PARKERSBURG — A rainy night that turned the Erickson All-Sports Facilty into a sloppy, muddy mess didn’t deter host Parkersburg South from thoroughly besting Wheeling Park 30-0 Friday in a battle of top-10 Class AAA Patriot teams. There was not much doubt about which Patriot would eventually win after South scored on its first two possessions in the game. After each time stopping Park without a first down on its initial two possessions, South first grounded out a 72-yard drive to paydirt with Nick Yoho ripping off big chunks of yardage totaling 60 yards in the drive, culminating with a 10-yard run right for a touchdown at the 6:20 mark of the first period. The second South march to score began with Brandon Penn returning a Park punt into visitor territory at the 45. A 15-yard penalty put the ball even closer to the goal line at the 30 before Penn netted 13 yards, Brayden Mooney three and Yoho four to set up Ben Haught’s 32-yard field goal at 3:23 of still the first quarter for a 10-0 lead. In the second stanza, Yoho on a fake punt dashed 28 yards to the Park 32, then caught a nine-yard pass from Mooney to move the football to the 23 before a Park penalty put the ball at the Park 11 and a Park block in the back brought South within just four stripes from the end zone that Yoho traversed on a sweep right and cut-back inside to score 40.7 seconds before halftime to up South’s advantage to 17-0 at intermission. To start the second half, Gaines returned the kickoff all the way back to the Park 46. A face-mask violation versus Park let South go to the 35, where from Yoho went 19 yards to the 16, Mooney eight to the Park 8 and eventually pounded the ball in from the 1 on a quarterback sneak at 7:18 for a 24-0 lead. The final points of the game came late in the third when Brett Hearn picked off a Park pass and ran it back in for a TD from 20 yards with 20 seconds left for the 30-0 lead. No. 6 South, having notched a playoff berth, also downed a Park team, this edition at No. 8, it hadn’t defeated for quite a while. “It was something that was a little bit of a chip on our guys’ shoulders,” said South head coach Mike Eddy, “and they came out ready to play.” And “now we have the biggest game of the year next week at PHS,” Eddy added. “But it’s been that way for us every week, that every week is the next biggest game of the year.”