Welcome back to The Deep Post, a notebook/column that dissects the happenings of the week past and ahead. This week’s offering takes an extended dive into Princeton’s Hail Mary win, game script, the latest injunctions and Beckley’s wild weekend.
Prayers Answered
By now everyone has seen the video of the Hail Mary pass Princeton completed to tie and ultimately win the game against Parkersburg South on Friday. I believe it’s probably the third most important part of the game but the controversy surrounding it and the ensuing discussion have brought it to the forefront.
If you haven’t seen it, Princeton scored on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Chance Barker to Jake Belcher as time expired. Belcher was ruled to have obtained simultaneous possession with the defender on the way down and by rule the possession always goes to the offense. Belcher’s score tied the game and the ensuing PAT won it.
I probably had the best angle of the play and in the moment I wouldn’t have been brave enough to rule it a touchdown. I’m still not sure it was, but I’m also not sure, by rule, that it wasn’t. There’s enough evidence to argue Belcher got in on it on the way down.
Greg Barnett, who shot the game for us, grabbed this picture of the play that seems to support the argument that Belcher got enough of the ball while the defender was in the air to force simultaneous possession.
Where the issue comes in is the scrum afterwards. There was no decision offered until well over a minute after the play was concluded. After Belcher and the Parkersburg South defender hit the ground, Princeton’s Daniel Jennings can be seen standing up behind both players. He dove into the pile to try to gain possession and eventually Belcher let go and Jennings became the offensive player grappling for the ball. Jennings came up with the ball afterwards.
The confusion comes in here because the officials never clarified who scored the touchdown. They never specifically do in high school, but clarifying it could’ve helped the cause (unless they ruled that Jennings caught it). The mics were working and I asked both coaches after the game whether or not they were told who was ruled to have caught it specifically and neither was given that answer.
Between the play and the ensuing PAT I asked an official as well, for statistical purposes and story accuracy, and didn’t receive a definitive answer.
For Parkersburg South I understand the frustration. Eli Bartley had maybe the best single-game performance I’ve seen from a player on offense this season with six touchdowns and over 300 yards from scrimmage and that’s going to be overshadowed.
I do believe South’s decision to try and intercept the ball may have been the biggest execution error of the evening and the capper for what was a rough quarter for that unit.
Matt Bowen, a former NFL defensive back and current coach and writer/analyst at ESPN wrote a detailed breakdown about Hail Mary defense and how to properly execute it eight years ago.
Essentially, while the strategy points seem basic to spectators, it’s far more detailed than that.
Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in full here.
“And don’t ever try to pick it off. That’s how the ball gets tipped up in the air.”
It’s also how you end up with simultaneous possession scenarios.
Batting it down doesn’t always work. The Houston Texans batted a Hail Mary down in 2010, right into the arms of a Jacksonville Jaguar receiver for the game-winning touchdown. I’ve spoken to multiple coaches since last night and the consensus seems to be you want to bat it down.
The other two storylines that stand out are South yielding a 19-point fourth quarter lead and the loss of Marquel Lowe for Princeton.
I’m a firm believer that you can’t blame officiating for a loss.
I said the same thing last week when Beckley jumped offsides to cement a 19-14 loss at Oak Hill.
Ryan Davidson, the girls basketball coach at Wyoming East, has an incredible view of officiating and its role in contests.
“Don’t let the officials become a factor. Take the game out of their hands.”
On a related note his program has won three of the last four Class AA state championships.
South had a chance to take the game out of the officials’ hands, leading by 19 points heading into the fourth quarter. There is no 20-point play in football. It takes three scores to score that many points and It took Princeton 23 plays across three drives to get what it needed. That’s 23 opportunities to generate a turnover. Extrapolating it further, Princeton faced third or fourth down five times in the fourth quarter and got what it needed. That doesn’t include the 14 plays South ran on offense, 11 of which came in Princeton territory. There’s also the two-point conversion attempt South failed to convert on despite getting a 6-foot-3 receiver isolated against a 5-foot-5 defensive back on a fade. That would’ve given South 49 points, forcing Princeton to go for two on the final play just to get to overtime.
I like some of South’s coaches as well. Larry Thompson, an assistant on that staff, rebuilt and took two different programs in this area to the playoffs while he lived here. So I don’t say all of this to rail on Parkersburg South, which was a fun team to watch!
I say it to hammer home the point that officiating doesn’t lose games. It always comes down to execution. There were over 100 plays ran last night. The last one might be the most memorable one but it wasn’t the only one.
I’m a Philadelphia Eagles fan. I could blame the Super Bowl 57 loss on a late defensive holding call I didn’t like. Instead I choose to blame a multitude of tangible factors – the Eagles blew a 10-point halftime lead, allowed the longest punt return in Super Bowl history, failed to defend the same motion on touchdown scoring plays twice, failed to address a blitz protection issue that plagued them all year and managed just 11 points in the second half.
Putting the blame on officiating clouds the ability to understand the problems that led to the situations you’re in in the first place. When you’re looking at what you can do better independent of outside factors, you grow.
As exciting as the win was for Princeton, the biggest storyline is the loss of Marquel Lowe who exited the game after the second play from scrimmage. He suffered what appeared to be a lower leg injury and asked to get back in the game multiple times.
Princeton head coach Keith Taylor mentioned his trainer felt some instability and didn’t want to risk it so he’ll be evaluated by a doctor this week. Making sure Lowe’s healthy for a deep playoff run has to be the top priority for Princeton.
He holds the defense together as a linebacker and I thought his absence was glaring as Bartley ran wild. He also provides the offense a luxury of versatility that makes Princeton difficult to stop. He plays running back and receiver at a high level and his gravity creates favorable situations for his teammates. Simply put, he makes everything easier for everybody else.
Game Script
I do think Princeton will need to take the week to go over internal game script and in-game decision making.
When Princeton scored its first touchdown of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 47-34, there was a decision to either go for two, or kick the PAT. This isn’t a hindsight opinion, as I made note of it in real time – the correct decision was to go for two. A missed PAT keeps it at 13, while a PAT makes it a 12-point game. If the math is getting confusing the point is both of those outcomes require you to score two more touchdowns to tie or win.
A successful conversion makes it an 11-point game.
What’s the difference between 11 and 12/13?
When it’s an 11-point contest you give yourself the opportunity to tie the game with a touchdown, two-point conversion and a field goal. The other two outcomes require two touchdowns, so the line of thinking is to take the route with considerably more upside. If you get the PAT, you need two touchdowns. If you fail to convert for two, you need two touchdowns. If you convert you don’t need to two touchdowns. The reward outweighs the risk. And Princeton ended up missing the PAT anyway.
I asked Keith Taylor about it after the game because this isn’t the first time this issue has come up. When Princeton hosted Parkersburg in the quarterfinals last year, the Tigers scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to 37-34 and kicked the PAT to make it 37-35 instead of going for two which would’ve made it 37-36. The best play is to go for two in that situation because if you get a stop and score again, you can go for two again and lead 44-37. If you don’t get a stop but still score again, you can tie the game at 44.
Now, the argument there is “But Tyler, at 37-35 you can take a lead on a field goal.”
Yes, you could but game flow and the elements matter. It poured rain that evening and the Tigers had a serviceable PAT kicker as opposed to a dedicated field goal kicker.
After last year’s Super Bowl between the Chiefs and 49ers, San Francisco head coach Kyla Shanahan was ripped for taking the ball first in overtime because getting it second means you know exactly what you need to win the game (NFL OT rules state each team gets a chance to possess the ball in the playoffs). I agreed with Shanahan’s thought process because his defense was on the field for an 11-play drive at the end of regulation. They needed a breather. If he had put them back on the field for another long drive, the results probably don’t change.
All of that to say decisions should factor in game flow and context, especially on nights where your defense is giving up points in buckets. Decision making comes down to what you need to keep up in a boat race.
“I am not the greatest numbers guy,” Taylor laughed. “Obviously, I kind of fly by the seat of my pants, and that is not good for a head coach. So I learned a lot tonight. I think saving the timeout and declining the penalty was absolutely the right call. On the PAT (my assistants) said, ‘Hey, what are we doing?’ They’re like, ‘Hey, your call, boss’ And I’m like, let’s just kick it. After that I said, ‘Hey, pay attention, and let’s see what we need to do next time.’ It ended up working out right. But I got to get better at that game.
“it’s just one of those things that I’ve kind of just went by feeling that’s the way I kind of live my life. And sometimes it works out. Sometimes it don’t. It did tonight, you know. I think if we would have got the two-point conversion there, we don’t even have to kick it. The game would be over anyway, right? But it worked out down here for sure.”
I do have to give Taylor credit for effectively managing his timeouts in the final two minutes. He had all three available to him – something I value as somebody who had to watch Andy Reid mismanage them for a decade – and called them when he deemed necessary.
My personal preference is to use them right around or before the two-minute mark because you have more control of the clock on offense (spikes, incompletions, getting out of bounds, etc.). Taylor waited to call his and even saved his final one for the offense to use after the penultimate play from scrimmage. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and Taylor picked the right one Friday.
Flying High Eagles
It was an incredible three-day stretch for the Flying Eagles of Beckley.
Let’s start on the pitch.
Beckley finished with arguably the most exciting pair of state tournament victories in the history of the event. A.J. Bishop scored the golden goal in a 3-2 state semifinal overtime victory to send the Flying Eagles to the Class AAA title game.
Then, with under 15 seconds left in the title game Beckley throws the ball in and gets an open look to Hagen Hall who scores the game-winning goal in the state championship game with 3.8 seconds left. That’s what you dream of when you’re a kid. Those are highs that can’t be matched.
I’ve always had a lot of respect for the way Beckley head coach Steve Laraba heads his program. They’ve always scheduled tough and when George Washington was the dominant power in the region, he didn’t shrug it off or disrespect that program for what it accomplished. He always acknowledged they were the team to beat but never backed down from that challenge. It was a realistic view that gave his program the opportunity to return to the top of the mountain.
I wrote earlier about how honesty with officiating allows you to self reflect and focus on what you can control. I’ve always felt Laraba’s approach fell into that line of thinking and now he and his team are state champions.
On another note, the Flying Eagles suffered just two losses all season (2-1 Wheeling Park, 2-0 Hurricane). They avenged both of them in the state tournament.
But the soccer team didn’t use up all the juice. The football team pulled itself off the mat as well!
I’ve harped about the fact Beckley was following the same trend it had the past two seasons – start 5-1 with a loss to Parkersburg South and skid to the finish line. The Flying Eagles were skidding again this year, entering Friday night’s contest against a good George Washington team on a three-game losing streak with a 5-4 record.
So what happened?
Much like they did in 2021, the Flying Eagles turned the corner and won their final game. The vibes are immaculate in the City of Champions.
Beckley pulled out a much-needed 14-12 victory and made a defensive stand to do so. From a confidence standpoint the Flying Eagles needed that. The human element sets in and that weight looms over you. Now it’s been lifted just in time for the playoffs. And what’s next? A rematch with Washington which Beckley beat 20-17 in overtime on the road in the season opener.
Game Balls
- Brock Green, Independence – Green’s touchdown numbers don’t look impressive because he’s been vultured by the run game in goal-to-go situations but he had a career performance Friday, passing for over 300 yards to set a new single-season passing yards mark. The five touchdown passes weren’t bad either.
- Westside’s passing attack – Kadien Vance broke the program’s single-game passing yards record, Kyler Kenneda broke the single-season receiving yards record and Coltin Lester broke the single-game receiving yards record in a win over Mount View. A nice trifecta.
- James Monroe’s defense – When the offense was struggling, the Mavericks turned to a defense that’s carried them all year and received similar results. Two defensive touchdowns paved the way to a 28-20 victory that stunned Bluefield and cemented a playoff berth.
- Brad Mossor, Princeton – Mossor finished with 111 yards (unofficially) receiving Friday, putting him over 1,000 on the regular season.
- Coby Dillon, Beckley – Dillon scored at least one goal in every one of Beckley’s postseason soccer games as he led the charge on a state title run.
- Oak Hill’s offense – I was transparent in that I believed Oak Hill needed to find a new gear on offense to round out the final two weeks of the season. The Red Devils found it Friday night, overcoming a 20-0 deficit to beat University 34-28 on the road Friday. The 30-point outing broke a 14-game streak that saw the Red Devils fall short of that threshold. Just in time for the playoffs!
Injunctions
I wish we’d move past the point of appealing everything that inconveniences us.
Tyler Consolidated’s volleyball team received an injunction right before the postseason started, moving down to Class A from Class AA, just as the football team did. So now Tyler will be in the Class A state tournament next week, facing No. 9 St. Marys in a play-in game. I’ve been told if Tyler is indeed in, multiple Class A schools plan to file an injunction to have TCHS removed. The late shift isn’t sitting well with anybody and the single-A schools are banding together.
If that happens I’ve been told to expect that the Class A state tournament won’t be played next week.
Football is experiencing the same thing as the Wood County Circuit Court granted an injunction to have the football playoff ratings points restored to the values that they were when teams originally scheduled each other. This would mean a team like Independence, which was bumped from Class AAA to AA would count for AAA ratings points on the schedules of the teams it beat.
This changed the ratings as four teams who were in prior to the injunction are now out.
Locally, no team was impacted more than Westside. As it stands, and I’m sure it will change in some capacity, the Renegades fell short of the postseason with a 7-3 record. Nabbing the No. 16 seed is 3-7 Lincoln. That’s a bad beat for the Renegades and while I think their schedule was, at best, the fourth hardest amongst area Class AA teams (James Monroe, Bluefield and Indy would get the nod for me) I wouldn’t say it was abnormally nerfed. Tug Valley and Independence have a chance to be semifinal teams and Shady made the Class AAA playoffs. For those seeking the easiest explanation, Westside didn’t win any of those three games and that’s where the bonus points were.
The seven teams Westside did beat were a combined 17-51, none of which won more than three games. That’s the easiest explanation for why Westside sits where it does. Overall it’s a weird year. James Monroe’s playoff seeding suffered from a similar circumstance despite scheduling Wheeling Central, Shady and Bluefield.
Westside head coach Justin Cogar issued a statement noting the county administration is working to correct the issue and correctly noted this isn’t as much a WVSSAC issue as it is one aggravated by the schools and courts.
I believe the WVSSAC has taken missteps along the way (denying all the appeals across the board, not rectifying the ratings system before the season, etc.) but allowing the schools to repeatedly run to the courts and strip the governing body of high school sports in this state of its ability to do just that doesn’t help the cause.
Expect another injunction and pray we start the playoffs on time.
Class A volleyball? Well, we’ll see!
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
