Can Glenville St. add to win streak at W.Va. St.?
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GLENVILLE -- Glenville State University finally solved its road woes at West Liberty last week, but now the Pioneers of head coach Mike Kellar face a similar fate come 1 p.m. Saturday inside Dickerson Stadium against fellow Mountain East Conference member West Virginia State.
The Yellow Jackets (4-4, 3-2) of head man John Pennington finished the month of October with a 1-3 mark.
After opening with a 47-41 loss at West Liberty, WVSU won 28-21 at Concord before returning home two weeks ago and getting upended by Wheeling, 24-20. The Jackets are coming off a 55-6 loss at No. 3 University of West Florida, which had a 478-132 advantage in total yards.
The G-men (5-3, 4-1), who are riding a MEC-best four-game winning streak, trailed 6-0 in the first, but Brandon Penn blocked the extra point and Andre Jefferson darted 90 yards to make it 6-2.
Penn's blocked punt, which was recovered by Alex Moses, set up a Brody Layman field goal for a 12-6 cushion in the second.
GSU led 15-6 at intermission, but couldn't hold a 25-13 advantage early in the fourth and needed a 7-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Garrett to Koraun Perdue with a minute left to escape.
"We haven't won there since forever, too, 2013. Going down there it's a big challenge for us," admitted coach Kellar on his weekly show. "I think they are very good. I've watched a ton of them. West Florida is really good. I know that, but you really can't judge West Virginia State on that game. I watched the Wheeling, Fairmont games, I've watched all their conference games and I think they are one of the better teams I've seen in this league.
"It's a good defense. Offensively, they've got a good quarterback that's a playmaker. Some really good skill at wide receiver. I think they block things up well and they got a good run game. They are more like us in the fact that more than one guy can touch it. Their quarterback is a runner. They got two tailbacks and they got the deep threats at wide receiver. The reason they are hard to stop is the balance within their offense."
Kaleb Jackson has completed better than 56% of his aerials for 1,714 yards with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions. Jojo Restall (62-433-3) and Nasean Hill (68-343-5) lead the backfield while Amare Ary (43-808-6) paces the MEC in receiving yards.
"We knew it was going to be tough sledding," Kellar said of last week. "I felt decent when we were up 12 and then they went right down the field.
"We converted three fourth down plays (on the game-winning drive). We had a fourth-and-6, a fourth-and-2 and a fourth-and-10, and converted all three of them."
Jeremiah King, who had career highs of 27 rushes for 160 yards and also scored a touchdown, was honored as the co-MEC Offensive Player of the Week. King is averaging 4.6 yards a carry and has amassed 802 ground yards.
Garrett comes into the fray completing better than 55% of his 248 attempts and has thrown for 2,026 yards with 16 touchdowns and nine picks.
Naseem Pacheco (32-430-2), Tariq Miller (19-288-3), Tariq Meredith (20-282-0), Arnav Thornhill (10-250-1) and Kordell Lewis (14-214-3) have been Garrett's top targets to date.
Pioneer Mike linebacker Braden Boggs is coming off his best career effort after posting 10 tackles, 3.5 for loss and a sack versus the Hilltoppers.
"Our defense created turnovers and gave us short fields all day," Kellar said. "I thought our defense played really, really well. I've been happy with our defense all year. Boggs, he's really a safety who has grown into a linebacker, which really helps your team speed. I thought it was his best game as a college football player.
"He's only a sophomore now. I think anytime you go from safety to playing in the box, you know, you didn't grow up playing in the box. You grew up playing safety and then as you get bigger, now that's a different role for you. You could see, that's our seventh game, he's coming into his own there."
The GSU defense has received two sacks apiece from Kalon Curry and Jamar Grimball while Sean Scott, Shary Jefferson, Boggs and Tank Gant lead the way with 5.5 TFL each. Penn's 75 total tackles and 50 solo are also tops for the G-men.
"We got to travel well. We got to go down there and have the right mentality to attack the game, not thinking it's going to be a knockout punch because we've won a couple games in a row," stressed Kellar.
"I mean it's the same thing at West Liberty. Boys, it's going to be a four quarter game. West Virginia State is a very good football team. We got to have the mentality that we're there to play until the end."
The G-men will have senior day at 1 p.m. next Saturday when Wheeling invades the Erickson All-Sports Facility. GSU ends the season in Buckhannon at Cebe Ross Field versus W.Va. Wesleyan.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com