Wheeling Central Hosts Perry Traditional Friday
Photo by Kristin Mazgaj Trending
WHEELING -- Coming off a season-opening setback to visiting James Monroe last week, veteran Wheeling Central head coach Mike Young learned a lot about his young Maroon Knights squad.
"We're definitely young and green along both lines of scrimmage and that didn't help," he advised. "I thought we played much better in the second half than we did in the first, but we gave them a couple of opportunities and they took advantage of them."
He was referring to a couple of plays in the first half that changed the game's momentum.
"The fumble call and a bad snap really hurt us," he recalled. "They never really stopped us in the first half."
Wheeling Central remains at home tonight when Perry Traditional (0-1) Academy of Pittsburgh ventures to Bishop Schmitt Field on the campus of Wheeling University Kick off is set for 7.
"They are athletic and have some speed," Young said of the Commodores who dropped a 49-2 opener at Trinity, Pa. "We need to play hard and get out of the gates early. We can't afford any turnovers.
"Offensively, I thought we came off the ball really well last week, but penalties and turnovers hurt. I thought our backs ran hard," Young noted. "Defensively, we need to get off blocks and make tackles, but not doing that is the character of a young team."
Young said Wheeling Central had five freshmen playing at times on both sides of the ball against James Monroe.
"These kids are what we have to work with. They are good kids and we're going to coach them up the best we can," Young continued. "We can't give up long runs and long passes."
This will be the Maroon Knights' 50th all-time game against a team from the Keystone State. They are 37-11-1 all-time against two dozen different opponents, but are just 0-1 against Perry Traditional. That 39-28 loss came in 2010 at Wheeling Island Stadium. In 2008, Wheeling Central played four Pennsylvania schools - Brashear, Morgan, Oliver and Quigley.
In the opener, the Maroon Knights only ran the ball 17 times for 184 yards and two touchdowns. Two big chunks of that yardage came on a 70-yard sprint by J.J. White and a 55-yard scoring run by Braden McWreath, who also caught three TD passes among his nine receptions for 153 yards from quarterback Seth Cover. Cover was 17 of 22 for 281 yards and three scores.