By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
Perhaps no team in any of West Virginia’s four high school football classifications has done more traveling this season than Hurricane High, and if the Redskins are to play in the first WVSSAC Class AAAA state championship game next week not far from home in Charleston they’ll have to take the long route, again, for the semifinal round.
No. 6 Hurricane (9-3) has already been to Michigan for a regular season game and the Eastern Panhandle for a playoff game – last week’s 57-21 win at No. 3 Jefferson. The Redskins are back on the road and back in the Eastern Panhandle for Saturday’s semifinal contest against No. 2 Spring Mills (12-1).
“When we went to DeWitt (Michigan), we went up and back in the same day,” Hurricane head coach Donnie Mays said. “It was the longest trip that we’ve taken this year – six and a half hours. What it did is it brought us closer as a team. We bonded the whole way up, and the whole way back. After a close loss, we knew we had something with this football team. We had to figure out some things, fix some errors within the schemes, but it ultimately prepared us to take more trips. Going to Parkersburg was an hour and a half. Going to Riverside was only an hour.
“We’re used to being on the road a little bit. Now you take a trip to Jefferson and you turn around and go to Spring Mills, we’re going to slow down, go up there and stay the night. We’ve embraced the idea that we’re the “Road Warriors” from the old NWA and WWE stuff. Let’s just take it and run with it, and our kids actually enjoy traveling.”
Last week at Jefferson with senior quarterback Noah Vellaithambi’s mobility still somewhat limited due to an ankle injury, the Redskins leaned heavily on running back Kylan Grace – the son of former Marshall football standout John Grace. The junior carried the ball 23 times, his second-most in a single game this season, for a season-high 165 yards and three touchdowns.
For the season, Grace has totaled 1,327 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on 182 carries, but has perhaps been somewhat out of the spotlight in Hurricane’s high-powered offense this season.
“[Grace] has flown under the radar because of the success we’ve had at the receiver position and what Noah has done, but we want to run the ball first,” Mays said. “We’re a run-first team and he’s done everything he can to make it work. Last week was one of the best games he’s had.
“We challenged him before the game and told him if you want to make a name for yourself, you’ve got to get in the end zone. Sure enough, this week everyone [in the media] wants to talk to Grace after he got in the end zone three times because he just wouldn’t go down. That’s the type of back he can be, and he knows it. He’s really talented, but he’s also physical.”
Grace, Vellaithambi and the rest of the Hurricane offense will have their hands full this week trying to find points against a Spring Mills defense that has been one of the most impressive defensive units anywhere in the state over the last few seasons.
The Cardinals did not allow a single point until University put six on the scoreboard against them in Week 8 on Oct. 18. Through 13 games, only the Hawks, Martinsburg (their lone loss) and Morgantown.
Morgantown did, however, find ways to slow down the game and present matchup problems for Spring Mills last week, but the Cardinals found a way to dig out a 14-7 win against the visiting Mohigans. Mays said matchups make football, and his defense has seen plenty of powerful offenses this season. If Hurricane wants to play for a state championship next week in Charleston, they’ll have to find a way to slow down Spring Mills and standout quarterback Max Anderson.
“We’ve seen some really good offenses this year and Spring Mills is another one,” Mays said. “We’ve just got to make sure that we’re playing well in space and tackling in space. Making sure you limit what the quarterback [Anderson] can do, because everything goes through him. Every time they get in a bind, they put the ball in his hands and he’s a playmaker. That’s tough to defend, but if we want to be successful that’s what we’ve got to do.”
