| Blue Dons host Calhoun County
By RALPH COX, Sports correspondent
WEIRTON â All season long, the Madonna football team has routed opponents with the starters playing just a little more than half the game. What will happen when the competition is stiffer and the starters have to play a whole game?
The answer to that question could be answered tonight as the Blue Dons open the postseason playoffs hosting Calhoun County at 7:30 p.m. at Jimmy Carey Stadium. The game will match two of the better running backs in the Class A ranks â Madonna junior A. J. Klein and Calhoun junior Randy Fluharty.
Like the other members of the Blue Dons starting lineup, Klein has played sparingly in the second half of most games, but he has accumulated 1,130 rushing yards in only 87 carries for an eye-popping average of 12.9 yards a carry.
Klein has crossed the goal line 18 times in his 87 carries. Meanwhile, Calhoun's Fluharty has gained about 2,000 yards, according to information that Blue Don coach, Bob Kramer, has obtained. "I don't know a whole lot about their statistics, but the films show that Fluharty is a pretty good running back," said Kramer, who exchanged films of games with first year Red Devil coach, Doyle Hupp, Jr. "He gets the ball a lot from the top of the 'I' formation."
The Red Devils, who will be going into the playoffs for the second straight year, were riding a four-game win streak before losing to St. Marys 47-13 last week in the season finale. They are 7-3 and seeded No. 10. Kramer said the Calhoun County High School is located in Mt. Zion, WV, which is about an hour's drive south and east of Parkersburg. He said he thought Calhoun would want to play the playoff game on Friday night or Saturday afternoon, but Hupp chose the Saturday night date.
"That's OK with us because most of our games are on Saturday nights and the kids are used to that schedule," Kramer explained. "Plus it gives us an extra day of preparation." Kramer, who is in his 11th year as the Madonna head coach, said that Calhoun, which has four seniors on its roster, was in fourth place last year until the final week of the season when it lost again to St. Marys and Madonna moved ahead of them in the playoff seeding.
"I guess you could say it was the opposite this year," said Kramer, who is the winningest coach in Madonna's 51 years of existence with an 85-31 record. "When St. Marys beat Calhoun this year, St. Marys jumped ahead of us into the sixth spot and we dropped to seventh place." In addition to Klein, the Blue Dons' arsenal includes junior fullback, Louie Comis with 541 yards and eight touchdowns on 79 carries and Max Nogay with 425 yards and six touchdowns on 56 carries.
In addition to his 18 rushing touchdowns, Klein has scored three times on punt returns, including an 87-yarder. Connor Arlia is the leading pass receiver for the Blue Dons hauling in 15 aerials for 449 yards and seven touchdowns. The fleet sophomore is tied with fellow sophomore, Chris Eloi as the second leading tacklers on the Madonna defense with 68. Comis leads all Blue Dons defensively with 81 tackles. Another potent force in the Blue Don offense is junior Jimmy Deter, who has booted 26 of 30 extra point tries.
Kramer said Calhoun will counter with Fluharty, of course, but they also have a big quarterback in Zach Moore (6-2, 205), who gets heavily involved in the Red Devil offense both rushing and throwing.
When he throws, Kramer said big tight end, Daniel Slider, is a favorite target, according to the films. Slider is 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. "He (Slider) stood out on their films both offensively and as a defensive end," Kramer said.Calhoun County's regular season schedule included three Class A playoff teams and that is where all three of the Red Devil losses came.
They lost to Parkersburg Catholic (6-4), the 16th seed (14-0); Williamstown (9-1), the top team in Class A (37-7) and to St. Marys. Meanwhile the Red Devils beat Gilmer County, 58-6, Ritchie County, 37-25; Doddridge County, 41-14; South Harrison, 33-14; Roane County, 13-0; Wirt County, 32-6 and Braxton County, 46-13.
"It is hard to tell how we match up with them in both speed and size by just watching the films," said Kramer. "You can't tell if the opposing team is fast or slow so it is hard to compare that way and sometimes the sizes listed in programs aren't what the players appear to be. And, we don't have any common opponents with them so we have no comparison there either."
Kramer said Calhoun has lost to three pretty good teams. "Calhoun wants to run with power," he exclaimed. "They line up in the power I and just say 'here we come, stop us.' Their line doesn't appear to be real big, but they seem to block well, they hold their blocks," Kramer said Fluharty is a good, hard runner who keeps churning and twisting.
"He appears to be hard to get a hold of and bring down," he concluded. On defense, Kramer said the Red Devils remind him of his own Madonna squad. "They blitz a lot and bring a lot of people," he said.
"They swarm to the ball and don't stay blocked very long." Kramer quipped that his game plan is to do things better than Calhoun does. "We can't let them go on sustained drives because sooner or later when that happens they will find the end zone," he explained. "We have to find a way to stop Fluharty.
They try to get a lot of people out front of him and he reads well, finds the holes and likes to cut back just like most good backs do."
This will be the fourth straight game that the Blue Dons are without senior quarterback, Sal Conti, who sustained a season-ending knee injury in the Toronto game. Nogay has stepped in to capably fill the void as the signal caller.
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