Battle for the Bit: Glenville eyes 4th straight win
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GLENVILLE – Fairmont State third-year head football coach Luke Barker’s program is hoping for a happy homecoming when Glenville State invades at 2 p.m. Saturday looking for its first Mountain East Conference triumph.
GSU first-year head man Jake Casteel will try and guide the Pioneers to a fourth straight victory in the Battle for the Bit showdown and at the same time snap a two-game losing streak.
The Pioneers (1-3, 0-1) are coming off a 27-7 setback at Charleston while the Fighting Falcons used a DJ Dailey 100-yard kickoff return to open the scoring en route to a 41-18 win versus West Virginia State last week.
Fairmont State (1-4, 1-1) boasts the top tackler in the MEC in senior linebacker Jeffery Polk, who has made 48 stops. Gavin Smith has a team-high two interceptions while Pioneer transfer Jamar Grimball has a team-high 2.5 sacks with Montel Sims (4.5) and Demarcus Daniels (4.0) leading the way in tackles for loss.
“This game means a lot to a lot of people,” said Casteel on his weekly GoMart coaches show. “We have a lot of kids from that area. Bridgeport, Clarksburg, Fairmont area in general so it means a lot to them.
“We’re excited. I’m excited to be a part of it. We’re making it a big deal. We got the trophy out at practice.”
Dual-threat signal-caller Nino Marzullo led the offense against the Yellow Jackets with 57 yards rushing on 12 carries while hitting 19 of 27 aerials for 229 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Elijah Tidwell (12-70-1) and James Borbor (14-59-1) paced the ground attack. Marzullo spread the ball around, but Ralo Wesley (3-80) and Gage Michael (5-56) were his top targets while Jules Alvarado had two scoring grabs on his four receptions.
“Very multiple offensively with the ability to run the football,” Casteel said of FSU. “Almost triple-option-ish a little bit with their RPO game.
“They got some talented receivers to compliment their run game. It’s going to be a tough challenge for our guys to tackle and we got to tackle way better than we did against Charleston.”
The G-men will be looking to get the running game going, which has been led by Zavione Wood’s 48 carries for 187 stripes, but overall they are averaging 2.7 yards per attempt.
JD Sherrod missed last week’s game for the Pioneers, but Maddox Bowers filled in by completing 12 of 27 attempts for 148 yards in his first career start.
“Disappointed with how we really came out. I thought we were a little flat coming out and getting off the bus,” Casteel said. “I thought once we settled in we did some really good things defensively. We struggled on offense and Charleston is a good football team. I don’t think we’re that far off. We just got to coach better and put the guys in better positions to let them make plays.
“We held them to 3.4 a carry on 62 attempts, which I’ll take that. That’s with a real long run that we just misfit. I thought we did a pretty good job against the run game. We gave up two big pass plays and it was really bad eyes, but we got to clean that stuff up as a staff and as players and they know that. I thought we did a good job with the ground stuff and if we can hold everybody to 3.4 a carry we’re doing a pretty good job.”
In last year’s 97th all-time meeting, the Pioneers jumped out to a 26-7 halftime lead at Robert C. Byrd and held on for a 36-24 victory, but GSU still trails in the series 42-51-4.
Glenville State’s Jacob Clark is eighth in the MEC in tackles with 31. He also leads the Pioneers with 4.5 TFL and 2.5 sacks. Knowel Smith’s 30 total stops, which includes a team-high 20 solo tackles, ranks him 11th in the MEC.
“We got to finish plays, whether that’s on offense making guys tackle us, breaking a tackle, getting our short yardage game going. We’ve struggled there,” stressed Casteel, who now has freshman Kody Davis-Warrington from Sydney, Australia listed atop the punting depth chart. “Defensively our guys are getting to the spot. I think they play hard, but we have got to finish and get guys on the ground.
“That hurt us last week. Extended drives just by missing tackles and that’s coaching and we got to coach that out of them this week. We got too many pre-snap penalties on offense and clean some of that discipline stuff up, but we’re trending in the right direction. It hasn’t shown up on the scoreboard, but our kids believe and if we keep that belief we’ll have a chance in every game we play.”
Grimball, defensive end Kalon Curry and wide receiver Fred Highsmith were all listed as questionable for Fairmont State, which is having a maroon out at Duvall-Rosier Field.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com