Bruins taking on juggernaut
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By MIKE MATHISON- The Herald Star
One team is the defending champion, while the other has a bandwagon full of supporters.
South Charleston seeks its second straight West Virginia Class AAA state championship when it takes on Brooke at noon Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium.
The Bruins are in the state title clash for the first time in 17 years.
"It is a great thing," Black Eagles coach John Messinger said of being back for the second year in a row. They got back after a 28-25 semifinal victory over Bridgeport.
"At halftime we challenged those kids who were on our team last year to really step up for two more quarters of football against a really good Bridgeport team. We also explained to those young ones, the ninth-graders who were not a part of this team last year that we have a couple of seniors playing for us this year who were not part of this team last year.
"We tried to explain to the kids that they were facing the greatest opportunity in the world. It's something everybody strives for, to get to the state championhips.
"It's a great experience. They do a wonderful job in Wheeling with this thing.
"Then we get, what I consider, is a great honor in playing a really good Brooke team. That football team has it all. The greatest thing about Brooke that I see is their will to win. They refuse to lose and refuse to quit.
"To say that we're facing an inferior team is the farthest thing from the truth. We're playing the No. 1 team in the state and they're No. 1 for a reason. They're good."
That became obvious in the second half of the final game of the regular season, losing 13-0 at Musselman, the Bruins scored 14 in a row for the narrow victory.
"South Charleston has the experience," said first-year Brooke mentor Tom Bruney. "They are very talented. They are very well coached. They come from an awesome football conference, which we should probably be a part of because we played most of the teams in that conference this year.
"They are a very physical football team."
The Bruins graduate seven seniors, five of whom start.
"Those five have been tremendous leaders for us," said Bruney.
"Mike Koscevic and Kyle Sims are in the middle on defense. They have done a great job of getting us in the proper fronts and coverages. They are tremendous leaders by example. They're not real vocal, but continue to work hard in practice every day."
Brooke has not been in the state championship game since a 36-7 loss in 1992 to DuPont.
That marked the sixth time in eight years the Bruins had been in the title game.
"When we took the program over in May it was obvious the kids were ready for some change," said Bruney.
"They had kept hearing about how Brooke football."
Sims leads the team with 121 tackles, while Tripper Marigon has 104 and Koscevic 102.
Narigon and Koscevic each have 12 tackles for loss, while teammate Joe DiNardo has 11 sacks.
