Prep football playoffs: Flying Eagles get second shot at Highlanders
· Yahoo Sports
Not everyone gets a second chance, but that’s exactly where Woodrow Wilson’s football team finds itself.
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The Flying Eagles are the No. 11 seed in the Class AAAA state playoffs and will travel to No. 6 Huntington Friday night for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
The teams played Sept. 25 in Beckley and the Highlanders left with a 50-15 win, their 13th straight in the series against the Flying Eagles. Woodrow’s last win over Huntington was 24-20 in Beckley on Oct. 15, 2010.
The Flying Eagles (4-6) are looking forward to getting another shot. They don’t feel they gave a proper account of themselves the first time around. Head coach Street Sarrett said it ”was the worst game we played all year long,” and feels it spilled over into the next two games.
“We had two blocked punts, guys just not doing what they’re supposed to, interceptions, fumbles, things like that,” Sarrett said. “Those are player mistakes, and it haunted them after that game. The next two weeks we played tough, going in at halftime (leading in eventual losses) against Winfield and Cabell Midland.
“We’ve got to put a whole game together against good teams. Against teams that haven’t been very good, we do good. We’ve got to start stepping up and and playing the tough teams tougher for four quarters.”
Drawing a first round opponent that you played in the regular season can help in preparation.
“We just look at different things, some games that they played after us and see if they did anything different, and we put a few wrinkles in,” Sarrett said. “We’ve seen some mistakes that (Woodrow made) on defense last time, and that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to have a Plan A, Plan B, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The Flying Eagles won their first three games before dropping five straight. But there were plenty of things Sarrett liked about the season.
“I like the toughness of our kids and our young kids playing,” he said. “We’ve got some young kids playing and they’re learning and getting better. Our seniors, they kept the team going. We were on a losing streak there for a while and we had some people that didn’t like being part of our program and they teetered off and went in different ways. Like we always say, this ain’t for everybody. It’s tough to be a football player.”
Junior Gage Burdette has 166 carries for 1,065 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Flying Eagles. Senior Javontae Wynes has 699 yards and 10 touchdowns on an even 100 carries.
Quarterback Gage Price has completed 87 of 160 passes for 945 yards and nine touchdowns, but has thrown 11 interceptions.
Vince Umberger has eight field goals for the Flying Eagles.
The Highlanders (7-3) are led by sophomore Marek Midkiff, who has completed nearly 60 percent of his passes (124 of 209) for 1,594 yards with 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Midkiff’s top targets have been Kellen Rife (31 receptions, 452 yards, 10 touchdowns), Donte Newsome (24-331, 6), Ethan Goodson (16-242, 3) and Johnny Garrett (16-144, 1).
Travon Okonkwo (80 carries, 523 yards, 4 TDs) and Newsome (64-486, 7) lead the ground game.
Sarrett and Co. are sure not to take any playoff berth for granted. But he’s ready for some postseason success.
“I’ve been where we didn’t get in the playoffs, and there’s teams sitting at home. They’ve packed their stuff up,” Sarrett said.
“We’re happy. It’s expected to be in the playoffs on our team, but man, we’ve got to win some playoff games. We got to win a playoff game, and these guys want to win and they have the potential to win it.”