Williamstown, Wheeling Central equally balanced
Thursday, December 1, 2005
By STEVE HEMMELGARN - The Parkersburg News & The Parkersburg Sentinel

PARKERSBURG - With his team having played both Class A state finalists in the last month, veteran Parkersburg Catholic head football coach Danny Tennant has a unique perspective when it comes to Williamstown versus Wheeling Central for all the marbles come Saturday night.

''Actually, I thought the Williamstown-St. Marys winner was probably going be the state champion, simply because both of them are very good teams,'' Tennant stated up front.

But he was quick to add that ''Wheeling Central has a very good team also. But it's not your typical Central team. Normally, Central is starting 7, 8, 9, 10 seniors. Only this year, they're not doing that; they're starting just three or four seniors. They've still got talent, but don't have that senior leadership, that senior pizazz that they normally have.

''So I think Williamstown has a little bit of an edge talent-wise going into the game. But at the same time, Wheeling Central's playing on their home field - the field they normally play on - so that maybe negates a little bit of that edge that Williamstown has in talent.''

In fact, Tennant's 2005 Crusader team played - and lost to - three of the four Class A state semifinalists, also bowing to a St. Marys squad that was defeated 17-0 by Williamstown in last week's semifinal round.

''We didn't do well with any of them, going 0-3, but there's three pretty good football teams,'' said Tennant.

But when it came to playing the Yellowjackets and Maroon Knights, ''both teams, especially Williamstown, big-played us,'' said Tennant. ''But I think both teams are capable of putting drives together and just pounding it, but at the same time are obviously capable too of producing the big play.''

Tennant thought that with ''both teams playing a four defense (four linemen and four linebackers), there are things that you can do with a four-front defense to spread them out a little more and maybe take advantage of things that are there.''

Catholic was able ''to exploit'' Williamstown's defense for 170 passing yards (on 15 of 34 attempts) as well as 172 rushing in the final game of the regular season in a 20-6 setback. ''I think that's something that if you have that type of offense, you can exploit that four defense a little bit with some throwing,'' said Tennant, ''although I don't know that Central, because of their limitations with the wing-T, that they're going to be able to throw the ball as much (vs. Williamstown) as what we were able to do.''

Catholic, however, was unable to duplicate that effort against Central two weeks later in a 21-6 quarterfinal-round playoff loss. Only one pass was completed the entire game - and that by Central - out of just seven attempts as PC was 0-for-4 through the air. ''But both teams pretty much wanted to run the ball and stuck to that game plan,'' said Tennant.

Central employs ''more of a wing-T type offense,'' said Tennant, while Williamstown goes with ''more of an I-back look.'' And ''personally, I think the I-back offense gives you a little bit more flexibility in the things that you can do in as far as the running and passing game than what a wing-T offense does.

''So I think Williamstown is more diverse in their offense. But at the same time, both teams play very good defense with their four defense.

''And in championship games, it always boils down to teams that play good defense and don't turn the ball over - and don't give up any big plays too.''

Tennant, though, hedged his bets with picking a winner, being diplomatic. ''For the (LKC) conference's sake, I'd like to see Williamstown win it; being a fellow Catholic school, I'd like to see the Catholic school win it,'' he said.