POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — The Point Pleasant Big Blacks opened the season at home with a 57-0 win over the South Point Pointers to start the 2012 campaign.

“We came out and did exactly what we wanted to do, pounce on them early” said Head Coach Dave Darst. “We knew it was important to come out fired up and ready to play in our opener.”

To say they were fired up would be an understatement.

The Big Blacks finished with 2 rushers over the 100 yard plateau – junior Teran Barnitz with 121 and senior Anthony Perry with 107, and two other rushers with stellar nights – senior Tylun Campbell with 88 and senior Marquez Griffin with 79 yards on the night.

“All of our running backs did a fantastic job and our young quarterback was poised and had some big plays” said Darst.

The young quarterback – sophomore Aden Yates – was in his first start at quarterback, taking over for the departed Eric Roberts.

Yates completed 4-5 passes on the night for 105 yards – not bad for a first start.

“Aden is just going to get better and better as the season goes along. He had a great first start and we expect his contributions to increase more as the season goes along.”

Yates’ main target – junior Chase Walton – caught two passes for 86 yards on the night, including one 72 yard reception.

The Big Blacks were leading the game 44-0 at halftime and were able to add on two more touchdowns after halftime.

Walton had a big night both receiving and rushing – scoring one on his long touchdown reception and two more rushing touchdowns that were the first two scores of the game. Senior Marquez Griffin also had three scores on the night – all rushing.

Marquez Griffin added on a 27 yard score with 10:49 left in the first half and after that, the scoring just seemed to pile up.

Walton caught his touchdown just 3 minutes later in the game and just seconds later the team was able to score a safety when the ball rolled out of the endzone.

Teran Barnitz scored his first touchdown of the season – a 32 yard score – with 5:09 left in the first half. Griffin added one more touchdown for measure from six yards out with 1:24 left in the first half.

After intermission, it was Griffin with another 36 yard dash to the end-zone with 2:33 left in the third quarter. Senior Anthony Perry scored his first touchdown with a 91 yard run with just minutes left in the game.

Junior Colin Peal – kicking in his first varsity game – went 6/7 on extra points for the night.

Oh, yeah, there was a shutout after all, right? The Big Blacks defense stepped up with a nice defensive effort, allowing just 148 total yards. Big contributions were made from senior Kodi Stranahan, Andrew Williamson, Hunter Bellamy, and Anthony Perry. Other solid defensive efforts came from Marquez Griffin, Brycen Reymond, Robby Wallace, Gage Buskirk, Teran Barnitz, and Cody Mitchell.

The Big Blacks offense ended up totaling 587 yards on the night – 477 on the ground – and featured 11 different ball carriers – Barnitz, Perry, Campbell, Griffin, Walton, Mitchell, Cody McDaniel, Cody Marcum, Hunter Trent, Austen Toler, and Aden Yates.

Four different Big Blacks caught passes – Walton, Barnitz, Campbell, and Mitchell.

After a big week one home victory, it is time to go on the road for the next month plus. The Big Blacks will travel to former conference rival Tolsia next Friday night.

“We had a great start to the season tonight but it’s just that, a start” said Darst. “It’s time to start focusing on Tolsia and try our best to get to 2-0.”