Two coaches with two completely different mindsets, one outcome and no certain chance of either team making the playoffs: It’s what makes up the 2019 installment of the annual Mohawk Bowl.
To University coach John Kelley, it’s just another football game.
“Our success or failure isn’t measured by the Mohawk Bowl,” Kelley said. “It’s nice for the community and kids since they pretty well know each other, but I think too much is put into it where now with social media there’s garbage going on (there). We play 10 football games, so this is one-tenth of the season. I don’t get into the bragging rights. It’s always fun when (we) and Morgantown play each other.”
The Hawks (3-6) have had a topsy-turvy season, starting with a shakeup at quarterback that forced senior Logan Raber to carry the offense on his back. Finally, when the Hawks found a reprieve in freshman Chase Edwards in the Mountain Ridge (Md.) game in Week 7, things began to turn around. A week later, the Hawks exploded over Buckhannon-Upshur for a 53-6 win that saw Edwards go 9 of 14 for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the air (he had three total, one on the ground) and Raber rush 12 times for 120 yards and three scores. Then, heading into a road game highly favored over Preston, things unraveled and the Knights held off the Hawks to break a 26-year win drought while destroying any certain chance UHS had to meet the playoffs — all by just one point.
To prepare for their more experienced rival, University used explosive running back Tracy Brooks to emulate MHS playmaker Preston Fox.
“Preston is a big-timer,” Kelley said. “I bet Morgantown wants to start all over again because since the Wheeling Park game they’ve made tweaks (on offense) and are using Fox everywhere. They’re just phenomenal, putting up 50 points a game easily.”
Kelley also noted that the Mohigans have “a big-time quarterback” in Gunner Lattimore, a 6-foot, 195-pound junior who’s gone 55 of 87 for 982 yards and five touchdowns through his eight games. He’s also quick to scramble, picking up 272 yards and four scores on 61 carries. Defending him is 6-foot-5, 310-pound OT/DT Marcellus Marshall, who has over 10 Division I offers with three notable offers coming from Marshall, Villanova and Temple.
“They have far more experience and weapons than we do at this point. It’ll have to be a monumental effort (to win),” Kelley said.
On the other side of town, MHS coach Matt Lacy has a different mindset about the rivalry.
“It’s bragging rights,” Lacy said. “I was apart of it as a player and now as a coach for 21 seasons, so (we must show) our dominance, so to speak. So that’s what we want to continue to do.”
What the Mohigans’ (2-7) record shows at the surface level is not what the team is or how they perform. With a quarterback change of their own early in the season (Lattimore replaced Cam Rice after Rice was moved to linebacker), MHS finally got its first win in Week 4 with a 49-14 victory over Hedgesville.
But a loss at Linsly the following week and a blowout loss at Musselman forced the coaching staff to rethink their offensive strategy. The two top-10 games that followed Musselman — Wheeling Park and Parkersburg South — were taken down to the final drives and showed a revitalized Morgantown team. The pieces came together in Week 9 in Glen Dale, as MHS defeated then-No. 14 John Marshall 54-41 — a game that saw the MHS offense rack up 690 total yards.
But even with that big win, Lacy has been focusing on the Hawks’ bread and butter option scheme.
“We’ve (been) doing a lot of option drills without the football, that way guys aren’t staring and trying to find the football,” Lacy said.
“You flip on the film and hope with (Chase) being a freshman that you see something, but he does run the ball fairly well and throws the ball well for being (young). It’s not like he’s started all year, either, so you’re hoping when you get into the game it’s a little bit too big for him, but he’s played a lot of good competition up to this point.”
As for his playmakers, Lacy thinks they’ll remain calm at Mylan Pharmaceuticals Stadium. They have to, because Lacy and his coaching staff don’t have the personnel to change much at this point.
“If we had some playoffs to look forward to we’d look at different wrinkles to work on in the bye week, but being that this our last game of the season we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing and hopefully be crisp (at it).”
Mohawk (streaks) chopped
In recent history, neither team has won three-straight Mohawk Bowls.
The Mohigans will look to repeat last year when they defeated University 55-10.
The year prior University snapped a two-year MHS streak in 2015 and 2016. And before those two wins, UHS went on a two-game streak in 2013 and 2014.
Kick is set for 7:30 p.m.
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