The Inter-Mountain photo by Joey Kittle Tucker County’s Reid Kisamore is hoisted in the air by teammate Josh Crossland after catching a touchdown pass against Tug Valley Saturday afternoon in Class A opening-round action at R.H. Armstrong Memorial Field at Class of 1984 Alumni Stadium in Parsons.

PARSONS — Tucker County held off a late charge by Tug Valley to claim a 42-28 win in Class A opening-round action Saturday afternoon at R.H. Armstrong Memorial Field at Class of 1984 Alumni Stadium.

The eighth-seeded Mountain Lions will now travel to top-seed Wheeling Central at 7 p.m. Friday for a quarterfinal matchup.

Tucker County appeared to be in complete control, leading 34-12 in the third quarter before the ninth-seeded Panthers mounted a rally.

But a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Preston May and a 25-yard pass from May to Derek Jewell midway through the final quarter cut the lead to 34-28.

The Mountain Lions, however, put the game away with a game-clinching drive, converting three third-down attempts and using a 16-yard pass from Sam Marks to Keelyn Eichelberger with under 10 seconds remaining to seal the deal.

Trailing 6-0, Tucker County grabbed the early lead when Marks found Cayden Arnold from 43 yards out to make it 8-6 after the two-point conversion.

On their next possession, wide receiver Reid Kisamore took a hand off and raced 54 yards out to extend the lead to 14-6 with 1:02 still left in the first quarter.

Marks added a pair of scoring passes to Kisamore in the second quarter to treat the hosts to a 26-12 lead at intermission.

A 17-yard connection from Marks to Arnold on the Mountain Lions’ first series of the second half made it 34-12.

Marks threw for 381 yards on the day to go along with his five touchdown passes.

May had over 400 yards passing for Tug Valley, which ended the season 6-5.

Gavin Fitzpatrick and Cameron Slone had first-half TD catches.