MCGEE TDS SPARK NITRO

Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 08/31/2002
Page: 1B
Headline: MCGEE TDS SPARK NITRO
Byline: DOUG SMOCK

dougsmock@wvgazette.com

For Nitro, Chris McGee's third-quarter kickoff return Friday night was the gift that kept on giving.

In the Wildcats' woolly, error-filled 39-36 victory over Herbert Hoover before 2,000 fans at Falling Rock, McGee scored four touchdowns, including the winning 1-yard run with 1:50 left.

But that may not have been possible if the 5-foot-10, 174-pound senior had not returned a kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown late in the third quarter. The touchdown not only gave Nitro a 33-28 lead, but it briefly stopped Hoover's momentum.

Hoover retook the lead with 4:38 left in the game on a 10-yard Jamie Prowse keeper. Prowse found Damian Meadows for the two-point conversion to give Hoover a 36-33 lead.

Then, the real payoff of McGee's long return materialized. Hoover coach Steve Stoffel Sr. ordered a short kickoff, which Josh Culbertson returned 12 yards to the Nitro 47.

That gave McGee, quarterback Derek Midkiff and receiver Lance Ervin a short field, and they made Hoover pay. With a 15-yard pass from Midkiff to Marshall Castro leading the way, Nitro used nine plays to march the 53 yards for the winning score.

"Since we've been here since '96, we have never returned a kick," Tinsley said. "Coach [Mike] Scott has done a great job with our special teams, and he got 'em fired up. They got a crease for Chris, and he's such a hard runner, he did the rest."

McGee said, "When I saw, I think it was No. 7 [Prowse], he overran me, I just cut across the field and I knew it, I could feel it."

Before McGee's return, Nitro was on the ropes in a game filled with more follies than a "CatDog" cartoon. The Wildcats, having trouble with shotgun and long snaps all night, gave Hoover the ball on the Nitro 12 to set up the Huskies' previous score.

"Our center, it's his first game ever playing center," Tinsley said. "Even in the preseason, he had been a guard and we moved him to center last week. But he did a much better job in the second half."

Nitro fumbled eight times in the game, losing four. Midkiff, despite completing 24-of-36 for 274 yards, added two interceptions.

The second came in the fourth quarter, and led to Hoover's final go-ahead drive. That drive was sparked by a 37-yard bomb from Prowse to Meadows, who caught eight passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns.

"He's a tremendous athlete," Tinsley said of Meadows, who transferred to Hoover from Clay County. "He just making play after play after play. At the end, on the last drive, we started doubling him up, so that kind of hurt him."

Nitro's defense struggled with Meadows and the Huskies' option, but tightened up on Hoover's final possession. After giving up one first down, the Wildcats forces four consecutive incompletions, culminating when Culbertson nearly sacked Prowse on fourth down.

While McGee's kickoff return loomed large late in the game, Lance Ervin emerged as the two-way star. The 5-8, 145 junior caught 11 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, added a 5-yard run on a long lateral and intercepted two passes on defense. The second came on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Tinsley tries not to single out individual players, but he couldn't help but honoring Ervin with a game ball.

"We usually don't give one, but I'll be damned if Lance does not deserve it," Tinsley told his team, which roared its approval.

Ervin did much of his offensive damage on a wide receiver screen, a play used often in the Marshall passing attack.

"Our screens to our running backs weren't working very well tonight, so we had to go to something different, and our receivers made some big plays out there."

"Oh, yeah, I love that play," Ervin said. "It works real well when they block good."

Stoffel felt the Huskies let the game get away. In the first quarter, the Huskies scored first and recovered a fumble on the Nitro 5, only to squander the opportunity with a fumble on the next snap.

"We had a chance to pick one off there and they got a penalty, but we didn't step it up. We just shot ourselves in the foot all night, with fumbles and penalties and bad snaps at the most inopportune time."