PRINCETON — For the past few years, Parkersburg has been overlooked as a contender within the state of West Virginia. Thanks to the efforts of a stellar senior class, the Big Reds made a statement in the playoffs that should prevent them from being written off in the future.

The Big Reds, after two straight 4-6 seasons, finished the regular season with a 6-4 record and managed a playoff upset against Hurricane in the first round by a final of 47-23.

Although Parkersburg did lose to Princeton in the quarterfinals in a 41-37 shootout, the Big Reds went out with a bang and confirmed their status as one of the best teams in class AAA. Parkersburg’s senior class left their mark on the program throughout the year and in that playoff loss, which should lead to continued success in the years to come.

Big Reds head coach Matt Kimes said of the senior class, “They’re all such good football players, but even better kids. Like I told them after the game, they are the group that has put us back on the map and pushed our program to the heights it’s supposed to be at. They’ll go down in history as one of the best senior classes, even though we maybe didn’t have the win-losses or the final results. They’re going to be remembered for a long time.”

While the entire senior class undoubtedly made an impact that will be felt for a long time, their quarterback, David Parsons, broke the single season passing yards record previously held by Jake Johnson that was set back in 2018. The record had stood at 2,718 yards for four years, but it was broken in the playoff game against Princeton. Parsons found fellow senior Andrew Stalnaker on a 12-yard pass in the third quarter that pushed him over Johnson’s total. Parsons went 13-29 for 219 yards and three touchdowns, pushing the new record to 2727 yards.

Kimes commented on what it has been like to coach such an athlete, “He’s a special player. His career is not over. He’s going to continue to play football for a long time. I was blessed to be able to coach him and learn from him a bit. Hopefully I taught him some things. Just hurts right now because we were so close. There’s no losers tonight.”

This season has been one of exceeding expectations for the Big Reds, and senior Anthony Ice was sure to mention that no one expected this out of Parkersburg, “Nobody put us past a 4-6 record again this year. Nobody expected us to go to the playoffs let alone win the first playoff game. We really could’ve gone further, we should’ve gone further, but it is what it is. We just didn’t fight adversity like we should’ve, but it was a hell of a season. Just a great season with all the guys.

“We stepped up as leaders. We really didn’t have anybody that would lead us throughout the years, but then our senior year, we got a group of guys together and said, ‘We just gotta take charge. This is what we need.’ I feel like that had a big impact on our team.”

Senior offensive lineman Caleb Norman described what it was like to bring a program to new heights, “We put ourselves back on the map. It’s something that hasn’t been done for a long time. I’m proud of these guys. They worked their butts off for this.” He continued, “It feels amazing to know we brought the program back from its down years. That’s something that we always wanted to do as freshmen.”

On Friday’s performance, Norman commented, “We just played our hearts out for each other. That’s all it came to, was playing for each other.”

Norman is confident that this group of seniors have molded the underclassmen in their image, “We just worked hard and we helped these younger kids get that mentality that we have, and I think it’s going to leave a legacy.”

Contact Aaron Lee at [email protected]