The James Monroe offensive line adopted the “Plowboys” moniker last season when the group paved the way to a Class A title game run in Wheeling.
The Mavericks made the first of what they hope turns into two Wheeling trips this season on Friday when they made the five-hour bus ride to perennial Class A contender Wheeling Central for a semifinal rematch.
Turf or grass, the Plowboys steamrolled the competition again.
The James Monroe offensive line paved the way for 541 yards of total offense with 441 of those yards coming on the ground in a 45-33 win against the Maroon Knights.
For their efforts, the Mavericks have earned the Lootpress Week 1 Offensive Line of the Week.
The starting line consisted of Brady Baker (left tackle), Ashton Evans (left guard), Jacob Hall (center), Justin Feamster (right guard) and Jackson Phipps (right tackle).
“We lost two starters off last year’s line and had three coming back,” James Monroe head coach John Mustain said. “I felt like we could be pretty good up front. Some nights are tougher than others but I felt pretty confident that may have been the one phase of the game where I felt pretty good because I knew we had three starers coming back. Of course that’s aside form Cooper (Ridgeway) and Layton (Dowdy) in the backfield and Chaz (Boggs), but I felt pretty good about that because the other kids saw a lot of time last year.”
The Maroon Knights, who have been to the semifinals every year since 2017 and won three consecutive titles from 2017-19, are no slouches and often considered as the standard in Class A. Adding Central to the schedule, especially as the opener, was an ambitious move but one that paid off and proved the Mavericks will be in the title hunt again.
“I kind of felt like early on that they were keying on Cooper and we found out pretty quick we were doing better going to our left,” Mustain said. “Brock had a really good game but he got hurt early and he was running the ball really well with Cooper leading for him. I didn’t really feel comfortable with the outcome until our last score. But I felt really good about how things went up front. We actually Ashton in the backfield some to lead for Cooper and he did a really good job.”
