Jacob D. Ball
For The Ironton Tribune

BEAVER — Remember football games on the Nintendo?
We’re not talking about the ubiquitous franchise named after John Madden we play nowadays. No, we’re talking about the 1980s gray box Nintendo football made by Tecmo.
Tecmo was a great game for its time, however, it did have a fatal flaw in that the game’s version of Bo Jackson was literally unstoppable; and using him in the game is now considered cheating.
Watching Coal Grove Hornets’ running back Chase Hall Saturday against the Eastern Eagles was like watching Bo Jackson being used in the Tecmo game.
The junior running back had 210 yards on 6 carries and 3 touchdowns in a 54-8 rout.
For the mathematically interested out there, that’s around 35 yards a carry.
The narrative of this game was set within the first 3 possessions of the first quarter.
On the second play of the game, Hall delivered an impressive 62-yard touchdown run.
Eastern followed the Hornets’ touchdown with a 3-and-out.
Coal Grove quarterback Whyatt Mannon found Jarren Hicks for a 53-yard touchdown reception.
Coal Grove’s Steven Simpson would also add another TD run leading to a 22-0 Hornets’ lead at the end of the quarter.
The Hornets also came out defensively swarming (pun completely intended) the Eagles’ line of scrimmage leaving Eastern very little time or space to operate their spread offense.
Hall’s video game-like performance continued in the second quarter with TD runs of 56 and 31.
There was not really any event in this game that could be said to be a turning point, as the tone of the game was pretty much set by Hall’s 62-yard run on the second play of the game.
However, there was an event late in the second quarter that pretty much sealed the Eagles’ fate and it didn’t come from Hall’s swift legs, rather, it came from Hicks’ swift hands.
Eastern had shown a touch of life after Hall’s second touchdown when Eastern quarterback Dylan Morton only needed one play to throw a 70-yard touchdown pass to Earl Perkins.
That touchdown was almost immediately followed up by Hall’s third touchdown seemingly reasserting Coal Grove’s dominance.
However, in the waning minutes of the half, Eastern put together another drive deep into Hornet territory and were knocking on the door of the goal line.
The hopes of the Eagles’ faithful were dashed as Hicks intercepted a pass near the goal line which gave the Hornets’ a possession that they could run out the clock and go into halftime with a huge lead.
After Hicks’ interception, the game continued much as it had in the first quarter with Hornets adding some more scores while keeping the Eagles out of the end zone leading them to a 54-8 win.
Coal Grove 22 14 6 12 = 54
Eastern 0 8 0 0 = 8
First Quarter
CG – Chase Hall 62 run (conversion good) 11:09
CG – Jarren Hicks 53 pass from Whyatt Mannon (Justin Newcomb kick) (:57
CG – Steven Simpson 35 run (Justin Newcomb kick) 6:36
First Quarter
CG – Chase Hall 56 run (conversion good) 6:30
BE – Earl Perkins 70 pass from Dylan Morton (conversion good) 6:10
CG – Chase Hall 31 run (kick failed) 5:13
Third Quarter
CG – Jarren Hicks 54 pass from Whyatt Mannon (kick failed) 7:35
Fourth Quarter
CG – Gavin Gipson 12 run (kick failed) 9:18
CG – Justin Newcomb 4 run (conversion failed) 2:32
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CG BE
First downs 7 5
Rushing yards 406 55
Passing yards 107 175
Total yards 513 230
Penalties 6-75 2-15
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Statistic Leaders
Rushing–Coal Grove: Chase Hall 6-210 3 TD, Gavin Gipson 5-72 1TD, Justin Newcomb 4-62 TD, Steven Simpson 5-59 TD; Eastern: Dylan Morton 17-38, Landyn Reinsmith 8-19.
Passing–Coal Grove: Whyatt Mannon 2-3-0 107 2 TD; Eastern: Dylan Morton 10-24-3 175 TD.
Receiving–Coal Grove: Jarren Hicks 2-107 2TD; Eastern: Earl Perkins 1-70 TD, Jace White 4-43, K.J. Reinsmith 2-37.