Bruins Fall Short Against Eagles
Sunday, December 6, 2009
By JIM ELLIOTT- The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register
It took South Charleston's Perry Henry less than 5 minutes to emerge as the West Virginia Class AAA state championship game's Most Valuable Player on Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium.
At that point, Henry, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound junior had touched the football twice and accounted for 131 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, the catalyst for what proved to be a 28-7 victory against Brooke.
The first time he got his hands on it, Perry returned an interception 45 yards to put his team up 6-0. The second time, he took what looked like a harmless screen pass and PlayStationed his way down the visitor's sideline for an 86-yard scoring reception.
The thoughts on the minds of Brooke's fans at that point?
Oh Henry.
''I saw a lot of white jerseys,'' Henry said of the run after the catch. ''They were hustling with me making good blocks so I just had to finish out the run.''
Henry later added a 45-yard touchdown catch and wound up with three catches for 138 yards, the kind of performance last seen in a championship game against Brooke by DuPont's Randy Moss in1992.
The Bruins (13-1) are no strangers to giving up big plays - or playing from behind -but not having an answer was something new.
''They've done it all year long,'' South Charleston coach John Messinger said. ''That was the one thing we've said about it was they never, ever, ever quit. They didn't quit (Saturday). It's just the clock started working against them, they weren't able to do some of the things they've done normally, and it was a great effort by our defense.''
Brooke coach Tom Bruney was seeing something he hadn't all the way through this dream-like run.
''I think it was the first time this year we lost our poise a little bit, and we lost it early,'' Bruney said. ''By the time we were able to regain our composure, it was pretty much a done deal.''
Yeah, all of it in Henry's rear-view mirror.
''I think maybe they underestimated our team speed a little bit,'' Messinger said. ''I knew they knew we could run and do things at the skill positions, but we've got some linemen that can really, really run.''
That's for sure. Brooke, a big-play team in its own right, averaged 3.7 yards per snap Saturday, and was one Mike Kosevic forced fumble and one Ryan Lazear 8-yard, second-quarter touchdown run away from a 25 or 26-hour day.
As it was, it was long enough.
''I thought the biggest factor was the fact that they've been here before and we haven't,'' Bruney said. ''I could really see it in our kids' eyes and in their demeanor. They were walking on eggs the first quarter. Once we got ourselves in the hole, the more and more we fought to get out of it, the more mistakes we made.''
A mistake got them in the hole in the first place. On their third snap, quarterback Cotey Wallace, a winner even in a loss, was trying to slip a pass to Ian Morris, but Henry, who had peeled off Joe DiNardo, stepped in front and returned it for the score. It was just Wallace's eighth interception thrown in 212 attempts this season.
Henry had DiNardo, Brooke's leading receiver, blanketed all day. He wound up with two catches for 10 yards.
Bruney said that wasn't for a lack of trying.
''We tried to get the ball to everybody we could, and they just had us covered,'' he said. ''They played a good man coverage. Two things: We had a hard time shaking any of our receivers loose, and the second thing was that middle backer, we couldn't get to him all day.''
Bruney might want to add a third, the disruption caused by defensive tackle Robert Browning, one of those speedy linemen Messinger was talking about who spent as much time in the Bruins' backfield as Wallace and Lazear.
Wallace had his worst day as a passer - 8 of 19 for 95 yards and two interceptions - and the ground game never did get untracked. Brooke ran 39 times for 119 yards.
''We were just trying to take what they were giving us,'' Bruney said. ''It seemed like every time we'd get a good play going, something else would come back the next play and hurt us. I don't think we ever set our tempo and clicked the way we normally do.''
The other Kennedy Award candidate in this game, South Charleston quarterback Trevor Harris, fared much better. He completed 8 of 15 attempts for 198 yards and two scores. He also rushed 12 times for 80 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown jaunt to close the game's scoring.
Down 21-7, Brooke couldn't recapture the magic that saw it rally in the second half for a victory in more than half their games in 2009.
''We made our halftime adjustments and when we came out in the second half, we tried those things. They were there, we just couldn't make the play,'' Bruney said. ''Just didn't get it done.''
As it is, South Charleston will begin a quest for a third straight title on Monday in the weight room, with 15 starters set to return. It's likely, these two teams might mean again someday.
''It played out the way we hoped it would have played out, but it could have definitely been the other way, I'll tell you that right now,'' Messinger said. ''Coach Bruney's done a super job up here. That program, they're back. Brooke isn't going anywhere for a while. They're around for a while.''
