Jeff Goodrich carries the ball for a
Calhoun first down (Photo by Patty Haught)
By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
While Friday night's 36-29 loss to St. Marys was disappointing, it was not enough to knock Calhoun out of hosting a first round game in the state Class A playoffs.
The Red Devils, who finished with an 8-2 record and in eighth place in the final WVSSAC standings, will now host Moorefield , 7-3, Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. It is the Red Devils first home playoff game ever.
The winner of that game will face the winner of the Wheeling Central Catholic-Clarksburg Notre Dame game in the second round.
Had the Red Devils been able to pull off the comeback against the Blue Devils, 8-2, Friday night they would have probably finished in fourth place and faced No. 13 Pendleton County in the first round.
Still the Red Devils would need to beat Wheeling Central, the top-ranked team in the state, somewhere along the line to advance to the state championship. The loss just means that the Red Devils will have to do it one week earlier.
Friday night the Red Devils got into a quick hole with a turnover on their first drive of the game deep in St. Marys' territory. The Blue Devils scored and Calhoun had to fight from behind the rest of the night.
Calhoun did manage to take a 7-6 lead when Josh DeWeese hauled in a nine-yard scoring pass from Matt Houchin. Nick Whytsell added the extra point to give Calhoun its only lead of the night.
St. Marys went up 14-7 a little later and Calhoun answered with a Whytsell field goal from 31-yards out making it 14-10 at halftime in favor of the purple clad Blue Devils.
St. Marys scored a couple of touchdowns in the third quarter to take a 28-10 lead but the Red Devils were not deterred and fought back when Jeff Goodrich ran over the Blue Devils' defense for a 26-yard score.
The try for a two-point conversion failed leaving the Red Devils down by 12 - 28-16.
Calhoun closed the gap a little more when a hard hit separated Ryan Fickiesen from the ball and Chris Mace recovered at the St. Marys' 26.
This time Goodrich, who had a game high 157 yards on 22 carries, ran through the St. Marys' defense from two yards out. Whytsell added the extra point to bring the Red Devils within five, 28-23, with 6:18 remaining.
St. Marys scored again to push the lead out to 36-23.
But Calhoun came back again when Houchin hit Goodrich for a 23-yard touchdown to make the score 36-29 with 1:06 remaining.
Calhoun attempted and recovered an onside kick only to be whistled for a penalty forcing another kick. This time St. Marys was able to make the grab and ran out the clock.
St. Marys, which ended the season with an 8-2 record, ended up in 11th place and will go on the road to face No. 6 Meadow Bridge Saturday.
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