Published: November 19, 2008 11:56 pm            

COLUMN: Yoho makes statement in first season

You have to give Grafton head coach Mark Yoho credit.

It’s tough to fill the shoes of a legend, and I think its safe to classify former coach Mike Skinner in that category.

But if the team’s 9-1 regular-season record and last week’s 41-16 dismantling of Philip Barbour in the opening round of the Class AA playoffs is any indication, Yoho might find himself as Grafton’s next gridiron hero a couple decades down the road.

And the city of Grafton and the Bearcat players have embraced him.

You could barely pass anyone at Friday’s playoff game who wasn’t sporting a blue T-shirt with Yoho Nation printed in gold.

Honestly, I thought it would take a little more time for the Bearcat fans to make the transition from Skinner to Yoho.

But a near-perfect regular season and a legitimate shot a the school’s first state title since the 1980s makes the change a lot smoother to swallow.

But all that couldn’t have been achieved without the players the Bearcats have on the field, led by quarterback Cameron Gallaher and running back Damon Waters.

Gallaher and Waters are definitely in the pick-your-poison category of backfield tandems.

Focus on stopping one and it’s likely the other will beat you senseless, as Philip Barbour learned in its first-round loss to Grafton.

The Colts came into the game with a plan of shutting down Waters, keying on the back most of the night.

But that left the field open for Gallaher, who ran for 152 yards and a pair of touchdowns and threw for two more scores.

That’s not to say Waters wasn’t a factor.

He rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown as well as caught a 25-yard scoring strike from Gallaher.

Yoho focused on his defense after the game, which includes many standouts like Asa Coplin, giving them plenty of credit for how the season has played out.

Now the Bearcats have to put all that in the past and focus on their next opponent.

Ravenswood will invade McKinney Field Friday to try to do what Philip Barbour couldn’t.

And apparently the Red Devils weren’t impressed by the state of the natural turf in Grafton, filing a protest with the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission to have the game moved to Bridgeport’s artificial turf field.

It takes a lot for the WVSSAC to move a game because of field conditions, having personally seen some bad field conditions in the playoffs, and the protest was denied.

The two teams have one common opponent — Tyler Consolidated.

Grafton played Tyler a week before Ravenswood did and came away with a 53-21 victory.

The Red Devils suffered a 21-6 loss to the Knights, one of their two losses during the regular season.

It’s always tough to judge a game on paper, but from the looks of things, Grafton’s state title chances will live to see another week.

E-mail Mike Bowen at mbowen@timeswv.com.

        

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