STATE CENTER — The West Marshall football team couldn’t just line up and run over Shenandoah.

The Trojans leaned on the cumulative effect and tide-turning momentum to turn away the Mustangs.

Ninth-ranked West Marshall turned five turnovers and an onside kick recovery into 24 points en route to a 38-8 triumph over Shenandoah (3-6) in the opening round of the Class 1A state football playoffs here Friday night.

The Trojans (7-2) churned out 472 yards of total offense on a whopping 71 plays, controlling the ball and the clock thanks to six total takeaways by their defense and special teams.

West Marshall’s offense was opportunistic, scoring 17 points off turnovers en route to a 24-0 halftime lead and the eventual first-round triumph.

Senior running back Wyatt Brown rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns, junior quarterback Blayk Hart ran for 124 yards and two more scores, and the Trojans totaled 347 rushing yards in the playoff win.

“I think our big guys have done a great job all year,” West Marshall head coach Cody Hackett said of his offensive line. “Shenadoah did a really good job of taking away Kinnick (Geers) in the first half, so we had to switch up some things and just trust everybody, trust the other 10 guys on the field were going to make plays, and we had a lot of guys out here making plays tonight whether it was on offense, defense or special teams.

“Turnovers were huge for us.”

West Marshall freshman linebacker Joe Kielman had two fumble recoveries and an interception, with two of those takeaways resulting in Trojan touchdowns. When the Trojans’ opening possession didn’t yield points, Kielman got the ball back for his team when Connor Schuler forced a fumble on Shenandoah’s second play from scrimmage.

Three plays and eight yards later, Hart had the Trojans on the scoreboard with a 1-yard touchdown run.

“Our linemen blocked amazing tonight,” said Hart. “We know it’s not always going to be like that, but when it is it’s fun.”

The fun, however, didn’t seem to kick in until the late moments of the first half. Dalton Eldridge’s fumble recovery turned into a 23-yard field goal for Ethan Stephenson with 10 minutes left before the intermission, and a defensive stand forced the Mustangs to punt it away.

A 10-play, 69-yard drive was capped by a 16-yard Brown run for touchdown, and the Trojans led 17-0 with 2:26 left in the half. Stephenson’s ensuing squib kick slipped through Shenandoah’s hands, allowing Brown to recover the loose ball, and he scored from 15 yards out with 20 seconds left in the period to put West Marshall in control, 24-0.

Halftime changes gave Shenandoah the means to its first points of the game, set up by a 41-yard counter run for Cole Graham down to the Trojans’ 2-yard-line. Quarterback Joe O’Rourke finished off the drive, and his conversion pass to Ethan Laughlin made it a two-score game at 24-8.

West Marshall overcame a pair of crippling penalties on its next possession to put more points on the board and dismiss the Mustangs’ hopes of a comeback. Hart’s second 1-yard TD plunge pushed the Trojans’ lead to 31-8 with 9:28 left in the game.

Long pass completions by Hart to tight end Beckham DeSotel for 19 yards and Drake Whitaker for 37 yards kept the drive alive and helped the Trojans finish off Shenandoah.

“They got that big play but we shook it off, got back out there and kept playing good defense,” Hart said.

Kielman’s second interception snuffed out a promising Shenandoah drive and the Trojans iced the victory with a 33-yard counter run for Kinnick Geers.

The Mustangs tried some trickery on their next play, but the hook-and-ladder pitch from Gabe Buttry didn’t reach Graham and Kielman pounced on the loose ball. The Trojans ran out the clock from there.

“We knew that they were a very tough team and we couldn’t take them lightly, even though they were a four-seed,” said Hackett, “especially when you look at their schedule and who they’ve played throughout the year and how tough their district is.

“We knew they were going to play for four quarters. It didn’t matter what the score was, and that’s what I told our guys at half. They have nothing to lose and they’re going to come out and continue to play hard and we just have to be better than their intensity.”

West Marshall held the Mustangs to 169 yards of total offense, running just 39 plays to the Trojans’ 71. Whitaker had an interception and a fumble recovery as part of the five-takeaway performance for the Trojan defense.

Shenandoah didn’t do itself any favors, either, with nine penalties for 94 yards.

West Marshall’s second-round pairing will be announced on Saturday.

“I’m just proud of our guys and the opportunity that we get to be together for one more week on the practice field and get an opportunity to play another game,” said Hackett. “I think there were a lot of doubters at the beginning of the year after losing 19 seniors from a year ago, but I think all the guys have stepped up.”

West Marshall 38, Shenandoah 8

Score by Quarter

SHEN 0 0 8 0 — 8

WM 7 17 0 14 — 38

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

WM — Blayk Hart 1 run (Ethan Stephenson kick), 8:15.

Second Quarter

WM — FG Stephenson 23, 10:01.

WM — Wyatt Brown 16 run (Stephenson kick), 2:26.

WM — Brown 15 run (Stephenson kick), :20.

Third Quarter

SHEN — Joe O’Rourke 2 run (Ethan Laughlin pass from O’Rourke), 2:04.

Fourth Quarter

WM — Hart 1 run (Stephenson kick), 9:28.

WM — Kinnick Geers 33 run (Stephenson kick), 3:22.

TEAM STATISTICS

SHEN WM

First downs 8 22

Rushes-yards 25-112 57-347

Passing yards 57 125

Comp-Att-Int 7-14-2 6-14-1

Total offense 39-169 71-472

Fumbles-lost 3-3 1-1

Penalties-yards 9-94 3-35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — SHEN: Cole Graham 4-58, O’Rourke 10-30, Gabe Buttry 7-26, Zane McManis 2-0, TEAM 1-0, Carter Sells 1-(minus-2); WM: Brown 25-195, Hart 26-124, Geers 3-34, TEAM 3-(minus-16).

PASSING — SHEN: O’Rourke 7-14-57-2; WM: Hart 6-14-125-1.

RECEIVING — SHEN: Treyvein Thompson 2-29, Laughlin 1-18, Sells 1-8, Graham 1-8, O’Rourke 1-(minus-6); WM: Drake Whitaker 2-47, Beckham DeSotel 2-33, Ryder Gile 1-27, Geers 1-18.