Williamstown quarterback Breck Allen (7) follows blockers during a game against James Monroe earlier this season. (Photo by Nikki Allen)

WILLIAMSTOWN — In Week 3 of the high school football season, Williamstown welcomes Wheeling Central to an upgraded facility on its high school campus with newly-installed turf, bleachers only a year old and an additional concession stand.

Yet, it’s the original grass surface that Yellowjacket coach Chris Beck will miss, especially with a Maroon Knight outfit that can take advantage of a fast surface and their dual-threat quarterback.

“Wheeling Central may not play as well on grass, but we got the work started around the school – we have a new scoreboard up and it’s operational,” Beck said. “We have the turf, along with the new bleachers from a year ago. We are good to go. It’s really a nice facility for a small school.

“Wheeling Central is a great opponent, and it’s going to be like that all year. There are no home games where the opponent rolling in is not going to be good.”

Williamstown is coming off an open week after losing to James Monroe in Week 1 of the regular season. The Yellowjackets fell behind 19-0 before scoring four consecutive touchdowns and taking a 25-19 lead midway in the fourth quarter.

JM quarterback James Monroe hooked up with Bryce Gardinier for a 45-yard TD reception with 2 ½ minutes left in regulation. Williamstown made its debut with three-quarters of its roster either sophomores or freshmen.

“Our guys didn’t give up when it was 19-0 – we could have mailed it in right there with a young group,” Beck said. “You don’t know exactly how they are going to respond, but they actually responded pretty well. We pretty much controlled the game for about 2 ½ quarters.

“Sometimes it’s never as bad as it seems and I know when we lose we have a tendency to think that everything around us has fallen. But the sun comes out – I thought we had a good week of practice and getting back to work.”

Similar to JM, Williamstown must lock in on a quarterback who is a threat to run as much as he is to throw with junior Nico Kusic. Last year in the regular season meeting between the two schools, Kusic subbed in for an injured Seth Cover and threw for 144 yards on 17-of-30 passing with two interceptions.

Kusic finished the season passing for 1,200 yards and 20 TDs and rushing for 520 yards.

“A lot of James Monroe’s offense was off the quarterback scramble,” Beck said. “So we have to do a better job this week trying to keep their quarterback in the pocket. Against James Monroe, we had several opportunities for big plays defensively and James Monroe turned them into big gains because we didn’t get a good angle.:

Wheeling Central at 1-1 is coming off a 40-0 loss at Fort Frye last week. The Fort Frye wing-T combined for 424 yards on the ground and limited the Maroon Knights 165 yards of total offense.

“Fort Frye runs the wing-T as good as anybody in the valley,” WC coach Mike Young said. “They definitely showed us a lesson or and we got to recover.

“We got to start catching the ball – we were missing some catches. We have to start throwing the ball better. We also have to start blocking. The game comes down to blocking and tackling, and reading your keys. We got games left. We got to recover.”

Under coach Beck, Williamstown has won the last three meetings with Wheeling Central, including once in the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs last season.

Against JM, Jackson Kerr led the Williamstown ground game with 132 yards on 17 carries and two TDs. Quarterback Breck Allen completed 18-of-23 passes for 192 yards and one TD

“We lost to Waterford our first game several years ago and I walked away from that game with the same feeling as the James Monroe game – I was wondering how many games we would win,: Beck said. “So we will see how the guys respond. Most teams do most of their improvement with their second game, so hopefully our guys do it again. They have experience playing well.

“This will be a good game Friday – hopefully this adds to the rivalry a little bit. This series has a lot of history already and hopefully there will be another good chapter added on Friday.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com