McCoy rebounds, Titans win

BY TIM HAYES
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

SALTVILLE, Va. – It was a disastrous start for Twin Springs High School quarterback Aaron McCoy on Friday night.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound junior misfired on his first five passes, including having one picked off by Northwood’s Josh Jennings.

However, his second-half performance propelled the Titans to their first win of the season.

McCoy threw two touchdown passes to Nathan Sluss and also scored on a 17-yard run in second half to give Twin Springs a 26-12 non-district victory over Northwood.

“I came out there and threw an interception right off the bat and got down,” McCoy said. “But I got my team back up. The first half, we were a little weak; the second half we came out and blew them off the ball.”

After playing to a 6-6 deadlock in the first half, Twin Springs (1-3) took the lead when McCoy threw a 29-yard TD pass to Sluss with 8:34 left in the third. He would hook up with Sluss again with 8:27 left in the fourth quarter on the game’s biggest play.

With Kris Jordan lined up to attempt a 25-yard field goal, a botched snap forced McCoy to improvise. He rolled to his right and fired an 8-yard strike to a wide open Sluss.

“Luckily Sluss heard me call fire and I hit him in the end zone,” McCoy said.

Sluss made a nice grab on the botched field goal, corralling the ball just before it hit the ground.

“I was saying ‘just catch it, just catch it,’” Sluss said.

The heads-up play by his QB didn’t come as a surprise to Twin Springs head coach Mike Castle. McCoy added a 17-yard touchdown later in the fourth quarter and finished with 108 rushing yards on 15 carries.

“This is Aaron’s fourth game for us at quarterback and he’s grown up a lot,” Castle said. “He’s a tough kid and he’s a hard-nosed kid. He’s going to give you everything he’s got That’s the way most of these kids are.”

Versatile Twin Springs wide receiver Kris Jordan also played well for Twin Springs and gave the Northwood defense fits.

Northwood (1-3) was hurt by three interceptions, 80 penalty yards and numerous mental mistakes. Ty Frye threw a touchdown pass to Jeremiah Thompson and rushed for 97 yards and a score.

Twin Springs 0 6 8 12—26
Northwood 6 0 0 6—12

Scoring Summary

NW—Thompson 30 pass from Ty Frye (run failed)
TS—Gibson 28 pass from K. Jordan (kick failed)
TS—Sluss 29 pass from McCoy (K. Jordan run)
TS—Sluss 8 pass from McCoy (kick failed)
TS—McCoy 17 run (kickf ailed)
NW—Ty Frye 71 run (kick failed)

Team Stats

First Downs: TS 13, N 8; Rushes-Yards: TS 33-171, N 27-72; Passing Stats: TS 101, N 70; Comp.-Att.-Int.: TS 6-15-2, N 7-16-3; Fumbles-Lost: TS 4-1, N 1-0; Penalties-Yards: TS 7-55, N 9-80.