Football Preview 2017

Morgantown Will Face Intimidating Schedule

By CARLY CONTRAGUERRO MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High football team faced replacing key production after the graduation of top receivers and tacklers following its road to the state semifinals last season. Head coach Matt Lacy made adjustments to where overall team speed is better at each position this year. At quarterback will be 6-foot-3 junior Aaron Alvarez who took some varsity reps last season and has studied and knows the offense. The offense will be geared a bit differently than last season, when the Mohigans relied on big plays. This year it will be more of ...

University Poised for a Deep Postseason Push

By CODY TOMER MORGANTOWN—In 2015, veteran head coach John Kelley and the University Hawks suffered their first losing season since 1995, but they rebounded in amazing fashion in 2016. University sent a message to its opponents that it was back in full force by turning in an 8-2 record and reaching the playoffs. Kelley is in his 31st year with the Hawks and knew exactly what needed to be done to get his team back to its winning ways. “We did a lot of things differently,” Kelley said. “We still had a young team last year but we just had a re-adjustment of work ethic and we ...

Shepherd Once Again Chosen to Win MEC

By DON CLEGG BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — The Mountain East Conference hit the gridiron running five short years ago and hasn’t stopped since. Shepherd’s run to the NCAA Division II football “Final Four” a year ago marked the third straight season that an MEC team has won a Region One championship and moved on to the national stage. The 2016 season also marked the second consecutive year that the MEC has produced multiple playoff teams with the Rams being joined by Fairmont State in the postseason field. Shepherd knocked off three straight nationally ranked teams before ...

Hard-Luck Hilltoppers are Looking to Rebound

By DON CLEGG WEST LIBERTY — Veteran head coach Roger Waialae kicked off his 13th preseason camp at the West Liberty helm earlier this month with a bad taste still lingering in his mouth after one of the most frustrating campaigns of his career. Waialae’s 2016 Hilltoppers outscored their opponents by a 288-281 margin but came away with a deceptive 4-7 record. Five of the losses came by margins of a touchdown or less, including three by one point and one in double-overtime. As incredible as it seems, all that stood between an undefeated 11-0 championship season and WLU’s 4-7 ...

Oklahoma Selected To Wear Big 12’s Crown

By JIM BUTTA MORGANTOWN — Media members covering the Big 12 decided that Oklahoma will once again be the team to beat in the 10-team league when the season gets under way later this month. They also elected West Virginia to finish among the lower half of the conference despite a second-place finish a year ago. That’s a prediction that redshirt senior offensive lineman Kyle Bosch thinks may be the result of outsiders sleeping on the Mountaineers. “People thought we’re going to be average to sub-par and we won 10 games last year,” Bosch said. “It’s one of those things ...

Hopes Have Risen Considerably at Warren High

By RON JOHNSTON VINCENT — Warren High won two football games last season. That was two more than it claimed the year before and one more than in 2014. The Warriors are hoping to be on “W” side even more so this upcoming fall. “We have really high hopes for the team,” senior quarterback Ronnie Hill said. Senior running back Cole Riffle agreed: “There’s a strong freshman class coming in, and that’s always nice to see even if they don’t get to play the whole game. I mean, even if they come in for a few reps, that’ll help us. It’ll help the program in the ...