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10-0 Blue Devils eye championship

BY C.J. RICKER

ST. MARYS, W.Va. —  For only the fourth time in school history, St. Marys finished the regular season undefeated, which earned them the No. 2 seed in the Class A playoffs. In fact, the last time it happened, head coach Jodi Mote was just a kid, and remembers how the town rallied around the Blue Devils.

“It’s just so special for the kids,” head coach Jodi Mote said. “I was nine years old when that ’84 team went through, I remember the kids, coaching staff, and community. Those are just things that you don’t forget.”

St. Marys (10-0) enters the playoffs on the backs of its defense, which has pitched three straight shutouts, and hasn’t given up a point since the fourth quarter of the Magnolia game in mid-October. The Blue Devils lead the entire state in defense, as they have only given up 76 points all season.

“It’s been something that has carried us all year long,” Mote said. “It’s something we’ve been striving on.”

That Magnolia game back on October 18th was one of the closest calls of the year for St. Marys, as they needed a field goal with under a minute to play to put away the Blue Eagles, 11-9.

“It was a defensive battle obviously, looking at the score.” Mote said. “Magnolia was very talented and our kids realized that it was going to be a battle, thankfully we were able to come out on top.”

St. Marys heads into the postseason after an undefeated 10-0 regular season campaign.

St. Marys finds itself in the opposite bracket of top ranked Madonna and defending state champion Wahama. Going back to 1996, just five schools have won Class A football championships in the state: Wheeling Central (8), Moorefield (6), Madonna (1), Willamstown (1) and Wahama (1).

All of those programs, except for No. 6 Moorefield, are in that opposite playoff bracket this year of St. Marys. No. 14 Magnolia, though, is in St. Marys’ bracket – the Blue Eagles won a Class AA title in 2010.

Mote, though, doesn’t see an advantage to either bracket.

“I believe the parody is there,” Mote said. “Madonna is the team to beat, they have been all year. But as a coach you have to look at the first game and for us that’s East Hardy. They made it to the playoffs for a reason and they’re going to be ready to play Friday night.”

The Blue Devils will take on a No. 15 East Hardy team that has backed into the playoffs. The Cougars (7-3) come into the contest losers of three out of the last four, and have been reeling down the stretch after a 6-0 start.

“He (East Hardy coach Chad Williams) spreads the field, he throws the ball probably more than we’ve seen this year,” Mote said. “So that will be a significant challenge on our defense, something we haven’t seen before.”

If St. Marys can get past East Hardy, the Blue Devils will play either Notre Dame or Greenbrier West in the quarterfinals.





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