A 'perfect storm' buried Philo football in a loss at West. Here's how.

FALLS TOWNSHIP — A storm rolled through West Muskingum Athletic Booster Stadium the evening of Sept. 18, but it didn't come from the sky.

On this occasion, it arrived in the form of quarterback Noah Morrison and a revved-up Tornado defense that didn't let visiting Philo breathe in the first half in their first meeting in three years. The latter forced three turnovers before the bands took the field.

The Electrics cut a 28-point deficit in half in the third quarter, but the previously inflicted damage was too much. West emerged with a 42-21 win, its third straight since a Week 2 loss at Fort Frye evened its record.

A game that took 3 hours, 15 minutes to complete featured eight turnovers, 17 penalties and 730 offensive yards.

Morrison's return from an elbow injury, suffered during summer basketball, kept him on the shelf for almost two months as sophomore backup Jake Welch led the team to a 2-1 record in his absence.

Morrison, the returning starter, has added a new dimension.

After passing for 231 yards in a Week 4 rout of Maysville, Morrison threw touchdown passes of 32 yards to Myles Wakefield and 25 to Carter Smith in a 21-point first quarter that was the equivalent of a horror film for the Philo faithful in attendance.

West forced two punts and two turnovers in Philo territory in that span — the first led to Wakefield's TD, the second to Smith's. West held a 154-24 edge in yards by then, which grew to 306-42 by halftime.

Morrison, who later hit a leaping Smith on an 11-yard TD for the game's final score, finished 17-of-32 passing for 218 yards, with Dollings grabbing eight of those aerials for 62 yards.

West coach Nathan Brownrigg said that his return has opened up the offense, production aided by Smith and Dollings, who he said are "playing at a really high level right now."

"Jake did a great job for us for over three weeks, but Noah's athleticism, it's a little bit more being a year older," Brownrigg said. "Just the overall maturity, he provided a little bit of a spark the last couple of weeks."

That spark came in the form of Morrison's running in the second half, particularly after the game tightened.

Three of his 10 carries were third-down scrambles that moved the chains on a 10-play scoring drive in the third quarter, after Philo got within 28-14. He also had an 18-yard scramble on that drive, which set up Dente Tyson's 4-yard touchdown that made it 35-14 in the final minute.

"He was the difference maker in this game," Philo coach Dirk Lincicome said of Morrison.

Lincicome, whose team took down Tri-Valley in an emotional comeback in Week 4, said he couldn't recall a game in his 16-year career as the school's head coach when his team had as many turnovers. He called the first quarter meltdown "a perfect storm."

Smith's 65-yard touchdown run off a reverse in the second quarter pushed the deficit to 28-0 in a fitting capper to his big first half. Lincicome praised his team for clawing back, even as the odds were all but insurmountable.

Audie Buchanan's 47-yard touchdown pass over the top to K.J. Philip got Philo on the board early in the third, and an Adam Philip interception led to Sprankle's 40-yard scoring burst two plays later. It was still 35-21 after Buchanan's scramble for a score in the fourth.

"You get down in a hole like that, and all you can ask is that your kids fight as hard as they can, and they did," Lincicome said. "We won the third quarter. … When we got within two scores, I'm thinking, 'there is a lot of ball game left.'"

Sprankle needed 115 yards to reach 1,000 for the season and got just enough — on 27 carries. Most came after halftime, as West's combination of strong containment and aggressive pursuit made for a rare night of tough sledding for the MVL's second-leading rusher. Brownrigg praised his unit's aggression.

Buchanan finished 11-of-25 passing with four interceptions — Dollings snagged two.

"The best thing about tonight is that it's over," Lincicome said. "It doesn't kill our league championship hopes. All of our goals are still in front of us. I mean, this certainly doesn't help in the playoff picture, because you've got to win games, but we'll bounce back."

sblackbu@usatodayco.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR