By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Calhoun County did a few things right. And a few things wrong.
Unfortunately it was the few things wrong that turned out to be the big things in a 26-8 loss at Doddridge County Friday night.
The things wrong included failing to tackle Corey Aichele. Big mistake. Aichele looked like a shoo-in for the Kennedy Award (given to West Virginia's top high school athlete) as he torched the Red Devils defense for 218 yards and four touchdowns in three quarters of play.
It wasn't as if the Red Devils couldn't tackle the Bulldog senior since they did on numerous occasions. Its just that when they didn't he was gone.
All of Aichele's heroics happened in the first half as the Bulldogs grabbed a 26-0 lead.
In the second half Calhoun held him in check.
Some of the other "few" things the Red Devils did wrong came on the offensive side of the ball where they misfired more than once inside the red zone before finally getting on the scoreboard with 1:43 to play when Logan Moore connected with Shay Parrish on an 18-yard touchdown. Those two combined for the extra points that set the final score.
Calhoun's frustrations in the red zone included a misfire on a fourth down pass, two fumbles inside the 10-yard-line and coming up inches short on fourth down inside the five.
Another frustrating fourth-and-short failure happened near midfield when the Red Devils failed to make it when nobody on offense seemed to move when the ball was snapped.
Despite all the misfires and miscues there were still several positives.
The biggest positive of all probably was the running of Cory Metz. Metz carried the ball 19 times for 211 yards with most of it coming on his own as he routinely dragged would-be Bulldog tacklers with him.
The Red Devils offense while sporadic in the first half moved the ball well in the second half and came up with 12 first downs. It was just a few of the little things that kept them off the scoreboard.
Calhoun, 1-2, will try to regroup Friday night when it plays host to Parkersburg Catholic. | 
