SHORT GAP, W.Va. — Frankfort didn’t give Moorefield anything easy on Friday.
Moorefield needed 16 plays to cross the goal line on its opening series, and Frankfort responded with 28 unanswered points on a combined 15 plays.
Long touchdown runs by Jullian Pattison and Carder Shanholtz gave Frankfort the lead at the half, Blake Jacobs scored twice in the third quarter and the Falcons intercepted a pair of passes after halftime to pull away from Moorefield to win 28-7 Friday at Frankfort Stadium.
“It was ugly, but we got the win,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said. “We have to eliminate those mistakes we made. The fumbles killed us. We had some booboos on special teams where we had too many guys on the field. That’s on us coaches.
“Just a lot of dumb mistakes, but we did a lot of good things. We played hard. When we got down, we had the fumbles, we battled through adversity. That says a lot about our team.”
Frankfort (1-0) extended its all-time series lead to 28-7 with the victory — its seventh straight over Moorefield and 18th in 21 meetings.
The Yellow Jackets (0-1) had a dream start, in which two fumble recoveries sandwiched a more than nine-minute touchdown drive capped by a four-yard Brock Linville run.
But the Frankfort defense strung together six straight stops. A 56-yard touchdown run by Pattison with 6:18 left in the second quarter tied the game, and a 53-yard scoring tote by Shanholtz (3:39) put the Falcons up 14-7 at the half.
Jacobs found the end zone on runs of 37 (3:41) and 24 yards (0:01) in the third quarter.
“Big plays hurt us,” Moorefield head coach Matt Altobello said. “Middle of the third quarter, start of the fourth quarter, we could see the one-sided of it come out.
“I told them, ‘I’m proud of you. I’m proud of our effort. But we can’t be satisfied with how it went.’ We have to continue to evolve, continue to get better.”
Moorefield dominated the time of possession 32:00-16:00, a metric indicative of the Falcons’ quick scoring drives.
Frankfort scored on one play twice from 53 and 24 yards out, and it drove 83 yards on six plays and 61 yards on seven plays on its other two touchdown series.
Frankfort rushed for 266 yards on 27 carries (9.9 yards per carry) while Moorefield gained 110 yards on 44 totes (2.5 YPC).
Shanholtz led the way rushing for 82 yards and a touchdown on four carries, Pattison tallied 74 yards and a score on five rushes, and Jacobs garnered 63 yards and two TDs on five runs.
Frankfort quarterback Uriah Cutter completed 6 of 7 passes for 50 yards. Jacobs was his top target, making two receptions for 23 yards.
Rhett Sensabaugh converted all four of his extra-point opportunities.
After Moorefield’s first drive, in which it traversed 61 yards on 16 plays, Frankfort’s defense limited the Yellow Jackets to just 72 yards on 34 plays the rest of the way.
Jacob Nething and Keiton Nester had interceptions during the third quarter.
“We didn’t change a bunch of things (defensively), we just started playing better,” Whiteman said. “I give Moorefield credit. They played very hard. They played determined.”
Linville was Moorefield’s leading rusher, accruing 45 yards on 15 carries. The quarterback broke a tackle and spun across the goal line on 4th-and-goal from the four-yard line for the Yellow Jackets’ lone score during the first quarter.
Caleb Flinn had eight carries for 27 yards and Oliver Crites rushed it seven times for 26 yards.
EJ Wyman and Zeke Eye recovered Frankfort fumbles during the first quarter.
Moorefield had momentum after Eye’s recovery gave the Yellow Jackets, leading 7-0, the ball near midfield, but the Falcons’ defense stood tall.
“We’ve got to take care of our opportunities,” Altobello said. “We were winning the turnover battle, and then we come back and throw an interception. We throw another interception. We’re there, we’re in the right spots, it’s just a little bit of timing that we’ll work on in practice.”
Frankfort out-gained Moorefield, 316-135, and had an 11-10 edge in first downs. The Falcons were penalized six times for 50 yards, the Jackets six times for 40 yards. Both teams finished with two turnovers.
Moorefield now turns to a home game with Rocktown, Virginia, which will be playing just its second game in school history.
The Falcons turn to another regional rivalry game at Hampshire.
“It’s a big game. It’s a rivalry game,” Whiteman said. “They’re always hungry to beat us.”