Dandy Dons!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
By JOSH STROPE- The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register
After years of coming close, Weirton Madonna can finally call itself champions again.
The Blue Dons did what they do best, using a dominating defense, a solid offensive line, and a quarterback with a knack for the big play to capture their first West Virginia Class A state championship since 1987 with a convincing 27-7 victory against Man on Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium.
''It's a great feeling that all the hard work we put in through our whole lives and to end the season like this is something special,'' Weirton Madonna quarterback Max Nogay said. ''We played solid. I made a couple mistakes, made a couple errors but we relaxed and then started to play shortminded football.''
Nogay was named the Player of the Game after throwing for 156 yards and two touchdowns, while also running for a 10-yard score in the second quarter.
A defense that has yielded less than three points a game set the tone on the first drive as Man was limited to 1 yard. A nice punt was caught cleanly by Connor Arlia at the Weirton Madonna 30, where he broke two tackles, and then followed a herd of blockers down the sideline for a 70-yard punt return that put the Blue Dons in front 7-0 less than 2 minutes into the game.
''We had great blocking and it felt great to break that,'' Arlia said.
Added veteran Blue Dons coach Bob Kramer: ''They have a great defense and a very good football team. For us to get up on that punt return to put points on the board, get ahead and try to put up enough points to get them out of their running game. That put us in a position where we were making them throw the ball.''
Man isn't a running team and had thrown 20 times only once this season. With a running game that wasn't going anywhere, the Hillbillies were forced to go to the air 27 times. They didn't have much success there, either.
''It was out of our element but we couldn't run the ball against them,'' Man coach Harvey Arms said. ''We wanted to pound it up in there but it was like running up against a wall, we couldn't move them. We had to try something else.''
Arlia's return wasn't the only problem Man faced in the kicking game as two shanked punts put Weirton Madonna in good field position.
The Blue Dons made them pay.
On a fourth-and-14 play from the Man 28, Nogay found a wide-open Jimmy Deter on a post route to put Weirton Madonna up two scores.
Weirton Madonna struck again before halftime. Getting the ball back at the 50 with 1:12 showing on the clock, the Blue Dons drove the rest of the way in less than a minute, capped with Nogay's rushing score for the 20-0 lead heading into the locker room.
The Blue Dons put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 30-yard touchdown strike from Nogay to Connor Arlia in the back of the end zone. Nogay scored the previous play but was called back for holding.
Man scored a meaningless touchdown late as the Weirton Madonna defense once again showed how dominant it can be.
''Everything they do just stands for itself,'' Arms said. ''They send 11 men to the football and they have great quickness. They come at you and they stay after you. They just don't give up. They deserve to be there and they deserve what they got.''
Last week after the Blue Dons' victory against Wheeling Central, senior defensive standout Nick Nero said the unit was ''stone hard.'' Not after this performance. He gave it a little bit of an upgrade.
''I wouldn't say we are stone hard any more,'' Nero said. ''We are as hard as it gets. Our defense is incomparable. We're steel now. We can't be penetrated at all. I'm so proud of our defense and everything we've accomplished. It's really an emotional moment for me. Everything we did, it's starting to sink in now.
''It's indescribable. It was eight years summed up in 48 minutes. That is the only way I can put it. It shakes you after a while and makes you think that you are making history and that you are doing something. That feeling of appreciation really gets me going.''
And last, but certainly not least, there is Kramer.
After more than 30 years of coaching and in his 12th season at Madonna, the veteran coach has added a state championship to his already impressive resume.
''It's an overwhelming feeling,'' Kramer said. ''When I took this job 12 years ago, I never thought I would ever make it to a state championship. To actually win it, it's a dream come true for me.
''What a great group of kids. One of the kids told me when he was an eighth grader, he said 'When we are seniors, Coach, we are going to win you a state championship.'
''He reminded me on the sideline of his promise. They believed in themselves all year and they play together so well. I can't tell you how much a pleasure it has been to coach all these kids.''
As for what was going through his mind as the clock was winding down ...
''Hurry up,'' Kramer said laughing. ''That second half was the longest 24 minutes of my life. But these kids stuck it out and I'm so proud of them. They deserve this.''
