Following the regular season clash with James Monroe in early October, Greenbrier West head football coach Kelly Vaughan said the two teams would meet again this season.
The Cavalier head man was spot on.
Round two between the budding rivals will kickoff Friday night at H.E. Comer Jr. Sports Complex in Linside.
This time however, the stakes are much higher.
The winner advances to the Class A football championship game in Wheeling to play the winner of Williamstown-Tucker County.
The season will come to a close for the loser.
“This is a big one,” James Monroe head coach John Mustain said. “A lot of things we take for granted sometimes. First of all, just being able to get into the playoffs is special. A lot of teams don’t get there very often, if at all. So, it is a big deal.”
In regards to Vaughan’s prediction, meeting a team for the second time in the same year has been a trend for the Cavaliers (12-0) over the years.
“We played Independence in the regular season and the playoffs. We have played Summers County in the regular season and the playoffs. We played Fayetteville in the regular season and then in the playoffs. We played Richwood in the regular season and the playoffs. We played James Monroe twice last year. It is just something that seems to align for us,” Vaughan explained.
The regular season tilt was in Charmco and ended in a 25-8 win for West. The Mavericks took an 8-0 lead before watching the Cavaliers roar back with 25 unanswered points.
Following the Greenbrier West setback, the Mavericks (10-1) have won six straight games including wins over Class AA foes, Liberty, Nicholas County and Bluefield to earn the No. 1 overall seed in Class A.
Struggling to get teams to play them in the regular season, James Monroe experienced two bye weeks during the six weeks prior to the first meeting with Greenbrier West. At that time, Mustain felt his team was not playing its best football.
“I’m certainly not trying to downplay Greenbrier West and their talent. They are a great, great team,” Mustain said. “But, I also feel like we were going through the mid-season blahs too. In the beginning of the season we played a week and off a week, then played a week and off another week. Not making excuses, but that effects kids. I just think you are better off playing on a weekly basis.”
The Mavericks were also replacing some losses due to graduation this year and experienced some growing pains along the way.
“In the beginning of the season we had a lot of youth in a lot of places. We had kids that didn’t play that much last year,” Mustain said. “The last few weeks I have seen a lot of good things out of us, especially defensively.”
Running the football was not an easy task in the first meeting. The difference in the game was through the air where West quarterback Cole Vandall connected on three touchdown passes.
Success through the air will likely be a big factor between winning and losing Friday night.
“Kelly talked about that in terms of his team as needing to get better in the passing game this year and they really have. They have an excellent passing game,” Mustain said. “Greenbrier West is one of those teams that you are not going to shutdown. You just hope you can do everything to prevent too much bleeding.”
“Our passing game has gotten better as the year has gone along,” Mustain went on to say. “We have some experience at quarterback in Layton Dowdy, but we lost two really good receivers. The longer some of these kids have been out there, the more confident they have become running pass routes and more confident catching the ball.”
Both coaches have been around for quite awhile and are convinced the game will center around good old fundamental football.
“It comes down to physicality. They will be physical and we know we have to be physical,” Vaughan said. “They have athletes. The Dowdy kid, the (Cooper) Ridgeway kid and the (Chaz) Boggs kid are athletes. They are bigger than us up front, but we just have to concentrate on being physical. We do have some kids that will get after it.”
“It is kind of a cliche’, but we always say the two most important things about football is blocking and tackling,” Mustain said. “A lot of times a game like this will come down to that. Special teams will play a roll as well. There are little things that will be factors in this game too.”
Physicality will be a test on both sides because each team enters the contest with its fair share of bumps and bruises.
“This time of year, everybody is banged up a little bit and it could make a difference. Our kids will play though,” Vaughan said. “We have preached all season how football is just a grind. You just have to keep hammering down as long and as hard as you can go. I think we have kids that are not only physically tough, they are mentally tough too. To me it is going to be a slugfest and a dogfight. The atmosphere should be electric and the weather forecast looks great. It will be the only show in town, so both communities will show up in big numbers.”
