Portsmouth junior Nick Copley (20) escapes the tackle of Coal Grove’s Devin Bloomfield (10) during Friday night’s Ohio Valley Conference football game at Portsmouth High School’s Trojan Coliseum.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

PORTSMOUTH — Portsmouth’s Leo Poxes scooped up a fumble by Coal Grove quarterback Whyatt Mannon — and rumbled 52 yards for a touchdown in the final moments of the game to secure the Trojans’ 14-6 win on Friday night at Trojan Coliseum.

“I saw him fumble the ball, he was about to throw it and it came loose,” Poxes, a 6-0, 280-pound senior said. “I never ran that fast in my life. I saw someone coming up behind me, stiff-armed him and got to the end zone.”

Portsmouth juniors Dylan Sanderlin (52) and Jaylon Ball (57) chase down Coal Grove’s Kaden Murphy (14) during Friday night’s Ohio Valley Conference football game at Portsmouth High School’s Trojan Coliseum.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

The Ohio Valley Conference win puts the Trojans at 2-1, and at 3-3 overall.

“That’s every big guy’s dream,” Portsmouth head coach Bruce Kalb said, about Poxes’ fumble recovery for a TD. “He made the most of the moment and came through in a big way. His play was icing on the cake to a hard-fought win.”

Poxes’ heroics came right after the Trojans took the lead — on a two-yard dart into the end zone by quarterback Camron Williams with 2:20 remaining.

Zach Roth’s extra-point kick gave PHS a 7-6 lead.

The six-play, 69-yard drive featured runs of 39 and 19 yards by Williams, who finished the game with 75 yards rushing on 11 carries and 96 yards passing with nine completions on 19 attempts.

“We wanted to see Camron’s arm a little more and we tried that,” Kalb said. “At the half, we saw that they were not letting (Chase) Heiland outside, so we thought let’s take advantage of that and let’s get Williams more active up the middle and on the counters. He showed us at 15 years old why he’s our quarterback.”

After a scoreless first half, the Hornets took a 6-0 lead with 3:29 to go in the third — when Kaden Murphy dashed in from two yards out, capping a five-play, 35-yard drive.

The two-point conversion run failed.

Murphy tallied 85 yards on the ground on 21 carries with one score.

On the Trojans’ next possession, Heiland put together back-to-back runs of 16 and 14 yards, but the drive stalled when PHS came up short on a fourth-down play — which turned the ball back over to the Hornets at their own 21 and with seven ticks left on the third-period clock.

Heiland finished the game with 87 yards rushing on 14 carries.

The 183-pound junior tailback said he knew something had to give after halftime.

“We struggled on the offensive end most of the night with little mistakes and we had to clean up our mistakes,” he said. “We finished strong tonight. I took this personal tonight. I was not going to let them come in here and beat us on our home turf. We got motivated at halftime and took it personal.”

The Hornets had the ball and the lead to start the final period, and marched downfield to eat up the clock.

They orchestrated a 12-play drive that ate up 7:50, but ended when the Trojan defense held their own on a fourth-and-one — and got the ball back for PHS at their own 31.

Six plays later, Portsmouth scored the go-ahead TD.

“We knew it was going to be a battle,” Kalb added. “Forty-eight minutes against Coal Grove is always a hard-fought game. We had a feeling coming into tonight that it was going to be a defensive battle. But patience is key, especially when you’re down. Last week against Gallia Academy, we spotted them 30 points and battled back. Tonight, we were down heading into the fourth quarter. They were chewing the clock up and our defense stepped up big and got us the ball back.”

Portsmouth’s Colin Perry attempts to make a reception over Coal Grove’s Kaden Murphy during Friday night’s Ohio Valley Conference football game at Portsmouth High School’s Trojan Coliseum.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

The Trojans return home, and return to OVC action, on Friday night against Chesapeake.

* * *

Coal Grove 0 0 6 0 — 6

Portsmouth 0 0 0 14— 14

CG— Kaden Murphy, 2-yard run (run failed), 3:29, 3rd (6-0 CG)

P— Camron Williams, 2-yard run (Zach Roth kick), 2:20, 4th (7-6 P)

P— Leo Poxes, 52-yard fumble recovery return (Zach Roth kick), 1:12, 4th (14-6 P)

Team Statistics

CG P

First downs 13 12

Passing yards 95 96

Cmp-Att-Int. 8-14-0 9-19-0

Fumbles-lost 4-4 1-1

Penalties-yards 4-35 5-30

——

Individual Leaders

RUSHING —Coal Grove: Kaden Murphy 21-85 TD, Gavin Gipson 14-43, Caden Turner 3-6, Whyatt Mannon 4-4; Portsmouth: Chase Heiland 14-87, Camron Williams 11-75 TD

PASSING — Coal Grove: Whyatt Mannon 8-14-0-95; Portsmouth: Camron Williams 9-19-0-96

RECEIVING— Coal Grove: Kaden Murphy 3-33, Gavin Gipson 2-32, Wesley Runyon 1-14, Devin Bloomfield 1-10, Landon Roberts 1-6; Portsmouth: Nick Copley 4-61, Chase Heiland 3-18, Colin Perry 1-20, Landon Malone 1-(-3)