photo by: Kim North

Wheeling Central defenders Seth Wodusky (54), Maddox Stillion (19) and Andrew Jones (50) pursue Union Local’s Ayden Graham during the Maroon Knights season opener earlier this season. Wheeling Central visits Williamstown Friday night.

WHEELING — When it comes to a football season, you have little time to celebrate a win– and little time to dwell on a loss– before preparation for the next week takes over.

So it is for the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights, who suffered a shutout setback in a loss to Fort Frye last week. The only thing that longtime coach Mike Young is interested in from that loss is how to keep it from happening again.

“Coming off a loss the way we did is tough,” Young said. “When you get beat as bad as we did and we didn’t play well– I didn’t coach a very good game. We didn’t coach them up. It was all my fault and we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to play more physical, we’ve got to play more aggressively. And I think we’ve had a good week of practice so far. We’re looking forward to going down to Williamstown, playing on turf. They got a new field down there.”

The Maroon Knights (1-1) are set to travel to face Williamstown (0-1) in the two teams’ first meeting since the Yellowjackets dealt Central a 29-21 loss in last year’s Class AA state quarterfinals, the last of several games in recent years for a matchup that is becoming a rivalry in W.Va.

“There have been some battles. It’s more of a rivalry than most of the teams we play, because, you know, they’re the only West Virginia school we’re playing.”

Wheeling Central’s game Friday is their lone opponent from the Mountain State this season, with the rest of the Maroon’s schedule composed of teams from Pennsylvania and Ohio, something that was disappointing to Young, who said in an interview Wednesday that Central had trouble finding interested teams in the Mountain State, and that he’d like to see the WVSSAC or OVAC take steps to ensure teams can play games against other teams in their home state.

“We have trouble getting games, but it is what it is. We got to get ready for the next one, and that’s Williamstown at seven o’clock Friday night,” Young said.

Wheeling Central was moved to Class A this year for multiple sports including football.

Looking forward to Friday, it was clear that Central had quite a bit of respect for the Yellowjackets, whom they have faced three times since 2023.

“Coach [Chris] Beck does a good job of preparing his kids for the game,” Young said. “They had a bye week last week, but they had played the week before. He does a great job with his kids in preparation. They’ll be ready to play and hopefully we can recover from our wounds from last week and get after that win.”

Among the challenges poised by Williamstown is their sophomore quarterback Breck Allen, and their senior running back Jackson Kerr, who ran for three touchdowns in the Yellowjackets’ first game.

“Williamstown’s quarterback is versatile,” Young said. “He runs the ball well. They have a couple nice running backs. They spread the field out. They can tuck it inside too and make some plays.

But they’re always physical. They’re always aggressive and they’re always ready to play. We got to stop the run and take away the long pass and we can’t have any turnovers. We definitely have to execute better offensively and play more aggressively defensively.”

Kade Koroneos was Wheeling Central’s leading receiver last week against Fort Frye, while Will Wear came down with an interception on defense. Koroneos also tallied 120 receiving yards, 74 rushing yards and a touchdown both through the air and on the ground in Central’s week one win vs. Union Local. The senior will try to continue his strong season against Williamstown. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on the new turf surface at Yellowjacket Field.