MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After Friday night’s Mohawk Bowl, it was unusual to hear both head coaches tell their teams when and wear they need to turn their equipment in.
The seasons are over for Morgantown and University following the Mohigans’ 52-6 win over the Hawks, each finishing the year with 3-7 marks. But back in August, one team had slightly bigger expectations, while the other knew it was going to be a long season.
MHS went 5-6 in 2018, sneaking into the postseason as the Class AAA No. 14 seed, but lost handily on the road at Capital. Still, the Mohigans were returning a lot of talent at the skill positions in receiver Preston Fox, quarterback Cam Rice and running back Jace Whetsell.
Where they weren’t experienced was in the trenches, needing to replace key pieces on the offensive and defensive lines, but there appeared to be enough talent to at least get back to the playoffs and maybe get back over .500.
However, a brutal schedule from the beginning, as well as a horde of injuries, derailed MHS early on. Of the seven West Virginia AAA teams it played this season, five are in the playoffs as of the Week 9 WVSSAC ratings and four are in the top 10.
The Mohigans also played Fort Hill out of Maryland, which sits at 8-1, and Class AA No. 2 Bridgeport.
At the Mohawk Bowl, MHS didn’t dress 18 players due to injury.
But every loss, with the exception of the Musselman and Fort Hill games, were winnable in the fourth quarter — the ball just didn’t bounce in MHS’s favor. The Mohigans were able to win their last two games of the season against John Marshall and UHS, so coach Matt Lacy thinks he can use this year, despite winning just three games, as a springboard into 2020.
“It was important to get those two wins so we can piggyback that into next season,” he said. “It showed these young guys that they can do it, and we played a lot of young guys down the stretch. Now they understand what it’s going to take to win football games.”
Lacy said everyone returning will get a few weeks off, but will be back at it Nov. 18 for their offseason weight-lifting program.
For those who won’t be back include this senior class, which saw high highs and low lows. As freshmen, this class reached the state semifinals in a 10-win season. The next two years, it made the playoffs but was met with first-round losses.
Now, there won’t be a postseason, but Lacy is sad to see this group go since this is the first class he saw the whole way through after being hired in 2016.
“This is a great group of kids,” he said. “They were a ton of fun, and they’ve won a lot of football games. I wish we could have gotten to the playoffs one more time, but it didn’t work out. We’ll move on from it and hopefully they’ve passed on some things to these guys that will be great in the future.”
UHS had different expectations coming into the season — with the loss of most of its offensive production from 2018, coach John Kelley knew his team was loaded with youth and inexperience. Finishing with three wins, though, is certainly something positive to take away.
“People always say, ‘Oh, you’re so negative and you’re pessimistic’ — with the youth we had, I didn’t expect to win a game,” Kelley said. “In Week 1, we pull a surprise against a John Marshall team that’s going to be in the playoffs. But then we lose tough ones to Albert Gallatin and Preston, or else we may be in the playoffs. Both of those came down to missed 2-point conversions.
“I told the kids, let’s use that as motivation to improve, get stronger and come back next year, and it might happen.”
The Hawks tried to find their offensive identity most of the year, switching quarterbacks from Joseph McBee to Chase Edwards. Even Jaeden Hammack finished out the Mohawk Bowl behind center.
With all the youth, though, means they got meaningful snaps and game experience. But Kelley will miss the few seniors he did have.
“I had a great group of seniors that were in the program for four years in Logan Raber, Jacob Spearen and Josh Sanders,” he said. “I hate to see them go because they represent a lot in what a coach wants. I had a bunch of kids who weren’t ready to play AAA football play AAA football. Now they have another year under their belts and that’s really going to help next year.”
Similar to MHS, the Hawks lost to three AAA teams that will make the playoffs, including two in the top 10. They also lost to AA No. 1 Fairmont Senior.
In their other losses to Albert Gallatin (Pa.), Mountain Ridge (Md.) and Preston, the Hawks were in it late.
“We’re close, and we’ll be even closer next year,” Kelley said. “I can definitely take more positives than negatives out of this season.”
