Article Photos

Advertisement

GLENVILLE - A national football audience will be looking on come 8 p.m. today when visiting Shepherd takes on Glenville State inside Morris Stadium during the season finale for the two West Virginia Conference members.

The Pioneers of head coach Alan Fiddler are trying to stretch their winning streak to five games and finish 2009 with a 7-4 overall mark and 6-2 WVIAC record. Shepherd (6-3, 5-2) head man Monte Cater's program is also trying to finish with a seven win campaign as the victor of this contest will finish no worse than a tie for second in the WVIAC.

While West Liberty already owns this year's WVIAC title, this season will mark just the fourth time in nearly two decades that neither the G-men nor the Rams have at least shared the conference crown.

Glenville State will try to end its season on a high note after possibly putting rival Charleston out of the Division II playoff picture with last week's 14-12 win that was sealed when Pioneer Kaleb Lawrence blocked a potential game-winning field goal by the Golden Eagles at the end of regulation.

For his efforts, Lawrence was named the WVIAC special teams player of the week. The senior, who leads the WVIAC in tackles, also finished with 18 total stops and is just three shy of the century mark. GSC defensive lineman Scott Sears, the conference's co-defensive player of the week, will help lead a prevent unit which needs to contain Ram tailback Tommy Addison (141-797, 10 TDs) and signal-caller Kevin Clancy, who has passed for 14 touchdowns and a little more than 1,500 yards.

Another big key for the G-men will be on special teams since Ram Deante Steele is just one kickoff return for a touchdown short of owning the D-II mark all by himself at 11.

As usual, coach Fiddler will look to the usual suspects to get the offense going. Tailback Brian Harden has rushed for 804 yards. James McCants has passed for a dozen touchdowns and 1,530 yards while wideout James McDonald has hauled in 41 passes for 534 yards.

GSC is trying to earn its third straight win against coach Cater's squad. The last time the losing team scored 21 or more points in this affair came back in 2002.

Tonight's contest is slated to be televised live on CBS College Sports and will be shown on tape delay at 11 p.m. Friday on Fox Sports Pittsburgh.

Fans wanting to attend the game can do so for $5 and thanks to the NCAA program "Take a Kid to the Game" any purchase of an adult ticket will allow the holder to get any youth age 14 and younger in for free.