Glenville St. opens MEC play vs. Charleston
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PARKERSBURG -- First-year Glenville State head coach Jake Casteel and the Pioneers are set to open up Mountain East Conference play against three-time defending champion Charleston at 1 p.m. Saturday inside Laidley Field.
A year ago, the G-men lost a tough 31-28 affair to the Golden Eagles of head man Mike Tesch in a contest that was played at Roane County.
GSU (1-2, 0-0) enters the fray coming off a 49-20 loss at Mercyhurst last Saturday where the visitors not only had a 29-12 advantage in first downs, but also a 473-331 edge in total yards.
Despite being penalized just five times for 30 stripes, the Pioneers turned the ball over five times, which included a trio of interceptions.
“Disappointing,” admitted Casteel on his weekly YouTube GoMart coaches show. “I think our whole team, the staff, went into it expecting to win and didn’t go our way.
“A lot of things didn’t go our way. We turned the ball over too much. Gave up too many explosives defensively. We can’t play that way and win a whole lot of football games.”
Charleston (1-3, 1-0) opened MEC play last Thursday and managed to escape Athens and Callaghan Stadium with a 41-38 victory versus Concord, which led 31-20 entering the fourth quarter.
UC starting quarterback Matt Frye, who was 8 of 12 for 46 yards before leaving with an injury, was replaced by Camden Reese and he led the rally. Reese finished 10 of 12 for 66 yards and hooked up with Devin Hobbs for the final two scores.
“We struggled with finishing drives and that’s what those guys are trying to clean up,” admitted Casteel, who watched Zavione Wood tote 23 times for 106 yards in the loss. “In the red zone we got to finish.
“He’s (Wood) done a good job the last two games really and he keeps getting better and better. He’s healthy really for the first time since I’ve been here and he’s a talented kid. He runs hard. We got a pretty good stable of backs in general that we can pass the touches around a little bit.”
Charleston kicker Zachary Alvarez connected on field goals of 43 yards and a MEC record 54-yarder against Concord en route to being named the conference’s special teams player of the week.
The Golden Eagles, who lost quarterback Ean Hamric via transfer to Northern Illinois where he is now a redshirt senior, also has a solid running back room that’s been led by Jamal Wallace (38-219-2) and Kalen Washington (24-108-1).
“We’re close and we’re doing a good job on defense. We just got to get rid of some of the explosive plays,” stressed Casteel, whose stop corps got five tackles apiece last week from Bryson Oliver, Navy transfer Julien Moutome and former Golden Eagle Ty Wickliffe, who had two interceptions. “Ty has done a really good job. He’s played really well. He’s become a leader.
“He’s played a lot of football. He’s a really sharp kid so we need him to keep stepping up in the back end because we’re young across the board there at the other safety spots. He does a good job leading the troops and getting guys in the right spot, and he’s made a lot of plays for us and this game obviously means a lot to him going back to his old school.”
Glenville State also was forced to use two quarterbacks last week as JD Sherrod left the game and was replaced by Maddox Bowers.
“Maddox has really been in the backup role since he’s been here, but you wouldn’t know by how he prepares. How he carries himself,” said Casteel, who got big games from wideouts Kyree Bunny (5-98-1) and Caden Harris (10-87). “I mean he got voted a team captain as the backup quarterback.
“That tells you who he is a little bit, but I thought Maddox did a good job. He’s a really smart kid, so he’s going to know what to do and we just got to get him comfortable as he keeps playing. We’ll see what happens this week with who takes the first snap.”
As per usual, Casteel said the G-men have to get the ground game going and also be able to slow down UC’s attack.
“Really talented roster. They’re going to run the heck out of the ball,” said the coach. “They make you stop the run and then they make it tough because they got really talented players on the outside.
“I don’t know which one (quarterback) we are going to see. They’re both good. They both can move around a little bit and they both operate their offense pretty well. They played a tough schedule.”
Despite going into hostile territory, Casteel believes the Pioneers have every opportunity to come out with a big win.
“We have not played a complete game yet,” added the coach. “There’s been bits and pieces where you can see who we can be. We just got to be way more consistent on all three phases of the game.
“Our players are bought into what we’re doing. We just got to continue to get better week in and week out, and that’s what we plan on doing.”
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com