Mistakes cost Beavers in loss to Weir
Saturday, December 3, 2005
By TOM BONE - Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WHEELING — As the Bluefield Beavers 2005 football team huddled for the last time on the artificial turf of Wheeling Island Stadium, the public address announcer began the postgame ceremony by telling both teams and their fans, "It's a great honor to have come this far."

There could only be one winner, though. This night it was Weir High School, gathering around the top trophy after a 40-0 victory over the defending champions from Bluefield.

The Beavers, temporarily numb from the loss and the cold, watched as senior Ryan Albert and junior back J.T. Powell accepted the runner-up trophy and brought it to their teammates. After the ceremony, it was time to answer questions about the game, the season — and the future.

Albert said, "Four years in a row, I've been up here. I both know how to lose and know how to win. I've just got to keep my head up. This is my last year. I'm going to go on to bigger and better things (but) I'll always be a Bluefield Beaver. I'll be here to support them, as many times as they come (here). This experience right here is what makes championship teams, and I hope they'll learn from this."

Head coach Fred Simon, although frustrated by uncharacteristic mistakes that gave Weir momentum, said, "We'll make the most of this: A lot of young kids got experience. I just hate it, for our seniors, that they won't be back. But they gave us some great leadership."

Looking over the season, Simon said, "We never quit. We lost the first two games, then we battled back. Then we lost the last two (regular-season) games. I was very proud of them. I would have just liked to have played better here, to see what could've happened, but when you've got kids who haven't been here before — a lot of our seniors had, as far as linemen go, but our skill (position) kids hadn't been in this position before, and it was kind of tough on them."

"We just needed to play better, to play smarter, and not have the penalties. And that isn't what happened. We blew a golden opportunity."

Albert, a starter at guard, said, "James Monroe's line played just as tough as Weir's line did. ... You cannot go to a team, with the talent they have, the speed that they have, evenly matched with us, and turn the ball over that many times — and make stupid mistakes and stupid penalties. That's how we lost the game tonight."

The first Bluefield drive carried to the Weir 27 and ended with a pair of incomplete passes. The second advanced down to the Weir 19 and was stopped by a fumble. The next attempt got to the Weir 26 and again was stopped by an incomplete pass.

Weir coach Eric Meek said, "We bent early in the first quarter. They really moved the ball on us. But the bottom line was, we kept them without a score, and that's very important."

Meanwhile, the Beavers stopped the Red Riders on four plays on their first series, and Powell gobbled up a Corey Lyons fumble to shut down the next possession.

Albert said, "They got the ball, and were driving on us, and we stopped them. A pretty good stop."

It didn't last after Weir's Josh Smith got loose for the first score, early in the second period. Bluefield's lost momentum haunted them the rest of the game.

Bluefield lost the ball on three fumbles and three interceptions, compared to two Weir turnovers. Bluefield's other drives ended with a sack, two incomplete passes and four punts.

The Beavers' longest run from scrimmage was 15 yards. The team ended with 111 rushing yards unofficially, and 38 passing yards for a total of 149. The Red Riders galloped for 301 net yards on the ground and 366 in total offense. They also did it without a kicker — Ryan Dennis injured his knee, forcing two-point conversion attempts after every touchdown.

The speed backs for BHS were contained fairly effectively. Shawn Brooks gained 23 yards. Jonathan Payne was shaken up on a hard hit while trying for a pass reception, and carried the ball only once. So did Devin Clements, Travis Steptoe and Maurice Jordan.

The coaches had decided a week ago to go to Powell at quarterback from the shotgun to juice things up after halftime. At that point, the score was 6-0. It didn't work out.

Powell said, "We'd already planned this, the whole week. I was ready for it, but (Weir defenders) were in the backfield about the time the snap came back. ... We just had to execute perfectly. It wasn't that they were so quick, or anything. I think if a couple of other breaks would have gone our way, we'd have been fine."

As things turned out, Powell had to track down a bad snap on third down, and on the next series fumbled the ball away to Weir's Dustin Smith, who played a tremendous second half. Eric McClanahan returned at quarterback on the next series, and Bluefield punched the ball downfield ith fullback Allen Carter.

Carter ended with 55 yards unofficially, the Beavers' leading ball-carrier. McClanahan was 4-for-13 throwing the ball with two interceptions and several passes dropped by receivers on a night when the temperature was in the low 20s.

By contrast, Weir's Josh Smith gained 211 yards and scored three touchdowns in his final high school game, often breaking through a small gap and demonstrating his ability to cut back and flat-out fly.

Smith said, "It took the line to open up the holes, the fullback to lead me through the hole, and to hit the hole. And I just had to hit the hole and go with my instincts."

He gave his view on Weir's second-half surge. "It's always like that for us. We're always a second-half team. It's the conditioning that we do. We just keep driving. We don't give up." Defensive lineman Dustin Smith came up with some crushing stops in the third quarter.

After two years of being knocked out of the playoffs by Bluefield, Josh Smith said the championship "feels great, especially since it's against Bluefield. It's the greatest thing in the world."

Was the thought of the previous games with the Beavers, particularly Weir's fourth-quarter collapse last year, a motivation factor? Josh Smith, a senior, said, "Nah, ah, yeah, it was. ... That's something that pushed us in the second half, and all through the game, and all week."

Meek said, "The difference was our defense, really, was unbelievable. And we kept playing. We kept playing like we have all year, against a very good Bluefield team that's very athletic. They're a young team. They're going to have a heck of a future ahead of them."

The Beavers were already talking about that future in the locker room on Friday night.

Powell said, "I'm going to get back in the weight room, whenever I get back to Bluefield. The first day. I'm going to get in the best shape of my life, and be back up here next year, and have better results."

Albert said he and his teammates "knew coming in that they had what it took to win."

The team also had some freshmen and new players -- like Powell, McClanahan, Payne, Jordan and Clements -- who had not experienced a title game in Wheeling.

Albert said, "Being here for four years, I could try to help them a little bit, and I did, but it's just — when you're out there and you play, it's a whole different atmosphere. I mean, the crowd, you couldn't hardly hear.

“It was great, but it was just different. You've got to learn, you've got to be here a few times to just be able to understand that. There are no words to describe what it's like, playing out there."

—Contact Tom Bone at tbone@bdtonline.com