MOUNTAIN RIDGE MINER FOOTBALL

FRANKFORT USES BIG PLAYS TO DEFEAT MOUNTAIN RIDGE, 41-6

SHORT GAP, W.Va. — Gunnar Bradshaw was the star for Frankfort, scoring four touchdowns in the first half and leading the No. 1 Falcons (6-0) to a 41-6 win over Mountain Ridge on Friday.

“Nice win for us, we started off a little slow,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said. “But once we started getting into a rhythm, I thought the kids played hard, we played physical and did a nice job.”

Bradshaw scored four touchdowns in the first half, catching a pair of touchdowns from Blake Jacobs.

The first was from 15 yards out in the first quarter, while the second came from 19 yards away on the opening play of the second quarter.

The second passing touchdown was set up by an interception from Bradyn Tyler to stall the Miners’ (2-3) opening drive.

“We knew that coming into the game, we had to win the mental battle, win the turnover battle and limit explosive plays,” Mountain Ridge head coach Nathan Shipe said. “In the penalty category, we got beat 5-0, in the turnover battle, we got beat 5-0 and in the explosive play battle we got beat 5-0. So that was our big takeaway, it was just plays that were very, very costly.”

In the second quarter, the Falcons returned fumbles on back-to-back Mountain Ridge possessions for touchdowns.

Bradshaw scooped and scored the first off a strip sack from Knox Kimble.

Two plays into the following drive, Cole Shanholtz picked up a fumbled snap and took it to the house.

"Anytime you get something like that, the first one really got the life into our team," Whiteman said. "Got us fired up and going, and then we got another one. When you get that momentum going, it's hard to stop it."

On the ensuing Miner drive, Bradshaw intercepted a pass and returned it 37 yards to the 40.

Four plays later, he caught a 44-yard pass from Jacobs down to the one, setting Bradshaw up for a one-yard touchdown on the next play.

Bradshaw caught three of the four completions from Jacobs for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

"Gunnar just does a phenomenal job," Whiteman said. "You can play him anywhere on the field and he's gonna do a wonderful job. He's a smart kid, he's very athletic and just does a wonderful job."

Mountain Ridge entered Friday with the area’s fourth-best passing offense with 549 yards through four games.

Frankfort held the Miners to 19 passing yards in the first half.

"Our game plan at the beginning of the game was to possess the football, use the clock, keep Frankfort's offense off the field," Shipe said. "Gain some momentum that way by using the clock and using that to our advantage. So that was our plan at the beginning and we had to go away from it relatively quickly."

On the other side, the Falcon passing attack was ranked eighth in the area with 256 yards through five games.

Jacobs had 89 yards in the first half, completing four of five passes with two scores.

"We did expect the passing game, our game plan was to stop the run first," Shipe said of Frankfort's passing success. "I still think they're a run-first team. But a little of the motion confused our defensive secondary. We weren't able to adjust to the man-to-man switches that we needed to make, and it left receivers running wide open." 

Just before the Miners’ second drive was about to begin, the stadium lights went out, resulting in a 16-minute delay. Neither coach felt it impacted their team.

Leading 35-0 at halftime, Bradyn Tyler added to the Falcon lead with a 48-yard scamper midway through the third quarter.

Tyler led Frankfort with 81 rushing yards on six carries.

Levi Clise found Nathan Miller wide open for a four-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to prevent the shutout for the Miners.

Carter Clites led Mountain Ridge with 52 rushing yards on 10 attempts.

Frankfort's leading rusher Carder Shanholtz did not play on Friday, but Whiteman expects him to return next week.

Shanholtz entered Friday leading the area with eight rushing touchdowns and was fourth with 431 rushing yards.

The Falcons' second-leading rusher Kaiden McKenzie left Friday's game on a stretcher, and Whiteman said it could be a season-ending leg injury.

McKenzie entered Friday with 249 rushing yards and five touchdowns and had three carries for 22 yards against Mountain Ridge.

Both teams are on the road Friday. Mountain Ridge faces No. 2 Fort Hill at 6:30 p.m. while Frankfort plays Brooke at 7 p.m.
The Sentinels (2-3) fell 49-14 at Bridgeport on Friday.

"Our focus is on when we make a mistake, being able to move on to the next play," Shipe said. "Not allowing one bad play, one mistake to turn into two, three, four in a row. So that's gonna be our focus, being able to turn the page and play the next play.