By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
There's an old sports saying that goes like this: "Wait 'til next year ..."
That supposedly means that next year will be better and that this year (usually bad) was a building year, unlucky year, lot of injuries year, tough schedule year, etc. etc.
In the case of Calhoun County football the Red Devils were small in number (21 players), young (four seniors) and played a tough schedule (four ranked teams) so people could easily say "wait 'til next year" and mean it.
Friday night Calhoun traveled to Clay and fell 38-14 to end its season with a 2-8 mark.
However, included in that "8" were losses to No. 1 St. Marys, No. 3 Tug Valley, No. 5 Doddridge and No. 14 Tyler Consolidated.
The Red Devils only lost two games they, on paper, should have won - Wirt and Sherman. Calhoun was only blown out twice - Sherman and St. Marys - and had a reasonable shot at beating three or four of the games it lost.
The thing that cost Calhoun the most during the 2014 season was lack of depth and it took losing two big two-way starting linemen - Coy Bailey and Dustin Holcomb - early in the season to show that.
Friday night Calhoun took an early lead by using its passing game to drive down a muddy Bradley Field for an early touchdown. Casey Ritchie scored on a short run but the Red Devils missed on the extra point try making it 6-0.
Clay rallied and scored three touchdowns, all following Calhoun turnovers, to finish the first half with a 24-6 lead.
The Red Devils last touchdown of the year came on a pass from Casey Ritchie to Ethyn Miller in the fourth quarter. In the game Miller broke the single season record for receptions breaking the old mark of 44 set by Josh Deweese in 2007. Both Miller and Casey Ritchie are juniors.
The Red Devils lose only Lucas Wilson, Cameron Jones, Nate Hipp and Chris Goad from this season's team while returning 17.
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