Beavers never tire of winning
Thursday, November 29, 2007
By BRIAN WOODSON- The Bluefield Daily Telegraph
When it comes to winning state championships, the Bluefield Beavers are greedy. They’ve won eight, but eight is definitely not enough.
“It never gets old because the players and staff work so hard to make sure we can get there.” said Fred Simon, in his 21st season as the Bluefield head coach. “All we can do is try and if it happens to work out for us, then that’s why we work, and we’re very happy to be going there.”
‘There’ is Wheeling Island Stadium. Bluefield (12-0) will attempt to win their ninth state championship in 14 tries tonight when they play James Monroe (12-1) for the Class AA state title. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.
Simon, who is 163-93 at Bluefield, including two state titles and five runner-up finishes, is very grateful to be taking his eighth team to the season’s final game.
“I thank God for that every day, He has been very good to us to allow this to happen and I think that is a big key too,” Simon said. “I don’t take any of the credit, I think we’ve got good hard-working coaches, and we’ve got players that buy into the program.
“God has guided us in certain ways to make sure we do a good job of teaching and coaching these kids and I think it all comes hand in hand.”
He’s also looking at a five-hour trip for two schools located just 43 miles apart, but the reward is worth the drive. Especially for Beaver Nation.
“It will be a little tough on the fans, but these players we have deserve their support,” Simon said. “I hope they will all come up and support us because we need it.”
While the Beavers are looking for their ninth ring since 1959, the Mavericks are making their first trip to the championship game after many years of falling just short of that goal.
“I’m happy for them to have succeeded in that, but now both of us have to take care of business,” Simon said. “Am I excited the opportunity to play them? I’m just happy to be playing someone.
“I’m glad we have the opportunity to play someone and it speaks well of our area to have two teams right here close by representing our area.”
And, not just in West Virginia. Richlands is still playing on the Virginia side of the Bluefields.
“I think there is very good football played here, you can see with Richlands so I’m very excited, very happy,” Simon said. “There is a lot of pride in football in this area.”
The Beavers, making their fifth trip to the state finale in the last six years, missed on its chance last season, falling in the quarterfinals at Tolsia. Simon didn’t like not playing football on the first weekend on December.
“It hurt,” Simon said. “I think that these seniors felt the hurt themselves and wanted to really work hard on having a chance to get back there.”
They were successful, completing a 9-0 regular season, and then rolled through the playoffs by pounding three opponents by the combined score of 134-44.
Simon certainly doesn’t expect a blowout in this one. These teams met on Oct. 26, with the Beavers pulling out a 14-7 win, snapping the Mavericks’ 28-game regular season win streak.
“I didn’t think any of them would be like that, but in my way of looking at it, whatever happened in the past is over,” Simon said. “You’ve got to move on quickly or you get hurt, our players have done a nice job of that all year long.
“Once something happens, good or bad, we just move to the next stage and that’s what we have to do.”
James Monroe actually had 70 plays to Bluefield’s 38 in that first meeting, out-gaining the Beavers 249-243. Taylor Robertson ran for 119 yards and Nick Kisiel added 123 in the loss for the Mavericks against the normally stingy Bluefield defense.
There are no secrets between these clubs. James Monroe will present its run-oriented single wing offense that has averaged 365.2 yards and 37.2 points a contest. Robertson (1,750 yds, 28 td) and Kisiel (1,002) have eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark, while Ernie Tincher (926) is close. That duo has combined to score 55 touchdowns.
The Mavericks rarely throw the ball, with Robertson completing 14 passes all season for 393 yards and six scores. James Monroe operates behind a strong offensive line that has received rave reviews from Simon.
“They mix it up going in and out and everything else and they can do an adequate job of passing when they need to,” Simon said. “They’re well-schooled in blocking offensively, their line does a super job. They have a heckuva offensive line and they have good speed.”
Bluefield has allowed just 10.8 points a game this season, led by the linebacker quartet of Jake Lilly (143.5 tackles), Shaun Brooks (120 tkls, 3.5 forced fumbles), Cody Wassum (100, 3 sacks, 5.5 forced fumbles) and Eric McClanahan (76 tkls). Ansel Ponder has added seven interceptions.
“It’s definitely not easy to stop them, I think they had over 250 yards rushing the first time we played them and that’s not a bad night’s work,” Simon said. “It’s going to be a heckuva dogfight and we’ll give it our best shot.”
Offensively, the Beavers are versatile, mixing the run and pass to compile 355.4 yards and 34.6 points a contest. Junior quarterback Will Cole leads the attack, having thrown for 1,381 yards and 18 touchdowns. His favorite targets include Ponder (47-696, 10 td), Wassum (14-245, 2 td) and Chase Joyner (19-239, 3 td).
The Beavers can go four deep at running back, led by Brooks, who has rushed for 1,254 yards and 16 touchdowns, including an average of nearly 10 yards per carry. Lilly (564, 5 td), Aaron Bowes (396, 5 td) and Marcus Patterson (341, 3 td) are also options for Bluefield.
James Monroe is paced on defense by Daniel Pritt’s 109 tackles, 97 stops from Lee Triplett, seven interceptions by Robertson and another five picks from John Ballenge. The Mavericks are surrendering just 225.1 yards and 11.5 points a contest.
“We’ve got to keep their offense off the field with good defense if we can and put some points on the board and do a good job with special teams,” Simon said. “In all phases of the game, we have to do well at them.”
Simon was disappointed with the play of his special teams early in the playoffs, but was pleased to see few problems in the win over Scott. Asher Sexton has been a dependable kicker for the Beavers this season, hitting four field goals and 35-of-45 extra point attempts.
“Right now we’re playing OK, but we’ve got one more game to show,” Simon said. “Whatever we have done in the past, all of it has been OK, but we’ve got to make sure we do it in this game.”
Bluefield’s last two championship were by a pair of 14-0 clubs in 1997 and 2004. These Beavers would like nothing better than to finish off a 13-0 mark and earn a comparison with those teams.
“Leadership-wise and the way they care for each other, yes, but they’ve got one more thing to do before you can compare them to anybody,” Simon said. “They are comparable in certain characteristics.
“They’re exciting to watch, we can definitely run and throw the ball some, we’ve got good defense and good special teams so those are kind of basically the same things we had on those teams too.”
There is little doubt the Beavers were excited as they left the school on Thursday. Simon just hopes they still have that ‘Wheeling Feeling’ on the way home.
“They definitely do get excited, but they earned the excitement part of it,” Simon said. “They deserve the reward for what they have done so far, but not much of a reward yet.
“We’ll just go out there and give it our best and I’m sure they will too. Let the best team win.”
