SHINNSTON, W. Va.- Despite facing a seven-point halftime road deficit against the Lincoln Cougars, Philip Barbour head football coach Nick Mayle didn’t show a single lack of confidence in his ball club.
“Our offense was doing okay,” Mayle reflected. “They were doing their job, just a couple of mental errors. It wasn’t as bad as it looked at halftime; we just knew we had to stay the course and keep pushing forward.
After surviving an impressive Cougars surge on their home field during senior night, the Colts responded with a dominant second-half showing to rally and close out the regular season with a 39-36 victory against their Big 10 rival.
The victory ensures Philip Barbour will host a home playoff game in the Class AA playoffs and extends its season-high winning streak to five games.
“We’ve treated these last three weeks as playoff games, because we knew what we needed to do to not only put ourselves in a position to be in the postseason, but then what we needed to do if we wanted to host one,” Mayle said. “ Our whole message before the game was, we want to go back home for our seniors to get one more chance to play at home; that’s a big deal. They took that message, they fought...