South Charleston – After both of their teams capped off 5-5 seasons and locked into the Class AAA playoffs on Friday, both Woodrow Wilson coach Street Sarrett and South Charleston coach Donnie Mays preached the importance of a regular-season reset to their players in postgame huddles.
However, the energy and emotion emanating from each of those huddles couldn’t have been any more different.
On the Flying Eagles’ side, it was jubilation as Woodrow locked up its first postseason berth since 2014. Meanwhile, the Black Eagles’ search for answers continues.
Thanks to a pair of fourth-and-long conversions and some key defensive plays in the fourth quarter, the Flying Eagles picked up their third straight win in a 42-21 victory at South Charleston.
Woodrow certainly played like a team with its playoff life on the line as Sarrett opted to go for a fourth-and-7 from the SC 37 on the game’s first drive, resulting in a 36-yard pass from Maddex McMillen to Elijah Redfern. McMillen dove in from a yard out on the next play to give the Flying Eagles a 7-0 lead.
Fast forward to the fourth quarter after South Charleston had scored and converted on a two-point conversion to tie things at 21, the Flying Eagles faced a fourth-and-11 at the Black Eagles 36. Again, Sarrett sent his offense back on the field and again, McMillen found an open receiver for 36 yards with Keynan Cook breaking open on a post route and hauling in the throw.
That score put Woodrow up 28-21 and the Flying Eagles wouldn’t relinquish the lead again.
“Same formation, just different pass routes,” Sarrett said. “We put that in and it worked, man. I’ve said it since the beginning of the season, we’ll go as far as Maddex McMillen wants to go.”
On the other side of those exciting plays was a Black Eagles squad that hasn’t had much go right for it in recent weeks. South Charleston, the defending triple-A state champions, roared out to a 5-1 start but will enter the postseason having lost four games in a row. Big plays like the two Woodrow came up with on fourth down have been a theme over that stretch.
“It’s been our little mantra, to continue to give up big plays on huge downs for us and I don’t know what it is, but it’s not good,” Mays said. “I don’t know the answer to it. I just think we need to be more focused and disciplined and do our jobs.”
Both of those plays, which came out of an empty-backfield spread look, were certainly outliers in the Woodrow gameplan throughout. Utilizing a double-wing, tight set, the Flying Eagles ran clock and piled up 241 yards on 36 carries on the ground while McMillen attempted just nine passes. McMillen scored twice on 1-yard plunges with the second coming in the third quarter to briefly put the Flying Eagles up 21-13.
Running back Tylai Kimble led all rushers with 112 yards on 12 carries and he put an exclamation point on the proceedings, scoring on a 15-yard run with 2:07 to go to put the game out of reach at 35-21 and then picking off South Charleston quarterback Trey Dunn and running 35 yards back to the end zone 55 seconds later.
Until those waning moments, it was a back-and-forth affair. The Flying Eagles led 14-7 at the break with Nathaniel Grayton scoring on a 10-yard run with 1:12 left in the second quarter to give Woodrow the advantage.
South Charleston scored on the first possession of the second half capped by a 7-yard run from Amellio Miller and after the extra point was partially blocked, Woodrow led 14-13. After McMillen scored his second rushing touchdown 1:15 later, SC answered again on a 31-yard pass from Dunn to Wayne Harris. A two-point throw from Dunn to Miller tied things at 21 with 2:01 left in the third quarter.
That score stood until McMillen’s fourth-down throw to Cook and after its offense had made two big fourth-down plays, the Woodrow defense finally came up with one of its own, stuffing Dunn on a scramble on fourth-and-10 to set up Kimble’s touchdown run.
“Our defense has really stepped up here toward the end of the season,” Sarrett said. “We’re just going to keep rolling on. Everybody is 0-0 next week.”
And that’s exactly what Mays was saying as well, but for much different reasons.
“Right now, it’s a mindset for us,” Mays said. “Now all of the sudden we lose a game here or there we shouldn’t have lost and we’re trying to regain that mentality of a winner and we just can’t seem to find it.”
SC was flagged 13 times for 100 yards and Dunn was picked off three times while completing 12 of 27 passes for 182 yards. Harris caught four balls for 87 yards while Miller notched two rushing touchdowns to go with 70 yards on 16 carries. Mondrell Dean led the SC backfield with 79 yards on 13 totes.
Contact Ryan Pritt at 304-348-7948 or ryan.pritt@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @RPritt.
Woodrow Wilson 42, South Charleston 21
Woodrow Wilson: 7 7 7 21 – 42
South Charleston: 0 7 14 0 – 21
First quarter
WW – McMillen 1 run (Mollohan kick), 9:30
Second quarter
SC – Miller 9 run (Edwards kick), 10:10
WW – Grayton 10 run (Mollohan kick), 1:42
Third quarter
SC – Miller 7 run (kick blocked), 6:36
WW – McMillen 1 run (Mollohan kick), 5:21
SC – Harris 31 pass from Dunn (Miller pass from Dunn), 2:01
Fourth quarter
WW – Cook 36 pass from McMillen (Mollohan kick), 9:06
WW – Kimble 15 run (Mollohan kick), 2:07
WW – Kimble 35 interception return (Mollohan kick), 1:12
Team statistics
WW;SC
First downs;;16;17
Rushes-yards;;36-241;39-188
Passing yards;;90;182
Passes;;6-9-0;12-27-3
Total yards;;331;370
Fumbles-lost;;0-0;1-0
Penalties-yards;;8-53;13-100
Punts-average;;0-0;0-0
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING – WW: Kimble 12-112, Grayton 9-37, McMillen 8-67, Moore 7-25. SC: Miller 16-70, Dean 13-79, Dunn 9-38, Team 1-1.
PASSING – WW: McMillen 6-9-0-90. SC: Dunn 12-27-3-182.
RECEIVING – WW: Cook 2-48, Redfern 1-36, Miller 1-5, Waller 1-1, Grayton 1-0. SC: Harris 4-87, Dean 2-24, McCorkle 2-19, Miller 2-18, Tubbs 1-26, Tinsley 1-8.
