By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Naugatuck, W.Va., is located about as far into southern West Virginia one could go without being in Kentucky but Naugatuck is where Tug Valley High School is located and Friday night Calhoun made the long 155-mile journey for a football game.
Call it bus lag or whatever but things did not go well for the Red Devils and the 12th-ranked Panthers came away with a 44-0 victory likely ending Calhoun's playoff hopes.
The loss was the fourth in a row against a killer stretch of the schedule - Tyler Consolidated, South Harrison, St. Marys and Tug Valley - and dropped the Red Devils to .500 on the season (4-4) with games at home against Wirt and Clay remaining.
Believe it or not the Red Devils kept it close for a while and were in position to actually tie the game up in the first quarter.
With Tug Valley leading 8-0 Calhoun drove the ball deep into the red zone only to suffer a turnover. But Tug Valley gave the ball right back a couple of plays later when Ethyn Miller recovered deep in Panther territory.
Calhoun once again moved deep into the red zone only to turn the ball over on downs.
It was a sad pattern for Calhoun as it was in the Tug Valley red zone (the red zone is inside the 20) on four or five different occasions only to come up empty handed.
On the other hand the Panthers did not need to be in the red zone to score some of their touchdowns including a 70 yard punt return and a long pass interception return. The Panthers also had a 62-yard run from deep in Panthers territory by Corbin Oliver to set up its second touchdown to make it 16-0.
After that Tug Valley the long punt return touchdown followed by the long pass interception touchdown and a short run and all of a sudden it was 36-0 at halftime.
After that Tug Valley took the second half kickoff and marched for a score making it 44-0 midway through the third quarter.
Calhoun shut down the Panthers' offense after that but the Calhoun offense was only able to get close before being frustrated.
Calhoun returns to action next Friday night when Wirt County travels to Mount Zion. Wirt is 2-5 after being manhandled by Williamstown, 42-14.
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