Mavericks, Beavers: No mystery left between two teams

Mavericks, Beavers: No mystery left between two teams

By Randall Jett
Register-Herald Sports Writer
For James Monroe, it’s come down to one last game against rival Bluefield to decide who goes to Wheeling Island for the Class AA championship game next Friday.

The undefeated and No. 2-ranked Mavericks play host to the defending champion Beavers (7-4) at 1:30 p.m. today in Lindside. If James Monroe advances, it will be its first-ever trip to the title game.

“This is as far as James Monroe has advanced in the history of the school,” Mavericks head coach David Witt said. “And then again, since I’ve been the head coach, it’s as far as we’ve advanced also.”

Neither team is a mystery to its opponent. James Monroe downed Bluefield 17-14 on Oct. 28 in their regular-season meeting in Bluefield.

Witt isn’t worried about his team having any sort of letdown against the Beavers.

“When you play Bluefield, you don’t have to work at getting them motivated to play,” he said. “Regardless of when or whatever, they like to play Bluefield. It’s a team they look forward to playing. It’s going to be a tough game and we don’t have any trouble getting motivated to play them.”

Bluefield coach Freddie Simon believes his squad is a little better prepared for today’s rematch.

“We’ve got a little more depth at our running back position now that we didn’t have before,” he said. “Hopefully, that will help us. I think our lines, offensive and defensive, are coming off a little better. Hopefully, they can do that (Saturday).”

In their first meeting, James Monroe (12-0) controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Witt thinks his team will have to do that again today.

“That’s a key,” he said. “That was the key to winning the first game and it’s definitely the key to winning this game.”

The Mavericks will have to contain the Beavers’ running attack of Jonathan Payne and J.T. Powell and the pitch and catch duo of Eric McClanahan and Maurice Jordan.

“They have a lot of weapons over there offensively,” Witt said. “You can’t really just single out one or two of them to concentrate on. You’ve just got to play good, sound, overall good defense. You can’t try to single out one person and concentrate on them, because if you do, they’ve got so many other people that can hurt you.”

Likewise, Bluefield can’t worry about stopping only one player for the Mavericks. Jason Jackson has emerged as a perfect complement to Andrew Robertson in the backfield and Mitch Tuggle has blossomed into a steady receiver.

“They have two fine running backs and a good offensive line,” Simon said. “We just need to be alert for misdirection — the ball going anywhere and some play-action passes. They’re good and they have a lot of weapons.”

Jackson led the Mavs’ attack in their first meeting, throwing for one score and rushing for another.

“(Jackson) had a good game,” Witt said. “He had an 84-yard touchdown run and also threw a touchdown pass. He rushed for over 100 yards against them.”

Defensively, linebacker Ryan Albert will lead Bluefield’s effort.

“Ryan is going to have to do a real good job of reading their offensive plays,” Simon said. “That’s not an easy task. He’s going to have help with our defensive line coming off the ball. Matthew Carter, our other linebacker, is going to have to play well.”

Simon also believes his squad is going to have to step up in a couple of areas to beat the Mavericks this time around.

“One is special teams,” Simon said. “Big plays, you have to play every play. I think that is very important. Two, our offensive and defensive line is going to have to do a better job of coming off the football — both sides.”

The Beavers have caught fire in the playoffs after finishing the regular season with back-to-back losses to Herbert Hoover and James Monroe.

“Experience helps,” Simon said. “But still, once you get this far, each team knows how to win and you’re going to have to play very well to go to the next step, which is the state championship game. Any team that gets to the semifinals knows how to win. It’s going to be tough. You have to play hard, hope breaks go your way and everything works out.”

Witt acknowledges that Bluefield’s talent on the field this season may have been underrated because it is following a great senior-laden team that rolled to the championship last year.

“They had a really good senior class last year,” Witt said. “Sometimes people don’t realize that you have a class that follows a good senior class like that and a lot of times that group of kids is really good because they got to play against that senior class every day in practice. I’m sure that’s something that definitely helped the players that they have coming back.”

The winner of the contest will face the winner of today’s Wayne-Weir game next Friday night in Wheeling.