KINGWOOD — Class AAA, No. 12 Elkins closed the regular season with a high-scoring 53-35 victory over Preston on Friday night.

With the win, the Tigers finished with a 7-3 record in regular-season play and will learn their official playoff opponent, date and game site today when the final ratings are released.

Logan Beam rumbled for 163 yards and five scores for the Tigers, who took a slim 25-21 advantage into the intermission.

Touchdowns runs by Beam (27) and Elias Jones (69) gave Elkins some breathing room, 40-21, in the third quarter.

But Slaton Manko, coming off a 600-yard passing performance in last week’s 60-57 loss to Buckhannon-Upshur, found Aidan Schmidl for an 84-yard connection to cut the lead to 40-28.

Schmidl had a set a state single-game receiving mark of 421 yards in the setback to the Bucs.

Each team then exchanged touchdowns, with Beam scoring from 10-yards out for the Tigers and Manko answering for the Knights,

Jayden Harding added a 26-yard burst for the final score for Elkins.

Manko completed 30 of 42 passes on the night for 403 yards.

Schmidl had 13 receptions for 206 yards.

Beam gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead with a 30-yard run just 2 minutes into the contest.

Manko then hit Schmidl for a score to tie the game.

A 3-yard run by Beam and a 1-yard plunge by Seth Robinson, who had 149 yards rushing on the night, extended the lead to 19-7 after one quarter.

Beam’s third TD run of the first half made it 25-7 midway through the second quarter.

Manko’s touchdown passes to Kaleb Stone and Schmidl over the final 5 minutes of the half allowed the Knights to cut the lead to 25-21.

Preston, which came in the game rated 18th in Class AAAA, dropped to 2-8.