By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – It has been a long time since Winfield football was among the elite programs in Class AA, and coming into the 2022 season there were plenty of questions about just how the Generals would fare following consecutive season that ended short of the playoffs
The answer, as it turns out, was just fine. Better than fine, actually.
After losing its season-opener to cross-county rival Hurricane, Winfield hasn’t been beaten. Now, the Generals are Cardinal Conference champions – their first conference title since 1988 – and the No. 1 seed in the Class AA state playoffs where they will host No. 16 Logan at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Winfield (9-1) features 14 seniors, so it has plenty of experience, but the program was taken over by Eddie Smolder this season.
Smolder, most recently the defensive coordinator at Cabell Midland and prior to that was a former head coach at Sissonville and Ripley, came into Winfield and made some pretty significant changes to the way the team operates, so the players ability to adapt and learn from Smolder was going to be the key to this season.
“We’ve won nine straight and this is year one,” Smolder, a standout at Ripley during his playing days who went on to play at Marshall, said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group or coaches and young men to work with. They bought in from day one. They’ve worked extremely hard, they’re really close to the team and they come from good families. They want to win really bad and they’ve done everything the coaches have asked them to do – that is what has allowed them to have a chance to be successful.”
Smolder changed nearly everything about the Winfield offense, moving the Generals from primarily a shotgun-based team to become more of an option and Wing-T attack. He found the players to pull it off in senior quarterback Brycen Brown along with senior running backs Bray Boggs and Caden Beam – a trio that has run through opponents with little resistance in 2022.
Beam finished the regular season with 1,177 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns while Boggs ran for 1,154 yards and 15 touchdowns. Brown, the trigger man for the Generals’ new offense, combined with backup quarterback Hayden Hinkle to run for more than 700 yards and 16 touchdowns while also passing for more than 500 yards with eight touchdowns.
“When we first put in the offense it was kind of like them looking at a foreign language to be honest with you,” Smolder said. “They’ve been in shotgun the last three years, and now we’re under center and we run option and Wing-T type principles with quick game and play action. It was really different but they just kept working it.
“Our goal was to get better every day in every way, and we continued to do that over time. Right now it’s rolling really smooth.”
Saturday will be Winfield’s second meeting with Logan this season after the now No. 1 Generals beat the Wildcats 29-7 on Sept. 29.
Logan’s attack was led by quarterback Jaxon Cogar, who completed 85 of 138 passes for 1,063 yards with 11 touchdowns and just four interceptions – however Cogar’s season was cut short by injury. Matt Berry has taken over that role and done well, throwing for 724 yards with eight touchdowns.
The Wildcats also have several playmakers they can turn to in Aiden Slack (13 touchdowns in 2022), and Garrett Williamson (49 catches for 612 yards and five touchdowns).
Smolder said even without Cogar he knows his team will have to come to play Saturday, because if they don’t Logan is the type of team that can hurt you.
“They’re a good team,” Smolder said. “They have some good athletes. They’re going to throw it around 30 or 40 times a game, so defensively we have to bring our ‘A’ game. We have to be able to stop the running game and control the pass by playing coverage, pressure and mix-matching our fronts and our looks. They impose a big challenge.”