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Mid-Ohio Valley: St. Marys looks for different ending, two years later

By: Eric Little – Seven Ranges Radio

St. Marys remains in the Class A playoffs to carry the banner for the Mid-Ohio Valley all the way to Wheeling Island. The Blue Devils make their second trip to the state championship game in the last three years to face the top-ranked East Hardy Cougars. The game pits the Class A runner-up in each of the last two seasons following the triple-overtime loss St. Marys suffered against Williamstown in 2014 and the rout East Hardy suffered last year at the hands of Magnolia.

First, a funny personal story about that 2014 St. Marys team, related to this year’s starting quarterback Will Billeter. The seniors on that team thought it would be a hilarious idea to create a parody Twitter account for Billeter, then the JV starting quarterback.

I was driving down the road one day when a phone notification told me “NotWillBilleter” was now following me on Twitter. I worked several games as a sideline reporter that season for the station in our company that covered the St. Marys games and quickly figured out who was responsible for “NotWillBilleter”. It seemed like harmless fun, so when the tweeter asked when I was going to conduct a postgame interview with Will, I was willing to engage and go along with the joke.

Fast forward to the next St. Marys home game, when I enter the stadium at a gate staffed by Will’s mother, who was also my 11th grade English teacher. (As is typical with rural West Virginia…small world, right?) She told me her family had read the tweets at the dinner table and mentioned that my name had come up a couple times. Which led to this exchange:

Will’s Mom: “You know that’s not really my son, right?”

Me: “Yeah, the ‘Not’ in front of ‘Will Billeter’ kinda gave that away.”

Will’s Mom is a nice person and pretty funny too, so the line was delivered with the perfect amount of dry sarcasm. That’s still probably the most unlikely and hilarious interaction I’ve had with a former educator of mine. And hard to believe that just over 24 months later, Will’s going to quarterback a state championship game for St. Marys.

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Class A State Championship Game – No. 1 East Hardy (13-0) vs. No. 2 St Marys (13-0) at Wheeling Island Stadium – Saturday 7 p.m.

You can’t get any closer to a state championship than St. Marys got two years ago in a one-point triple-overtime loss to Williamstown. Turns out, you CAN get somewhat closer than East Hardy got last year in a blowout loss to Magnolia. Despite the slightly different perspectives on their last trips to Wheeling, both head coaches, and their teams, bring a sense of unfinished business into Saturday’s matchup.

“Two years ago, we lost in triple overtime. Last year, they were defeated,” said St. Marys head coach Jodi Mote. “It’s going to be a great ballgame for our fans to watch, but unfortunately, one of us isn’t going to get it done. It’s what the football fan wants in a state championship.”

Last year, East Hardy defeated St. Marys in the semifinals to advance to the state championship. After the state championship appearance, East Hardy head coach Chad Williams could likely commiserate with the team his team vanquished to get there.

“I know how determined they were when they came to our place last year and we were fortunate in that game and caught a lot of breaks. I know how we feel in needing our redemption and I’m sure St. Marys feels the same way,” Williams said. “I really do think you’ve got the two best teams in single-A on the Island, and really, at least for this decade, probably two of the best programs in the state meeting up.”

The Blue Devils punched their ticket to Wheeling through a 47-0 win over Fayetteville Friday night. Billeter connected with Dylan Gray on a pair of touchdown passes and fired a third scoring strike to Braden Barnhart. Barnhart ran for a score as well. Jaiden Smith paced St. Marys on the ground with three rushing touchdowns and on defense, Smith came away with one of the three interceptions the Blue Devil ballhawks snagged. Mote was pleased with the overall effort.

“I felt like we did a nice job with their quarterback and we handled the run on defense,” Mote said of his team’s performance last week against the Pirates. “We were able to execute on offense, despite a couple fumbles, and I thought we were sound on special teams. So I was really pleased with our effort in all three phases.”

East Hardy advanced to their second straight state final after pulling away late in a 48-20 win over Pendleton County on Saturday – the second time this season the Cougars defeated Pendleton County. Like St. Marys, East Hardy hasn’t played in too many close games this season. Williams says the competition has been a benefit of the playoff run.

“I think the last two weeks have been good for us, because against Williamstown and Pendleton County we had to play the full four quarters. It was kinda strange, against Williamstown especially, going into the fourth quarter with the game still undecided because that was the first time that had happened all year,” Williams said. “We’re probably in the same boat as St. Marys. Nearly all of our games have hit that running clock in the fourth quarter. And I know St. Marys has been the same way.”

For East Hardy, St. Marys has been a reoccurring theme throughout the postseason. Sure, the top seed is always mindful of the No. 2 seed. But two of the Cougars’ three playoff opponents – Tyler Consolidated and Williamstown – have played St. Marys this season, meaning Williams had looked at St. Marys on game footage prior to this week. Now, the focus will be squarely on the Blue Devils.

“When we were watching Tyler Consolidated play St Marys and Williamstown play St. Marys, you know you’re not supposed to, but it was hard not to just pay a little attention to St. Marys because they’ve been the team everyone’s been talking about all year” Williams said. “I’m excited to get to focus in on them.”

The focus for St. Marys this week will be on the turnovers they committed against Fayetteville last weekend. Though the Blue Devils came away with three interceptions, St. Marys lost two fumbles. Despite the perfect record, the miscues from last week have Mote’s full attention.

“The two fumbles, looking back on it, probably stopped the momentum of drives we would’ve had,” Mote said. “That’s my focus as a coach for this championship. We’ve got to limit the turnovers and limit the penalties.”

So how are both teams different from the last time they played in Wheeling? St. Marys knows self-evaluation helped put things in perspective last time around.

“I think you learn from your mistakes. So I think you always learn from defeat and anybody who doesn’t is in the wrong business,” Mote said of St. Marys’ last Super Six appearance. “It’s just a tremendous blessing to be in the championship game.

“To have the opportunity again is remarkable really. 104 years (of school history) and you only make it one time and lose in triple overtime and now you get the opportunity to learn from those mistakes and maybe do a little bit better. That’s our goal, and that’s my goal. We’ll go out there and give it the best we’ve got.”

For Williams, the biggest change this time around will be making sure things stay “business as usual.”

“I told them I don’t want any charter buses or any hotel rooms or any of that stuff. I want to treat it like a normal football game in the middle of September, where you let us get on a bus without any fanfare and go play an away game, that’s what I want to do,” Williams said of his plans leading up to Saturday’s title tilt. “Hopefully that’ll take some of the pressure and edge off for our team.

“I hope this year they’re just a little more calm. Last year I think everyone came out as nervous wrecks,” Williams continued about last year’s title game experience. “This year I think they’re more prepared to treat it like just another football game and not whatever event they had it built up in their heads to be last year.”

Mote appreciates the matchup for the great game it’ll offer to any in attendance. And likely, the last person out of St. Marys and Baker will likely be asked to turn out the lights in their respective communities.

“I have a tremendous respect for Chad (Williams) and his staff. It’s remarkable what they’ve done over there,” Mote said of his opponent. “Just being able to get to this game – so much has to go right. You have to be healthy, you have to be lucky and you have to be an excellent team. I think it’s going to be an unbelievable matchup with two 13-0 teams going at it and for us to go after our first state championship.”

This game can be heard locally through proud MetroNews affiliate Lite Rock 93R (93.9 FM) and online at www.literock93r.com. A video stream will also be available online at the MetroNews Channel of WVMetronews.com. A tape-delayed broadcast will air Monday December 5th at 3 p.m. on ROOT Sports.





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