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Sunday SectionOctober 27, 2013

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By Cam HuffmanSPORTS EDITOR

With the playoffs inching closer andcloser, every game becomes more andmore critical and the spotlight on arehigh school football players shinesbrighter and brighter.

The best players often produce someof their biggest moments on such astage, and that was the case Fridaynight as five game ball winners steppedup their games in critical victories fortheir teams.

Here’s a look at the top area perform-ers from Week 9 of the high school foot-ball season.

GAME BALLSDalton Cline (Greenbrier East)

— The Greenbrier East junior becamethe 11th back in Spar-tan history to top the1,000-yard mark onthe ground for a seasonwhen he rushed for 209yards and a touchdownin Greenbrier East’s27-20 win at Parkers-burg South Friday. Healso caught a pass fornine yards in helpingthe Spartans (5-4)

clinch a winning season and keeptheir playoff hopes alive.

Corey Cox (Greenbrier West) —Cox is often overshadowed by Cava-

lier quarterback MalikBoatwright, but Coxwas difficult to ignorein West’s 41-14 winover James River (Va.).He rushed for 81 yardson 15 carries andcaught three passes for25 yards. Perhaps mostimportantly, he foundthe end zone four timesin helping the Cavs im-prove to 8-1.

Wil Mayes (Nicholas County) —The Grizzlies’ workhorse rushed 17

times for 159 yardsand five touchdowns inNicholas County’sdominating 47-0 winover River View.Nicholas County im-proved to 7-2 with thevictory, which also sawMays catch a 54-yardtouchdown pass fromquarterback TylerSagraves.

Jake Parker (Meadow Bridge)— Parker has fallen behind in the

race for the state’sKennedy Award in re-cent weeks — not be-cause of anything he’sdone wrong, but in-stead because of someincredible performanc-es by Morgantown run-ning back ChazzyThomas. Parker madesure he sent a re-minder that he was

still around as he rushed for 255yards and six touchdowns in threequarters of action. He carried the balljust 19 times to put up those totals asMeadow Bridge improved to 7-2.

Matt Ryan (Summers County) —The Summers County quarterback

came up big in a 61-0trouncing of MountView Friday. He com-pleted three of thefour passes he at-tempted for 69 yards,and each one went fora Bobcat touchdown.He carried the bal lfour t imes for 40yards and caught a 2-point conversion pass.

Ryan had five tackles in the firsthalf but only played one series afterhalftime with the lead clearly inhand. Summers County moved to 8-1 with the win.

Just a handful of game balls areawarded each week — and those fivebecome the finalists for player of theweek honors, which wil l be an-nounced in Wednesday’s Register-Herald — but there were plenty ofother performances worth of somerecognition.

Cline

Cox

Mayes

Parker

Ryan

Week 9 football phenoms

See PHENOMS, 2D

David SmaleASSOCIATED PRESS

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Oftenit’s hard to pinpoint one drive asthe turning point in a college foot-ball game — especially one with a23-point final margin. But KansasState’s 14-play, 78-yard drive intothe wind that took 8:24 of thethird quarter was just that. Itgave Kansas State the lead forgood in a 35-12 victory over WestVirginia.

“When we’re good, that’s whatwe do,” Kansas State coach BillSnyder said. “We haven’t alwaysbeen good (this year) . I waspleased with respect to what thatmeans for our improvement.

“We had a good third quarterand a good fourth quarter. And wefinished. We haven’t f inishedevery ballgame we’ve played.”

Kansas State (3-4, 1-3 Big 12)appeared lethargic through thefirst half and the first two drivesof the third quarter, falling behindWest Virginia (3-5, 1-4) 12-7 with10:40 left in the third. By the timeDaniel Sams hit Tyler Lockettwith a 9-yard touchdown in theback of the end zone, there wasonly 2:16 left in the quarter.

It not only turned the game, itmay have turned the season forKansas State.

“It was critical,” Sams said. “Onthe sideline, me and Jake toldeach other it was on us.

“This is what we needed. We seethat we can do it. This may be aspark for our season.”


When Shaun Sarrett left Beckleywith a degree — and plenty of foot-ball and wrestling honors — fromWoodrow Wilson High School, hehad two dreams in mind. He wantedto play major college football, and hewanted to coach at the highest level.

After a stint at Fork Union Mili-tary Academy, Sarrett accomplishedgoal No. 1 when he competed as athree-year letterman on the offen-sive line at Kent State University.

After graduating from KSU in2004, he quickly pursued his otherambition, and when the PittsburghSteelers take the field today at O.coColiseum in Oakland, Calif., to takeon the Oakland Raiders, the formerFlying Eagle will be in the coaches’box wearing his black and gold as anoffensive assistant for the PittsburghSteelers.

Now in his second season, Sarrettdoes a little bit of everything for theSteelers, working to provide offen-sive coordinator Todd Haley withany assistance he needs. He helpswith game preparation, video analy-sis and scouting, and is available tohelp out with every aspect of the of-fense.

“I try to make their job as easy aspossible,” he said. “But specifically, Iwork heavily with the offensive line.”

On game days, Sarrett sits high inthe sky, watching specific areas toprovide assistance to the othercoaches.

“You’ve really got to train youreyes,” he said of those duties. “Theball catches your eye, so you have toreally train your eyes to watch thearea you need to be watching and notlet the ball take your eyes away fromthat area.”

Sarrett — a Woodrow Wilson Hallof Famer, who’s the son of Flying Ea-gle basketball and football legendBane Sarrett and the brother ofWWHS wrestling coach Chad“Street” Sarrett — is hopeful thatone day he’ll be one of the coaches incharge. His next goal is to become anoffensive line coach at the college orprofessional level. By no means,though, is he eager to leave his cur-rent situation.

KARL ROSER/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

Pittsburgh Steelers offensive assistant Shaun Sarrett, right, speaks with anoffensive lineman during a Steelers practice. Sarrett, a Beckley native, is in hissecond season in the NFL.

Sarrett living a dream with SteelersBeckley native hasgone from WoodrowWilson to the NFL

M ountaineer fans, you cannow make your holidayplans without wor-

rying about how postseasonfootball may play into theequation. West Virginia’s35-12 loss to Kansas StateSaturday didn’t officiallyeliminate the Moun-taineers (3-5, 1-4 Big 12)from bowl contention forthe first time in 12 years,but it probably did elimi-nate them from any bowlanybody would actuallywant to attend.

Let’s be honest. When the bestcase scenario is a return trip the

New Era Pinstripe Bowl, aholiday light show with thefamily certainly soundslike a better option.Blowup Santa Clauses andsnowmen playing basket-ball are more fun to watchthan bad teams playingfootball, in bad weather, in-side a baseball stadium.

■ ■ ■A series of events that

might have gone unnoticedto many actually played a

huge part in the WVU loss Satur-day.

On the Mountaineers’ second of-fensive possession of the game,WVU was facing a third-and-8 atits own 29-yard line when ClintTrickett dropped back to pass butsaw some running room open upin the middle of the field.

The junior took what the de-fense gave him and ran throughthe middle of the KSU defense,sliding to avoid injury when hereached the chains.

Go ahead, make those holiday plans

CamHuffman

VIEW FROMTHE SIDELINE

See HUFFMAN, 4D

AP PHOTO

Kansas State defensive back Randall Evans, right, knocks the ball away fromWest Virginia wide receiver Daikiel Shorts during the first half of Saturday’sgame in Manhattan, Kan.

’Cats claw MountaineersWVU falls to 0-4 onthe road with 35-12loss at Kansas State

See WVU, 4D

See STEELERS, 4D


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The officials, though,decided they wanted to benoticed, and instead ofgiving Trickett the firstdown that the Wildcatsprobably would have con-ceded, they spotted theball less than a half-yardshort, and the Moun-taineers were forced topunt.

Fast forward to thefourth quarter with WVUholding the ball trailing21-12, looking for pointsto pull back within onescore. On a third-and-5from the WVU 44-yardline, Trickett again foundrunning room up the mid-dle and turned to his mo-bility to try to move thechains. This time whenhe got to the line to gain,he didn’t take anychances. With the first-quarter play in mind,Trickett didn’t slide. In-stead, he tried to keeprunning for extrayardage, and he wasstripped of the football bya KSU’s Ty Zimmerman.

The Wildcats convertedthe turnover into points,scoring a touchdown witha 54-yard drive, andWVU couldn’t recover.

■ ■ ■Dana Holgorsen is still

in just his second year asa head coach, and it’s un-derstandable that lessonsremain to be learned.But, at least in Satur-day’s game, he got themessage about as well asmy dog, who continues torelieve himself on mybasement floor, despitepunishment on every oc-casion.

In last Saturday’s lossto No. 16 Texas Tech inMorgantown, Holgorsenadmitted that he made afatal error in judgementwhen, down 10-0, hechose to try to convert ona fourth-and-14 from theTTU 26-yard line insteadof attempting a 43-yardfield goal. Trickett’s passto the end zone fell in-

complete, and WVUspent the rest of the af-ternoon chasing thosethree points.

When the Red Raidersscored with a little lessthan 10 minutes to go inthe game, the touchdownput the visitors ahead 30-27. That was also thescore when they got theball back for their finaldrive with 4:30 left on theclock.

Had WVU convertedthe field goal way back inthe opening quarter, thegame could have beentied, and Tech could havebeen feeling the pressureof a potential game-win-ning drive instead of thetask of simply runningout the clock.

A week later in Man-hattan, Kan., Holgorsenwas faced with a similarsituation when the Moun-taineers, leading 9-7,drove to the KSU 9-yardline as the clock ticked to-ward one minute to go inthe opening half.

On a fourth-and-7 fromthe KSU 9, the Moun-taineers had an opportu-nity to kick a field goal,increase their lead to fivepoints and take some mo-mentum into the lockerroom.

Holgorsen sent the fieldgoal team onto the field todo just that, but instead,he called a fake. Let’s justsay it didn’t turn outquite like Phil Brady’sfake punt in the Moun-taineers’ Sugar Bowl winover Georgia in 2006.

Holder Michael Moli-nari found some runningroom, but he still came upthree yards short of afirst down. WVU’s leadremained 9-7, and theWildcats — who hadlooked more like sleepingkittens through the firsttwo quarters — went intohalftime with plenty ofenthusiasm after makinga crucial stop.

Those three points mayseem insignificant in agame that ended up witha 23-point margin. Butit’s important to remem-ber that for a good por-

tion of the fourth quarter,KSU’s lead was only 21-12. Had it been 21-15,and WVU had been justone score behind, thestrategy would have sig-nificantly changed. WVUwouldn’t have had to playwith such desperation,and the closing minutescould have turned outquite differently.

■ ■ ■Perhaps the strangest

decision Holgorsen madeall afternoon, though, waspulling Trickett and in-serting Paul Millard with7:25 to go in the gameand WVU trailing 28-12.

The plan obviouslybackfired when Millardcompleted just 4 of 13passes and threw an in-terception.

Could Trickett havebrought the Moun-taineers back? It’s doubt-ful. He did some positivethings against the Wild-cats, but he treated thefootball like a hot potato— a trend that he passedon to his receivers, attimes.

But was Millard —who hadn’t played sincethe second game of theseason at Oklahoma —going to come into thegame in a desperationsituation and suddenlytake charge, after failingto do so all season? If theanswer was on thebench, wouldn’t WVUhave turned to it weeksago?

Now, WVU heads intoanother difficult roadtest next week at TCU,with one quarterback,Ford Childress, injured,another, Trickett, lookingover his shoulder withhis confidence in ques-tion, and another, Mil-lard who has to be psy-chologically shattered af-ter finally getting the op-portunity and watchingit go so poorly.

Was the situation atquarterback not badenough already?

— E-mail: [email protected] and

follow on Twitter@CamHuffmanRH.

HUFFMANContinued from 1D

Things finally clickedfor Kansas State, begin-ning with that drive.The stats by the end ofthe game were impres-sive. The Wildcats out-gained the Moun-taineers 448 yards to367. Jake Waters was10-of-13 for 198 yardsand three touchdownsfor Kansas State. Samswas 8-for-8 for 93 yardsand a touchdown. Lock-ett had eight catches for111 yards and threescores. The Wildcatsscored the final 28points of the game.

“This can be a turningpoint,” Lockett said.“It’s been a long timesince we got a win. Aslong as we rememberwhat we did on Mondaythrough Friday, we cando a lot of good things.”

Snyder was pleasedwith the play of his re-ceivers.

“Ours receivers — allof them — played very,very well,” he said.

West Virginia had itschances, but could onlyconvert four of 16 third-down plays. CoachDana Holgorsen was

upset that his team fiz-zled in the second half,especially on the 14-play drive by KansasState.

“It’s a huge concern,”he said. “We talk aboutit being a four-quartergame and we talk abouthow we’ve got to finish.We’ve got to finisheverything we do. It’s aconcern. That doesn’thappen to good teams.”

Kansas State had achance for a big breakearly in the third quar-ter when Clint Trickettfumbled and it was re-covered by BlakeSlaughter at the WestVirginia 18-yard line.But on the second play,Sams lost the ball aftergaining a first down andit was recovered in theend zone by the Moun-taineers’ Karl Joseph.

On the next playTrickett hit KevinWhite on a slant passjust over the line ofscrimmage and Whitemeandered 43 yardsthrough the K-State de-fense. That resulted in a50-yard field goal byJosh Lambert and the12-7 lead for West Vir-ginia (3-5, 1-4).

But Kansas State re-sponded with the keydrive.

“We’ve just got to exe-cute,” West Virginia de-fensive back DarwinCook said. “There was-n’t any miscommunica-tion or blown cover-age’s; it ’s just execu-tion.”

WVU 0 9 3 0 — 12KSU 7 0 7 21 — 35First QuarterKSt—Lockett 35 pass from Waters (Can-tele kick), 3:57.Second QuarterWVU—Trickett 6 run (kick blocked),10:05.WVU—FG Lambert 21, 5:24.Third QuarterWVU—FG Lambert 50, 10:40.KSt—Lockett 9 pass from Sams (Cantelekick), 2:16.Fourth QuarterKSt—T.Thompson 30 pass from Waters(Cantele kick), 11:11.KSt—Lockett 24 pass from Waters (Can-tele kick), 7:31.KSt—Hubert 4 run (Cantele kick), :21.A—52,898.

WVU KStFirst downs 18 19Rushes-yards 29-103 43-157Passing 264 291Comp-Att-Int 19-42-1 18-21-0Return Yards 3 19Punts-Avg. 5-32.0 5-37.0Fumbles-Lost 2-2 3-2Penalties-Yards 3-25 4-33Time of Possession 24:28 35:32

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING—West Virginia, Sims 8-43,D.Smith 7-23, Trickett 8-21, Davis 1-8,Molinari 1-4, Smallwood 3-4, Millard 1-0.Kansas St., Hubert 19-86, Waters 10-55,Sams 14-16.PASSING—West Virginia, Trickett 15-28-0-227, Millard 4-14-1-37. Kansas St., Wa-ters 10-13-0-198, Sams 8-8-0-93.RECEIVING—West Virginia, Sims 7-54,Carswell 3-65, Thompson 3-41, Shorts 3-36, K.White 2-56, McCartney 1-12.Kansas St., Lockett 8-111, Cu.Sexton 6-112, T.Thompson 3-53, Hubert 1-15.

WVUContinued from 1D

“I’m thrilled to be here,and I’m not job hunting atall,” said the 34-year-old.“I love working for (Steel-er head coach Mike) Tom-lin and the Rooneys (thefamily that owns theSteelers), and if they wantto keep me here, I’m stay-ing here.”

Sarrett’s path to theNFL started at Streets-boro High School in Ohio,where he received his firstcoaching job upon leavingKent State.

From there, he was giv-en the opportunity toserve as a graduate assis-

tant at Marshall for threeyears, and he moved on toDuke in 2008, serving asan offensive quality con-trol coach.

It was a connection hemade while with the BlueDevils, working underhead coach David Cut-cliffe, that eventually ledto the job with the Steel-ers. Scottie Montgomerywas coaching wide re-ceivers at Duke when hereceived a call from theSteelers to fill the samerole at the professionallevel in 2010.

Two years into the job,the Steelers had an open-ing for an offensive assis-tant, and Montgomeryquickly thought back toSarrett.

Sarrett was called in foran interview, and he did-n’t hesitate.

“I jumped right on it,”he remembered. “Whowouldn’t?”

Sarrett remembers sit-ting in the cafeteria withTomlin, then-Steelers of-fensive line coach SeanKuglar and Steelers de-fensive coordinator andPro Football Hall ofFamer Dick LeBeau ex-plaining how he couldhelp the team.

“I thought to myself,this is as good as it gets,”said Sarrett of the uniqueinterview. “People dreamabout being here.”

The dream quickly be-came a reality, and Sar-rett has spent the last two

years soaking in as muchknowledge as possible.

He keeps a “checklistbook” where he writesdown things that hewants to do and thingsthat he wants to do differ-ently when he’s the manin charge.

Sarrett said he’s hadthe opportunity to bearound some great coach-es — including Tomlin,one of the rare coaches, hesaid, who understands allaspects of the game.

He’s also learned a fewthings about how an or-ganization is supposed tobe run.

“The Rooneys are first-class across the board ineverything they do,” saidSarrett, who’s a believer

in the notion that theSteelers are one of thebest-run organizations inprofessional sports. “Any-thing you can think of,they do it right.”

This year’s Steelers en-ter today’s game with 2-4record, but they’ve wontwo straight and Sarretthopes they’re returning tothe winning ways thathave won the franchise arecord six Super Bowls.

“We’re going to continueto work to get better,” hesaid. “These guys are pro-fessionals, and they’reworking at it every day.They’re going to continueto grow.”

Sarrett will also contin-ue to develop as a coachand pursue his goals, and

he hopes he’s set an exam-ple for future generationsat Woodrow and otherarea schools that youdon’t have to come from abig city to reach the top.

“If you have a dream,don’t let anybody talk youout of it,” he said. “Justkeep fighting for it.

“I had a dream to playfootball at the college lev-el, and I did that. Then Ihad a dream to be a coach,and here I am coaching inthe NFL now. When youhave a dream, it doesn’tmatter where you comefrom. It’s just what you’rewilling to sacrifice to getto it.”

Today’s Steelers-Raiders game will air onCBS at 4:05 p.m.

STEELERSContinued from 1D


BSportsTHE REGISTER-HERALD

Monday SectionNovember 18, 2013


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JIMMIEJOHNSONWINS 6TH

CHAMPIONSHIPINSIDE | Page 5B

On to the second round

By Gary FauberASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Fatigue will always be abattle for players and coachesto fight in the ProspectLeague. But for the last twoyears, the league helped to atleast lighten that burden byscheduling only intradivision-al regular-season games andletting teams have most Mon-days off.

That won’t be the case nextsummer.

Crossover games are backon the schedule — albeit to amuch lesser degree than inthe past — for the West Vir-ginia Miners and the ProspectLeague’s 10 other teams. Theleague released its schedulelate last week, and for thefirst time since 2011, the Min-ers will open the season onthe road.

West Virginia will visit theButler BlueSox Thursday,May 28, for the start of a two-game series to open its fifthseason and defense of itsback-to-back league champi-onships.

The Miners’ first game atLinda K. Epling Stadium willbe Saturday, May 30, for a

two-game set against leaguenewcomer Champion CityKings — formerly the Slip-pery Rock Sliders. The Rich-mond RiverRats will thencome into town for two games.

There are some things thatare unchanged — 30 homedates in a 60-game season, noscheduled doubleheaders anda midseason All-Star game.This year’s game will beplayed in Terre Haute, Ind.,on Tuesday, July 8.

There are also a fewchanges. In addition to thecrossover games, Mondaysare no longer off-days. EastDivision teams have playedonly two Monday games ineach of the last two seasons,but the five-team West didnot have that luxury.

The crossover games areminimal — the Miners havejust five total. They and theTerre Haute Rex will tradetwo-game series — the Rexwill visit Beckley June 13-14,and the Miners will go toTerre Haute July 29-30, thengo to Danville, Ill., for a singlegame against the Dans on Ju-ly 31.

How bad was WestVirginia’s 31-19 lossto Kansas Saturday

in Lawrence, Kan.? Perhapsnobody said it better thanWVU head coach Dana Hol-gorsen in his postgamepress conferencewhen he labeled theloss as an “all-timelow.”

To put it simply,after letting the Jay-hawks snap a 27-game Big 12 losingstreak, the Moun-taineers have hitrock, chalk bottom.

Look, I knowJames Sims is a tal-ented player, and Irealize that Kansashas come close to ending thestreak against some qualityteams along the way, but itdidn’t.

Sure it’s easy to overlook ateam like KU, which hastried more flavors on offensethan Baskin-Robbins andplays in front of a crowdthat wouldn’t be kicked outof a library, but 27 otherteams managed to find away to overcome those ob-stacles. WVU couldn’t.

The streak of futility forKU actually goes back far-ther than the Nov. 6, 2010,win over Colorado, a teamthat’s no longer even amember of the conference.The last time the Jayhawksbeat a current Big 12 mem-ber was Oct. 10, 2009, whenthey knocked off Iowa State.Since the beginning of the2009 season, KU is 3-38 inBig 12 games, with one ofthe wins coming over theMountaineers.

WVU’s tailspin may notinclude numbers quite sofrightening — then again,you won’t find that type ofhorror in any hauntedhouse. But WVU’s recent

history hasn’t exactly beenpleasing to Mountaineerfans.

Since back-to-back winsover No. 25 Baylor and No.11 Texas last season, WVUis just 4-12 and it has beat-

en only two FootballBowl Subdivisionteams with winningrecords during thatstretch. One of thosevictims was IowaState, which wasjust 6-5 before fallingto the Mountaineerslast November andended the year at 6-7.

I know, I know,WVU is in a wholenew world in the Big

12. I get that. In fact, I’vepreached that to disgruntledfans. But the problems thatexist with the Mountaineerfootball program aren’t sim-ply the side effects of joininga new conference. WVUwouldn’t be a good team inany league right now, unlessit found its way into theMountain East.

Syracuse isn’t a Big 12team. The Orange, whichtrashed the Mountaineers38-14 in last year’s New EraPinstripe Bowl, were a mid-dle-of-the-pack Big Eastteam, and past WVU squadsdominated that league. TheMaryland team that shutout the Mountaineers 37-0on Sept. 21 is 2-4 in theACC with lopsided loses toWake Forest and Syracuseon its resumé. Kansas is abad football team, and itwould be just as bad in Con-ference USA, the AmericanAthletic Conference or anyother league.

The Mountaineers’ prob-lems are vast. The offenselooked like the Baylor Bears

WVU footballheaded in thewrong direction

RICK BARBERO/THE REGISTER-HERALD

Nicholas County quarterback Tyler Sagraves, right, is tackled by Wyoming East’s Casey Saunders,left, and John Morgan, obscured, during their Class AA first-round playoff game last Friday in New Rich-mond. The No. 11 Grizzlies beat the homestanding No. 6 Warriors 35-14, and will travel to No. 3 Blue-field Friday for a quarterfinal game. Kickoff will be 7:30 p.m. Greenbrier West, which beat No. 10Notre Dame 54-7 last Friday, also will hit the road for the next round of the Class A playoffs. The No.7 Cavaliers will visit No. 2 St. Marys at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. See playoffs schedule on Page 4B.

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORGANTOWN — It wasnot going to happen this year.Last year, a spiritedDuquesne squad tripped aWest Virginia team headingto its worst overall record incoach Bob Huggins Division Icareer. Not this year.

Three Mountaineers scoredcareer highs Sunday as theMountaineers beat Duquesne96-83 to avenge a 2012-13season loss to the Dukes.

“Coach Huggins just said inthe locker room that win-ning’s a lot better than losing;

West Virginia’s Juwan Staten (3) shoots overDuquesne’s Desmond

Ridenour, left, during the second half Sunday

in Morgantown.West Virginia won 96-83.

AP PHOTO

WVU drillsDuquesne

See WVU, 2B

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOREHEAD, Ky. — BrentArrington and Bakari Turnereach scored 24 points asMorehead State over-came a 21-pointdeficit to beat Mar-shall 102-94 in over-time Sunday.

Leading 94-93, ChadPosthumus grabbed an offen-sive rebound off a miss byTurner and was fouled byElijah Pittman. Posthumusconverted two free throws tostart a 10-1 run by the Ea-gles to close out the game.

Kareem Canty’s 3-pointerwith a minute left in the firsthalf gave Marshall a 21-pointlead, its biggest of the game,

48-27. Morehead State(3-1) closed the halfwith a 6-0 spurt tohead into the breaktrailing 48-33.Posthumus scored

14 points and pulleddown 15 rebounds, seven of-fensive.

Elijah Pittman tied a ca-reer-high with 31 points forMarshall (2-1). KareemCanty added 19 and nine as-sists but had nine turnovers.

MARSHALL (2-1)Sane 1-1 4-6 6, Pittman 9-21 10-11 31, Taylor 3-4 5-8 12, Canty 7-14 3-6 19, Boykins 1-2 0-2 2,Smith 4-5 2-2 10, Thomas 1-2 5-8 7, Goard 1-30-0 2, Manning 2-4 0-0 5, Mbao 0-0 0-0 0, Loop0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-56 29-43 94.MOREHEAD ST. (3-1)Kelly 1-2 0-3 2, Posthumus 3-5 8-12 14, Storey 3-6 0-0 6, Warner 5-14 4-4 15, Arrington 7-13 6-1224, Pajkovic 2-5 9-13 13, Leatherwood 0-2 0-2 0,Turner 6-12 11-17 24, Dotson 0-2 0-0 0, Reader1-1 2-2 4. Totals 28-62 40-65 102.Halftime—Marshall 48-33. End Of Regulation—Tied 86. 3-Point Goals—Marshall 7-23 (Pittman3-11, Canty 2-5, Taylor 1-1, Manning 1-3, Thomas0-1, Smith 0-1, Boykins 0-1), Morehead St. 6-20(Arrington 4-6, Turner 1-5, Warner 1-5, Pajkovic0-1, Dotson 0-1, Storey 0-2). Fouled Out—Goard,Kelly, Mbao, Reader, Sane, Smith, Storey, Taylor.Rebounds—Marshall 39 (Goard, Pittman 7),Morehead St. 40 (Posthumus 15). Assists—Mar-shall 16 (Canty 9), Morehead St. 17 (Storey 8). To-tal Fouls—Marshall 44, Morehead St. 31. Techni-cals—Pittman, Turner, Morehead St. Bench. A—3,506.

Herd squanders lead, falls to MoreheadMarshall, up by 21 late in first half, loses in 102-94 in OT

Miners will open2014 on the road

See MINERS, 2B

1st home gamewill be May 30vs. newcomerChampion City

See HUFFMAN, 4B

CamHuffman


so, it’s good to get thisgood win — seeing asthey beat us last year,”said the game’s leadingscorer, Eron Harris.

The Dukes (1-2) haddealt West Virginia (2-1) a 60-56 defeat inPittsburgh last year,and the Mountaineerswent on to finished 13-19.

This year, a barrageof scoring by Harris(33), Juwan Staten (28)and Devin Williams (18)supplied 79 of theMountaineers’ point to-tal. All represent careerhighs for Harris, a soph-omore; Staten, a junior;and Williams, a truefreshman.

Harris’ previous best

(25) came on Feb. 27,2013 against Baylor.Against the Dukes, thesecond-year player con-nected on 12-of-19 fieldgoals, including 6-of-8from behind the 3-pointarc. He pulled down 6rebounds.

Staten connected on7-of-11 field goals andhit a career-best 12-of-17 free throws, 9 assistsand 3 rebounds.Williams scored 8 of 10on field goal attemptsand grabbed 10 boardsin just his third gameall-time.

“I think he’s trying toohard with his bucketsright now, but he’ll fig-ure that out becausehe’s still young,” Harrissaid of the rookie,Williams. “He’s doingall that with raw talentright now. So once helearns the game he’s go-

ing to be a monster.”Duquesne put two

scorers in double figures— Ovie Soko (19) andDominique McKoy (13).

“The biggest key tothis game was JuwanStaten. I know Harrisscored all those points,but we just couldn’tkeep (Staten) in front ofus,” said Duquesnecoach Jim Ferry. “Ithought he just domi-nated this basketballgame.”

West Virginia saw a17-point lead dissipateat Virginia Tech, but itwas not going to happenthis night. Duquesneclosed to 75-71 with7:30 left, but Harris andTerry Hendersonknocked down triples tosend the Mountaineersahead 81-71.

West Virginia had thefirst half in hand 49-39

with 11 seconds left—but Duquesne sharp-shooter Micah Masonaccomplished a four-point-play to cut theMountaineer lead to sixat intermission. WVU’slargest lead was 17 atthe game’s 2:20 mark.

The Mountaineers(33-of-56, 59 percent)continue to shoot theball well despite onlyhaving eight able-bod-ied scholarship playersfor the game. West Vir-ginia is 67-3 at homeagainst non-conferenceteams in the last nineyears, including 48 ofits last 49 games.

“Now, they’ve got anidea of what I want.They’ve got an idea howto get opportunities outof the offense. They un-derstand the offense somuch better. I thinkwhat’s happened to

(Juwan) and Eron, theyare more on the samepage than what theywere before,” said Hug-gins.

The Mountaineers are99-6 under Hugginswhen posting a highershooting percentagethan its opponent.Duquesne was 45.5 per-cent (30 of 66) from thefloor.

For Huggins, it washis 725th all-time winagainst 287 losses.Those 725 put himahead of Ray Meyer for18th place all timeamong NCAA Division Icoaches. Huggins is thethird winningest activehead coach behind Mike

Krzyzewski and JimBoeheim.

DUQUESNE (1-2)Soko 6-12 7-10 19, Colter 1-6 0-0 2,White 4-10 1-2 10, McKoy 6-8 3-5 15,Jere. Jones 3-4 0-0 6, Jerr. Jones 0-3 0-00, Mason 6-8 1-1 18, Ridenour 3-11 1-38, Gill 1-4 3-3 5, Lewis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals30-66 16-24 83.WEST VIRGINIA (2-1)Staten 7-11 14-19 28, Williams 8-10 2-618, Harris 12-19 3-7 33, Adrian 1-2 0-03, Noreen 0-0 0-0 0, Dibo 2-6 0-0 5, Con-nor 0-0 0-0 0, Henderson 2-5 1-2 7,Watkins 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 33-56 20-3496.Halftime—West Virginia 49-43. 3-PointGoals—Duquesne 7-21 (Mason 5-7,White 1-3, Ridenour 1-4, Jerr. Jones 0-2,Gill 0-2, Colter 0-3), West Virginia 10-18(Harris 6-8, Henderson 2-4, Adrian 1-2,Dibo 1-4). Fouled Out—Dibo, Noreen.Rebounds—Duquesne 39 (Soko 12),West Virginia 30 (Williams 10). As-sists—Duquesne 10 (Colter, McKoy, Ri-denour 2), West Virginia 15 (Staten 9).Total Fouls—Duquesne 26, West Virginia20. A—6,038.


Sports2B THE REGISTER-HERALD

Monday, November 18, 2013 www.register-herald.com

West Virginia managerTim Epling worries aboutthe potential for unbal-anced scheduling when itcomes to the crossovergames.

“You might end upplaying three of their bestteams, and somebody elsein your division might getto play the weaker teamsfrom the other division,”Epling said. “So it’s (po-tentially) not even acrossthe board.”

Epling accepts the chal-lenge of keeping his play-ers fresh through a longsummer. He’s been therebefore.

“I have to work harder

to make sure the guysstay rested, and be smartabout which personnel wetake or don’t take (onroad trips),” Epling said.“We have to be able toschedule our pitchingstaff to where it most ben-efits us.

“It’s easier to rest pitch-ers than it is positionplayers. Hopefully, wewill be deeper at catcherthan we have ever been,and hopefully we willhave more shortstops inthe lineup than we havehad. We’ll see if thatworks for us. I think itwill.”

One more change is thereturn to a split season af-ter a one-year hiatus. Thefirst-half champion ofeach division will havehome-field advantage

over the second-halfchampion in a best-of-3series starting Aug. 6.

The division series win-ners will meet in the best-of-3 league championshipseries starting Aug. 10.Game 1 will be at theteam representing the los-ing division at the All-Star game. After a travelday, Games 2 and 3 (ifnecessary) will be playedat the home of the win-ning division.

Epling is in favor of thesplit season because ofthe strategic ramifica-tions.

“I like that. You’ve gottwo chances to get intothe playoffs,” he said. “Inthe past, that has workedin our favor. We jumpedout quick on people.

“It would allow us to

prepare and kind of setour focus on what needsto be done to prepare forthe playoffs. If you win thefirst half, then at the endof the second half, wherewe have some tough roadtrips, that would make iteasier for us to prepare.”

Seven of the Miners’ fi-nal nine games will be onthe road, including thegames in Terre Hauteand Danville.

“If we’re in a tight bat-tle — which we usuallyare — that could be a dif-ference maker,” Eplingsaid.

Season ticket informa-tion for the Miners will beannounced soon.


follow on Twitter @GaryFauber

MINERSContinued from 1B

WVUContinued from 1B

English wins PGAevent in Mexico

PLAYA DEL CAR-MEN, Mexico (AP) —Harris English won therain-delayed OHL Classicfor his second PGA Tourtitle, pulling away for afour-stroke victory in a29-hole Sunday finish at

Mayakoba.English closed with a

6-under 65 after complet-ing the third round in themorning with a 68. Hemoved into contentionSaturday morning in thesecond round, matchingthe lowest round of histour career with a 62.

“I guess I found some-thing in my swing — a

little swing key that help-ing me out,” English said.“I hit the ball really wellall week. It got a littlewindy the first two daysand I struggled a bit withmy driver, but I found itdown the stretch.”

The 24-year-old formerUniversity of Georgiastar finished at a tourna-ment-record 21-under

263.“My first time at

Mayakoba,” English said.“It’s such a great tourna-ment. Had a great timethis week. Stayed downin Playa. Had somegreat beach time. Hadsome good golf coursetime.”

He won the FedEx St.Jude Classic in June in

Tennessee for his firstPGA Tour victory.

“I was a lot more com-fortable out there than Iwas a Memphis,” Eng-lish said.

English and RoryMcIlroy are the only cur-rent players under 25with multiple PGA Tourvictories.

Brian Stuard shot a 67

to finish second.Third-round leader

Robert Karlsson had a72 to drop into a tie forsixth at 15 under.

“I’ve been strugglingwith the long shots, ingeneral,” the 44-year-oldSwede said. “Usually,you get found out sooneror later. ... I’m still very,very pleased.”


BSportsTHE REGISTER-HERALD

Tuesday SectionNovember 19, 2013


INSIDE SPORTS:Hokies ...............2BScoreboard ........3B



T.Y. Hilton is in Indianapolis,catching touchdown passes as An-drew Luck’s new top threat in theabsence of veteran Reggie Wayne.

Coach Mario Cristobal is now inTuscaloosa, Ala., as the offensiveline coach for the No. 1 CrimsonTide.

Most of the personnel that wasat Florida International the last

time it played Marshallis gone.

Also gone areall the wins.

Marsha l l(7-3, 5-1ConferenceUSA) willplay its last

road game ofthe regular season Saturday atFIU. Kickoff will be 6 p.m. andthe game will be televised on FoxCollege Sports Central.

The Panthers (1-9, 1-5) are suf-fering through one of the worstseasons in college football. Theyhave lost to the likes of Bethune-Cookman (34-13), Louisiana Tech(23-7) and, last week, UTEP (33-10).

They have been shut out threetimes, including a whopping 72-0embarrassment at Louisville.

Their only win came when theyeked out a 24-23 win over South-ern Miss, which has now lost 22straight games. The followingweek, FIU lost 27-24 to UAB.

Marshall beat Southern Missand UAB by a combined 117-27.

“We’ve just got to stay togetheras a team,” first-year FIU coachRon Turner told the Miami Her-ald. “Keep fighting, keep fightingand keep getting better.”

Indeed, FIU has seen betterdays. The Panthers are at or nearthe bottom of most league statisti-cal categories, including last inscoring offense (10.1 points pergame) and last in total offense(223.7 yards).

One of FIU’s biggest problems— the inability to stop the run —came to the fore against UTEP.The Miners ran for 327 yardsagainst FIU, which is 11th in theleague at 201.6 rush yards al-lowed per game.

FROM WIRE REPORTS

MORGANTOWN — West VirginiaUniversity Director of Athletics OliverLuck announced the 52-game 2014Mountaineer baseball schedule Mon-day.

“Randy Mazey has put together achallenging schedule against top-cal-iber programs,” says Luck. “I am look-ing forward to Coach Mazey’s secondyear as the program continues to growunder his leadership.”

The Mountaineers will square offagainst eight opponents that reachedthe NCAA Tournament last season, aswell as 18 opponents that finished inthe Top 100 of the final RPI. The slatealso features three Big 12 series and atotal of 13 games at Hawley Field inMorgantown.

“I am excited that we get to bring Big12 baseball to Morgantown,” saysLuck. “After last season’s success thatsaw our program soar to new heights,we really caught the attention of

Mountaineer fans throughout thestate.”

“We are really excited about theschedule, but it is going to be challeng-ing,” says Mazey. “We get to go to somereally neat places and face some verygood competition. As far as getting out

For the first time in my life-time, college baseball wasactually relevant in West

Virginia last spring.As a result of West Virginia

University’s unprecedented suc-cess — rising from a unanimouspick to finish last in the confer-ence to being on the doorstep of aspot in the Big 12 championshipgame — fans suddenly took aninterest in what was happeningon the diamond.

And because WVU took its

team around the state, playinghome games in Beckley andCharleston, while plans for a newstadium in Morgantown movedforward, a new group of fans wascultivated.

It will be another year beforethe new stadium in Morgantownis ready, so it would only makesense that the Mountaineerstravel for home games again thisseason, continuing to build on thesuccess of 2013. But according tothe 2014 schedule that was re-

leased Monday, that’s not thecase.

The Mountaineers will playfour games in Charleston’s Ap-palachian Power Park, amatchup with Marshall on March18 and a Big 12 series againstBaylor on March 28-30. They’llalso play Virginia Tech in Prince-ton on May 6. The 12 other homegames, including conference se-ries against Texas, Kansas State

■ MARSHALL FOOTBALL

Season ofdisaster forPanthers


One of the mainstays among areahigh school football coaches is callingit a career.

Eddie Souk, who coached Oak Hillfor three seasons after a long stint atMount Hope, is retiring after morethan 30 years on the sidelines, ac-cording to an informed source.

Souk saw the Red Devils into theirreturn to Class AAA last year. That

return proved successful — Oak Hillhas been in the state playoffs bothseasons in the state’s highest classifi-cation.

Oak Hill’s season came to an endlast Friday with a narrow and im-pressive 21-14 overtime loss toGeorge Washington in a first-roundgame.

Souk became well known as thehead coach at Mount Hope, which heled to multiple trips to the Class Aplayoffs. The Mustangs reached the

zenith in 1989, winning the statechampionship.

Mount Hope was closed in 2011and its students went to Oak Hill,where Souk was named the headfootball coach.

Souk became known for his run-ning philosophy. Some felt Soukshould mix in the passing game more,but he made the run work thanks tobig-time athletes such as Tim New-som, Jeff Stevens, Jamel Shelton,Da’Von Marion and Jalen Jones.

“Two bad things can happen whenyou throw the ball,” Souk, who didnot return a message seeking com-ment, said in a preseason interview.“When you run the ball you try to findthe hole and hope you don’t fumble.That has been my philosophy.”

“Coaching my son (Scott) in highschool” was his best memory.

“We won the state championship in1989, and that will be a big memory Iwill have forever,” Souk said. “Butcoaching my son was the biggest.”

RICK BARBERO/THE REGISTER-HERALD

West Virginia first baseman Ryan McBroom retires Marshall’s Andrew Dundon (14) for the first out of their game May 14 atLinda K. Epling Stadium in Beckley. Marshall won the game 6-5. WVU released its 2014 baseball schedule on Monday, and itincludes no games in Beckley.

Hawley Field no place for Mountaineers

Luck releases 2014 baseball schedule

See BASEBALL, 2B

See HUFFMAN, 2B


The numbers don’t paint apretty picture.

Following Saturday’s 31-19loss to Kansas, in a game thatwasn’t as close as the scoreindicates, West Virginia Uni-versity has now lost 12 of itslast 16 games, dating back tolast season, and has beatenonly two Football Bowl Subdi-vision teams with winningrecords during that stretch. Itlost to a Syracuse team that

was in the middle of the BigEast pack in the NewEra Pinstripe Bowl,was shut out by a bot-tom-rung ACC squadin Maryland and,most recently, wasdominated by aKansas team thathad lost 27 Big 12games in a row andwon just two of itslast 37 heading intoSaturday’s game.

But WVU head coach DanaHolgorsen isn’t focused on the

present. He knows things arebad. That’s why he la-beled Saturday’s lossas an “all-time low.”The third-year coach,though, said his job islooking to the future,and he still believesthat the Moun-taineers, who willmiss a bowl game af-ter a run of 11straight, are headedin the right direction.

“I’m comfortable with it,”he said Monday during the

Big 12 coaches teleconfer-ence. “Nobody’s happy with 4-7; nobody’s happy with beinghome for the holidays. We’rebuilding a program, and therecruiting is going to continueto get better. We need to con-tinue to step up our game asa university and continue tobuild facilities to stay in line

with everybody else acrossthe country.

“We need to continue to im-prove. We need to continue tobuild our roster. We need tocontinue to add depth.”

That depth, Holgorsen said,has been the biggest problemfor his Mountaineers (4-7, 2-6Big 12), who will end the sea-son at home against IowaState Nov. 30 — a 4 p.m.kickoff on Fox Sports 1, it wasannounced Monday.

FIU’s only victorywas 1 point overSouthern Miss

See FIU, 2B

On Page 3B■ Complete baseball schedule

CamHuffman


Holgorsen looks to future as West Virginia’s present unravels

Holgorsen

See HOLGORSEN, 2B

On Page 4B■ Could WVU programget any lower?

NFLPatriots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Panthers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

1:57 left 4Q

The game above was not available atpress time. For complete results,

see Wednesday’s edition.

Veteran football coach Eddie Souk retiring

Souk

and seeing new places,the kids are going to bevery excited. The Big 12is always challenging andit’s going to be as good asits ever been this season.”

WVU will spend thefirst six weeks of the sea-son on the road, begin-ning with games againstLouisville (Feb. 14),Delaware (Feb. 15) andThe Citadel (Feb. 16) inCharleston, S.C.

The following weekendthe Mountaineers willtravel for a three-gameseries at San Diego State(Feb. 21-23).

A trip to Myrtle Beach,S.C., begins the secondmonth of the season withgames against Duke(Feb. 28), Coastal Caroli-na (March 1) and JamesMadison (March 2).

West Virginia will headback west to Riverside,Calif., to take on UCRiverside (March 8-9)and Sacramento State

(March 9). The springbreak trip will continuewith a game at UNLV(March 11), followed by athree-game series at CalState Northridge (March13-15).

The first game of ahome-and-home serieswith Marshall (March18) will be played at Ap-palachian Power Park inCharleston. The Moun-taineers will then onceagain hit the road for atrip to UNC Wilmington(March 21-23).

The Mountaineers’home slate opens March25 with a game againstPitt in Morgantown,while WVU will make areturn trip to Pitt onApril 1.

The Big 12 season be-gins at AppalachianPower Park inCharleston against Bay-lor (March 28-30), fol-lowed by a trip to TCU(April 4-6) and a mid-week game at Penn State(April 8).

Twelve of the next 15games will be played atHawley Field, which fea-

tures Big 12 gamesagainst Oklahoma State(April 11-13), KansasState (April 25-27) andTexas (May 2-4). Homemidweek games duringthat span include OhioState (April 15), Mary-land (April 22) and Mar-shall (April 23).

WVU will make itsfirst trip to Oklahomafrom April 17-19.

On May 6, the Moun-taineers will take on Vir-ginia Tech at Hunnicutt

Field in Princeton, mark-ing the end of the homecampaign.

The final two Big 12 se-ries will be at Kansas(May 9-11) and TexasTech (May 15-17), with areturn trip to Marylandon May 13.

The 2014 Big 12 Tour-nament is slated for May21-25 at ChickasawBricktown Ballpark inOklahoma City, Okla.,before the NCAA Tourna-ment begins May 30.


Sports2B THE REGISTER-HERALD

Tuesday, November 19, 2013 www.register-herald.com

In the Big 12, whereWVU is in its secondseason as a competingmember, Holgorsen saidinjuries can be costly ifquality backups aren’tready to step in and con-tribute. WVU has seenthat first-hand, losingeight defensive players

who were playing, or ex-pecting to play, signifi-cant roles as the seasonhas progressed. In mostcases, the Mountaineershave been forced to plugin freshmen and sopho-mores to fill those holes.

Better depth, thecoach explained, can on-ly be increased throughsolid recruiting.

“We’ve only had acouple of recruit ingclasses to be able to

sel l them on the Big12,” said Holgorsen,now 21-16 overall asthe WVU head coachand 6-11 against Big12 opponents. “Whenyou go into a kid ’shome and you can sellthe Big 12 and you cansell the venues and thecaliber of play, you’regoing to end up gettinga better kid because ofit. And we’ve only beenable to do that for the

last couple of years.”Holgorsen believes

help is on the way. WVUis currently redshirting30 players who couldmake an impact in thefuture, and it will havesome extra time to lookfor more prospects whocan come in and provideassistance, with no bowlpreparation standing inthe way.

“Everybody’s chal-lenge across the country

is to continue to try toamp your roster up,”said Holgorsen. “We’reredshirting about 30guys right now. Some ofthose guys are walk-ons,and whether they devel-op into what we need ornot, only time will tell.But I think we’re get-ting better. I do thinkthat our recruiting hasgotten better, and Ithink it will continue toget better.”

The Mountaineers al-so have guys like Mar-vin Gross, DarrienHoward, Jeremy Tyler,Daryl Worley, WendellSmallwood and DaikielShorts, freshmen whowere forced to play thisseason and should bemuch better with a yearof seasoning.


follow on Twitter@CamHuffmanRH

HOLGORSENContinued from 1B

“They kept running it,but not internally,” FIUdefensive tackle IsameFaciane said. “They keptrunning to the outside.”

The Panthers trailed byjust10, 17-7, at halftimebut could not hang on.

“We just couldn’t keepit going,” Turner said.“Turnovers and thingslike that. We just couldn’tdo it.”

Marshall last playedFIU in the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl in 2011,winning 20-10.


follow on Twitter @GaryFauber

FIUContinued from 1B

and Oklahoma State,will be played at HawleyField in Morgantown.

“I am excited that weget to bring Big 12 base-ball to Morgantown,”said WVU athletic direc-tor Oliver Luck in a re-lease with the scheduleon Monday. “After lastseason’s success thatsaw our program soar tonew heights, we reallycaught the attention ofMountaineer fansthroughout the state.”

Excited to have theBig 12 in Morgantown?That’s a far cry fromwhat Luck was saying inMay when he came toBeckley with the WVUCoaches Caravan.

“Hawley Field, by Big12 standards, was at thevery bottom,” he said,explaining why WVUchose to hit the road for

its home games. “By BigEast standards, it was atthe very bottom. We did-n’t have locker rooms. Ifa player had to go to thebathroom during agame, he had to gowhere the fans go.

“I don’t want to subjectthe University of Texas,which has a beautifulballpark, or Oklahoma tohaving to go to the rest-room with fans or havingto change on their bus orin their hotel rooms.That’s just not the stan-dard that we wanted toset.”

When asked if theywould be back at HawleyField this year, Luck’sresponse was clear.

“The same things thatbothered me going into(the 2013 season) stillbother me,” he said. “Wemay do one (home Big 12series), because we wantto close down HawleyField with a bang.”

Instead, WVU will dothree, and it will subject

Texas to Hawley Fieldand all of its limitations.

The question is, why?Nothing has changed

at Hawley Field. With anew ballpark under con-struction, WVU isn’t go-ing to put money intofixing up its old one. Itstill won’t have lockerrooms, and the players’bathroom breaks willstill have to be madewith the fans. If it wasan embarrassment lastyear, it won’t be any dif-ferent this year. WVUwas a player last seasonin the Big 12. But itcould quickly become alaughingstock this yearthanks to its outdatedfield.

An equally large head-scratcher, though, is whythere is not a singlegame at Linda K. EplingStadium in Beckley onthis year’s schedule?

When WVU hostedKansas for a three-gameBig 12 series there lastyear, the opener drew

2,053 fans, at the timethe largest crowd to everwatch a WVU baseballgame in the state ofWest Virginia.

“We set records here inBeckley,” said Luck inMay, even suggestingthat the Mountaineersmay return for a serieseven after the new stadi-um is in place. “Thatmakes it special. We al-ways knew there was alot of Mountaineer fansdown here, but for thefans to come out andhelp us sweep Kansaswas a lot of fun.

“We have a lot of fansdown here,” he contin-ued. “It’s hard to getfrom Beckley to Morgan-town. It’s easier for ourkids to come down for along weekend.”

Apparently that won’thappen, and, in my eyes,there’s really no excuse.


follow on Twitter@CamHuffmanRH.

HUFFMANContinued from 1B

BASEBALLContinued from 1B

Eddie leads Hokies to105-92 win over VMI

BLACKSBURG, Va.(AP) — Jarell Eddiescored 21 points to leadVirginia Tech past Vir-ginia Military Institute105-92 on Monday.

The Hokies (3-1) hita season-high 11 3-pointers. Eddie tied hiscareer high with fiveand shot 7 of 12 fromthe floor overall. He al-so made both of his

free-throw attemptsand grabbed six re-bounds.

Freshman guard BenEmelogu added 19points off the bench forthe Hokies, and C.J.Barksdale, who wassuspended for the firstthree games of thisseason by VirginiaTech coach JamesJohnson for a violationof team rules, scored16 points and grabbedsix rebounds in his sea-son debut.

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