ROMNEY, W.Va. — Hampshire’s first offensive play came with two seconds left in the first quarter, but the Trojans (1-0) still won by 20 points.
The defense kept them in the game early, then the offense took advantage of its limited opportunities to pull away and defeat Preston 40-20 on Friday evening.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Hampshire head coach Donny Evans said. “Preston’s a pretty physical group of guys. They run that power stuff, they ran that power early on us, and our guys stepped up and got that interception.”
The Knights (0-1) drained nearly six minutes off the clock on the opening possession.
On fourth-and-goal from the 22, Sean King intercepted a pass and went 95 yards for a pick-six to put the Trojans on the board.
“One of our mottos is bend but don’t break,” Evans said of his defense. “I think that’s something our defense did. I kind of felt like them driving down, taking all that time off and not getting any points on the board really hurt their offense.”
Preston responded with a 14 play, 61-yard drive that took another six minutes off the clock.
It ended on an Aiden Schmidl touchdown catch from Slaton Manko to even the score after one quarter.
When the Trojans’ offense took the field for the first time, the opening drive only lasted two plays.
On the opening play of the second quarter, Landon Eversole found Andrew Loy down the right sideline for a 61-yard catch-and-run touchdown.
“We need to cover, no matter what,” Preston head coach Mark Deep said. “We knew they wanted to get down the field. They got us a couple times on that (run-pass option).”
Eversole finished 10 of 14 for 196 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions while Loy led in receiving with 95 yards off three catches.
Hampshire’s next drive started on the Knights’ 37, and six plays later, Roscoe Dean punched it in from the two.
Preston answered with a 10 play, 65-yard drive that ended on a Kaleb Stone touchdown grab from Manko.
A facemask penalty on the Trojans’ ensuing drive set up another score from Dean to extend Hampshire’s halftime lead to 27-7.
“I knew coming in our offense was going to be pretty efficient,” Evans said. “Just about trying to execute and looking sharp and not making our own mental mistakes. Our guys did a great job, we found some openings.”
Penalties were costly for both teams, but especially Preston.
Both teams committed 10, but the Knights had four holding penalties and three offsides, including one that resulted in a first down.
“Penalties will kill you, so that’s what we gotta eliminate,” Deep said. “You can’t afford holding calls and so forth. Eliminate penalties on both sides of the ball, it got a little chippy at times. We gotta keep composure, that’s part of the game, emotions and stuff.”
In the first half, the Trojans ran 13 plays for 145 yards while the Knights had 172 yards on ran 42 play.
Manko was responsible for 143 of Preston’s 172 yards.
He finished as the game’s leading rusher with 20 carries for 120 yards and went 9 of 24 for 76 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
“Last year he did a lot of offense,” Evans said of Manko. “We knew coming in they were gonna run the ball with him. They didn’t show it in the two scrimmages, but we prepared for it. He’s such an athlete and their linemen are big guys, they just kind of leaned on it.”
Sean King scored from five yards out late in the third quarter for Hampshire while Dean scored his third touchdown midway through the fourth.
Dean led Hampshire with 75 yards on 11 carries and three scores.
“Roscoe is a great athlete, he’s one of our top rushers coming in,” Evans said. “A little banged up last week with a hyperextended knee, we didn’t how much he was gonna play on defense. He showed a lot of strength getting the ball.”
Hunter Lewellyn opened the fourth quarter with a one-yard score for Preston.
The Trojans finished with 320 yards on 36 plays compared to the Knights’ 296 on 51 plays.
Hampshire travels to Frankfort (1-0) on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Falcons defeated Moorefield (0-1) on Friday, 34-10.
“Our guys were very motivated,” Evans said. “Our guys put in a lot of work during the offseason. These guys don’t get enough credit for that. We had several guys who went to camps and worked and put a lot of time in.”