper Lowry broke for a fifteen-yard gain on a sweep around the right side. Not wanting to be shown up, two plays later, Hunter Kirby broke free running outside of the left tackle and gained nine yards setting the chargers up on the 22 yard-line. Unfortunately, Bath County’s efforts went unrewarded as the referee missed a pass interference call in the endzone that would have resulted in a touchdown.
Midland ended up scoring the only touchdowns of the scrimmage with three. It would have only taken a few small things to go their way for Bath to have scored a few touchdowns themselves. Coach Phillips’s message to his team after the scrimmage was he saw a lot of good things out on the field, and he saw some things that needed to be worked on. He liked the effort put forth by everyone on the team.
The Chargers will be in action again Friday, Aug. 23rd as they are set to scrimmage the Pocohontas County Warriors of West Virginia.
