The River Pilots took advantage of four early first quarter Magnolia turnovers on Friday night September 12, in New Martinsville to jump out to a 21-0 lead and coast to a 42-0 victory over the winless Blue Eagles.

On the opening kickoff the ball went out of bounds and the home team Eagles got good field position starting from their own 35 yard line. However the Pilots forced a three and out and came up big with a blocked punt, to start their opening drive from Magnolia’s 35. From there they drove down field to the 14 yard line before the drive stalled and the Blue Eagles took over on downs.

Magnolia quarterback Kingston Christen threw an interception on the first play giving the ball right back to River on the Magnolia 44 yard line. From there it took just one play to score as River quarterback Trail Thompson hit Aiden Milhoan with a 44 yard strike to make it 6-0. Carson Jones added the PAT to make it 7-0 at the 6:32 mark of the first quarter.

Magnolia received the kick and two plays later turned the ball over on a Hunter Cooley fumble and River immediately capitalized on a nice 26 yard jaunt by Wyatt Stalder for another score. Jones added the extra point kick and the Pilots led 14-0 with around five minutes left in the first. On the Blue Eagles next series Cooley would fumble again and the Pilots cashed in with Stalder again getting the score on a 35 yard run, and Jones added the point after to push the lead to 21-0 with 2:35 left in the opening quarter.

Neither team had much success on offense in the second quarter, but the Blue Eagles pounded the ball down to the Pilots four yard line before the drive stalled and at halftime the score remained 21-0.

Magnolia moved the ball down the field early in the second half with passes from Christen to Loy and Carpenter, but the Pilots again picked off a Christen pass, and with 4:51 left in the third quarter Thompson hit Trey Larrick with a screen pass and he sprinted 49 yards untouched for another score to make it 28-0 after Jones hit his fourth PAT of the night.

The Blue Eagles next possession lasted just three plays and they were forced to punt back to River, who pushed the score to 35-0 on a Thompson to Stalder 44 yard pass and run play with 1:43 left on a third quarter clock and with Jones adding the PAT.

River’s freshman quarterback Cam Abbott rushed for another River score with 7:42 on a running clock in the fourth quarter, Jones added the kick for the final score of the night.

“Our kids more than executed tonight, we’ve got a bunch of unselfish kids who don’t care what the play call is, they go all out 100 percent. The linemen don’t get touchdowns but they block for touchdowns and the backs did a good job securing the football,” said River coach Mike Flannery.

“We didn’t have any turnovers tonight and I’m really happy with the way Trail Thompson managed the game. We have a short week to prepare for Cameron coming in on Friday, so we’ll get to work and be ready. Our defense and offense played well and both made this win possible tonight.”

River improves to (3-1) on the season with the win. While Magnolia fell to (0-2) with the loss.