WVSSAC Super Six Football Championships

Madonna Will Have Its Day
Saturday, November 24 , 2007
By SHAWN RINE- The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register

Bob Kramer’s Weirton Madonna football team was willing to climb, but it turns out the mountain was just a little too steep.

For the second time in four seasons, the Blue Dons ran into a buzzsaw that’s otherwise known as Wheeling Central, falling Friday night in a West Virginia Class A semifinal at Wheeling Island Stadium, just as it did in the 2004 state title game.

Truth be told, the 47-6 final says more about Mike Young’s Maroon Knights than it does the Blue Dons.

‘‘You know when you come to the island and you’re playing the No. 1 team, and it’s Wheeling Central which is a rivalry anyway, they are going to get a little nervous and try to do things that maybe they shouldn’t,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘We just couldn’t match up in certain areas.

‘‘We got beat by a much better football team.’’

But there’s certainly no shame in that. All but three teams in the state will be making that claim when the Super Six state championships conclude on the same turf next Saturday night.

What’s impressive about this particular Madonna senior class is the way it fought the odds, playing for a program that had a total of 31 players on its roster.

Corey Hirkala, Matt Arlia, John McCune, Anthony Perna, Anthony Rees, Bob Carey, Marquise Campbell and Justin Kendrick leave behind an idelible mark. Not only did that group lead the Blue Dons to an OVAC Class A championship for the first time in 20 years, but it made two trips to the state Final Four, something that just doesn’t come down the turnpike very often for anyone not named Wheeling Central.

‘‘ It’s been a pleasure. This group of seniors — I told them in the huddle — they set a standard for the younger kids to live up to,’’ Kramer said.

‘‘Most of them just worked their butts off this year in the weight room. They have accomplished so much.

‘‘You want your seniors to be team leaders, and I have had a great group of team leaders — I’ll miss every one of them.’’

Kramer will be the first to admit Madonna had to play flawless to even have a chance, and it did for a while.

In fact, the Blue Dons punched in a second-quarter touchdown, that if it didn’t make Central flinch, it at least made the Knights take notice. And they had a chance to possibly pull within a score a little later when a Sal Conti punt hit an unsuspecting Ethan Williams of Wheeling Central in the leg, giving Madonna the ball at the Central 40.

But Conti’s pass near the end zone on first down was a hair late and was knocked away. Moments later, on fourth-and-2, A.J. Klein was brought down behind the line to end the threat, and for all intents and purposes the game as the Maroon Knights tacked on a pair of touchdowns before the half.

‘‘Wheeling Central is used to being here — we haven’t been here for a couple years,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘You get nerves and excitement. These are kids — they’re just teenagers.

‘‘I’ve seen professional guys do the same things out there and they’re getting paid a helluva lot of money. These are kids out there just doing the best they can and I can’t say enough about them.’’

He probably doesn’t have to because their play this season, en route to an 11-2 record and a pair of home playoff victories, speaks volumes.

Remember, this is a team that didn’t make the playoffs for two years following that state title-game appearance. This is a team that needed a Week 10 victory against Bishop Donahue last season just to get to .500.

When it was all said and done, the Maroon Knights didn’t have one more weapon, they had three, four, or even five more. That’s something no amount of heart — and the Blue Dons showed plenty — can overcome.

‘‘The only thing I didn’t see (Central) do (on film) is punt the ball,’’ Kramer said with a laugh. ‘‘You can never put them in a hole — they can score from anywhere on the field. You put them on the 1-yard line and they can go 99 yards in one play.

‘‘It’s tremendously hard to game plan against a team that has no weakness.’’

Will the gap ever be closed between Wheeling Central and the rest of the field? It’s hard to say, but history suggests these things are cyclical.

And when it happens, Madonna — 31 players strong — will be there ready to pounce.

‘‘I hope we’ll learn from it,’’ Kramer said. ‘‘Experience is a great thing.

‘‘(Late Wheeling Central coach) Jim Thomas used to say he got four weeks extra practice a year. That makes a big difference.’’