Glenville St. looks to snap 3-game skid
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GLENVILLE -- Glenville State first-year head coach Jake Casteel’s squad will try to snap a three-game losing streak on Hall of Fame weekend and avoid the Pioneers’ first 0-3 Mountain East Conference start in six years when Frostburg State invades for a 1 p.m. Saturday showdown at Morris Stadium.
The Bobcats (2-3, 1-2) of fifth-year head coach Eric Wagoner are seeking their first road win in four tries as the G-men (1-4, 0-2) aim for a 2-0 home start after surviving for a 19-13 double-overtime win last year in Frostburg.
FSU led 31-27 in the fourth quarter last week at Concord, but the Mountain Lions tallied the final two touchdowns as Bobcat signal-caller Jordan Brooks hit 22 of 34 attempts for 298 yards and two scores while throwing three interceptions.
“He’s a tall, lanky guy so he’s got good vision,” Casteel said of Brooks, whose 67.1% completion percentage (98 of 146) ranks 15th in D2. “He’s got a really good arm. He’s made some really, really nice throws on film.
“He might not have played his best game against Concord, but he’s a darn good quarterback and he’s probably more athletic than you give him credit for. He can scramble around. He keeps his eyes downfield. He does a good job of finding guys during the scramble drill, but he’s done a really good job for them so far this year.”
GSU fell behind 16-0 last Saturday at Fairmont State, rallied for a 24-23 lead with 29 seconds left in the third on quarterback JD Sherrod’s third TD run, but came up short 31-24.
“That sucked. That was a tough one for everybody involved,” admitted Casteel, whose squad ranks 25th nationally in fewest sacks allowed, 39th in fewest average penalty yards a game and 45th overall in team tackles for loss.
“It’s a heated rivalry. We really wanted to win that game. We just didn’t play good enough to win. We didn’t coach good enough to win and that all starts with me. That was a tough one so we got to bounce back from it.”
Frostburg State’s defense is led by Rainer Halveland, whose 3.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss rank tied for 33rd and tied for 12th, respectively
Gavin Kendrick is tied for 11th in the country with two forced fumbles while punter Sam Dominguez has averaged 41,8 yards per boot (31st). Tyler Cook has converted all but one of his six field goal attempts, which ranks him 13th. Conversely, Pioneer Brody Layman’s 80% mark is tied for 19th with one miss in five attempts.
“They had a really, really good year last year. They got good coaches and they are very talented across the board,” Casteel said of FSU. “On offense they are a run first mentality team. They have been. They’ve thrown the ball a little bit more this year than they have in years past and part of that is due to how talented their receiver room is.
“They’ve got some really athletic kids that can go deep, but they can also throw in some intermediate throws there and those guys make people miss and get a lot of yards after the catch. That will be a big key for us, but they also have run the ball successfully for multiple years so we got to be able to stop that.”
Tailback KJ Smothers has found the end zone six times (T27th). Ray Adames’ four receiving scores is tied for 31st while Tra’Shaun Timmons’ 388 receiving yards (47th) comes on 29 receptions and three touchdowns.
“You got to know where he is,” Casteel stressed of Timmons. “You got to have a plan for him because he can make you miss.
“Every time he touches it he has a chance to make a big play. He’s their returner. He’s a really skilled player, so it’ll be a good challenge for our DBs.”
The Bobcats are currently tied for 35th in passing yards per game (244), rank 26th in passing yards allowed (169) and boast the No. 47 third-down defense (34.8%).
Coach Wagoner’s program has amassed 13 sacks in five games (T26th) and currently rank 25th in time of possession and 32nd in total defense (304.4).
“They run hard. They make you tackle them,” Casteel added. “This league is full of good running backs and these two (Owen Doyle) are right in that mix. They are still going to try and run the ball. That’s who they are. That’s what their identity is and those kids fit that. They want to control the time of possession so we got to get off the field on defense. We have got to win. We are not very good on third down the last couple of weeks. We’ve got to improve that and game plan that better so we can get off the field, give our offense so we can control the football a little bit more, and then we have got to win on third down.
“We have not won a ton of third downs offensively this year. That changes the game for us. I feel like in a few of our games, you know, could’ve, should’ve, would’ve, but we have shot ourselves in the foot way too much this year and we can not beat ourselves. We got to make people earn it. We are a way better football team than what I think our record shows and what I keep telling them is the scoreboard is the scoreboard. We got to fix our day to day, fix our game planning, fix everything that goes into Saturday first and I think our kids are bought into that.”
Sherrod, who led the Pioneers with 87 rushing yards on 20 carries while completing 17 of 30 aerials for 241 yards with Joziah Gonzalez (5-102) and Caden Harris (8-66) being his top targets versus Fairmont State, returned following a one game absence.
“JD’s a competitor. He runs hard. He’s basically like a fullback the way he runs the ball,” Casteel said. “He can hurt you with his legs, his ability to run and he’s also got a really good arm and can make all the throws.
“He’ll continue to get better. That’s his first game back and getting back in the swing of things, but he’s a really good player. We’re a different offense when he’s out there.”
Glenville State freshman safety Knowel Smith’s 27 solo tackles are tied for 21st in the land.
“We didn’t start hot and I thought we battled back, and we’ve battled all year,” Casteel said of last week. “The kids have played hard all year, There’s no quit in them.
“We got to start faster. Our players, you can’t fault them at all. They play their tails off and they continue to believe. Eventually that’s going to show up on the scoreboard for us.”
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com