Woodrow looking for mental toughness against Big Reds

Woodrow looking for mental toughness against Big Reds

By Randall Jett
Register-Herald Sports Writer
Woodrow Wilson heads up Interstate 77 to Parkersburg Friday looking for an upset of the Big Reds Friday.

Coach John H. Lilly believes the Flying Eagles will have to toughen up mentally to contend with unbeaten Parkersburg.

“We’ve got to eliminate the big mistake,” he said. “We play great football at times and then we give up a long touchdown pass. We do a great job 90 percent of the time. In that 10 percent of the time, we have one key mental mistake and we give up the big play. You can’t win games giving up the big play.”

The Woodrow rushing game is evolving. Marquel Ali and Josh Pryor are beginning to get their feet under them as starters in the backfield.

“Josh had a pretty hot hand against Riverside,” Lilly said. “Marquel got back on track with Capital. That’s kind of the way we want things to happen.”

But the Eagles have shown their inexperience early this season as well.

“We’ve left 28 points inside the five-yard line,” Lilly said. “That’s very uncharacteristic of us. I can’t think of any time since 1997 that we’ve been running this offense that we didn’t score when we were inside the five-yard line. We haven’t scored inside the five-yard line four times in two games.”

“That’s 28 points. That’s disappointing, to leave points out on the field.”

The Eagles are replacing 23 graduates and three starters who were ineligible.

“We lost what is equivalent to a whole team,” Lilly said. “It’s going to take these guys some time. They showed improvement from week one to week two, but that’s not good enough. That’s not the standard around here. We’re going to have to eliminate the mistakes and play solid, sound football.”

Parkersburg (2-0) is led by running back Matt Lindamood, who has rushed for 290 yards and five touchdowns, and quarterback Andy Thomas, who has rushed for 68 yards and two scores and thrown for 68 yards and another score.

“They’re not going to do anything tricky,” Lilly said. “They’re just a good-coached team, a well-disciplined team.

“They don’t do a whole lot in multiplicity. It’s just the fact that what they do, they do very well.”

Lindamood is averaging 9.4 yards a carry for the Big Reds.

Woodrow (0-2) will also have to overcome a Parkersburg defense that has forced six turnovers and held opponents to just 13 points in two games.

Greenbrier West (2-0) at Independence (1-1): Independence gave Greenbrier West its toughest test last year as the Cavaliers squeaked out a 14-12 victory at Charmco en route to a perfect regular season.

Look for more of the same Friday.

“We had a real solid football game against them up there last year,” Independence coach Scotty Cuthbert said. “We just had a couple of turnovers at the wrong time and ended up getting beat. They’re a real solid football team. They have them all back and we’ve only got about four (returning) on each side of the ball. It will be another big test for us Friday night.”

The Patriots bring in a solid passing attack that features quarterback Mark Cuthbert and receiver Josh Nelson to test West defensively.

“They throw the ball awfully well,” West coach Lewis McClung said. “I’ve watched two films on them and they’ve had a big passing play in each of their first games, probably 80 yards or better. Of course, I always feel like any time you’re going to have a chance to win, you have to shut down the other team’s rushing attack. But this week we’ve also got to take care and guard against the big play.”

Cuthbert has thrown for 273 yards and three touchdowns in the first two games of the season.

Balancing the Independence offense is a ground attack featuring Cameron Blevins, Brett Lacy, Jake Wright and A.J. Waters.

“We had a little better rushing down at Sherman,” Cuthbert said. “We’re trying to equal it out a little bit. We’re hoping some of these kids will come around as the season goes so we won’t be so one-sided.”

Leading the Cavaliers is tailback Trent Walker, who has posted two consecutive games of more than 200 yards.

“Trent’s doing a good job for us, but you can’t put up those kinds of numbers without the guys up front doing a good job.” McClung said. “Those guys up front are just doing a great job providing Trent with lanes to run through. If you can give Trent a little bit of a seam, he’s awful hard to bring down.”

Other area matchups include James Monroe (2-0) at Oak Hill (1-1), Nicholas County (2-0) at East Fairmont (2-0), Huntington (1-1) at Princeton (0-1), Spring Valley (1-1) at Greenbrier East (0-2), Liberty (2-0) at PikeView (0-2), Iaeger (2-0) at Wyoming East (1-1), Shady Spring (0-2) at Summers County (0-2), Fayetteville (0-2) at Richwood (0-2), Burch (0-2) at Meadow Bridge (2-0) and Westside (0-2) at Man (1-1).