Weir seeks revenge in rare Saturday afternoon contest
Trending
WEIRTON -- Weir High was riding high last week with a lofty state ranking of a tie for second with perennial powerhouse Bridgeport. The 21-18 loss at Keyser last week dropped the Red Riders to a three-way tie for eighth in this week's WVSSAC rankings with Bridgeport and North Marion.
Now, the Riders are faced with picking up the pieces and starting a new win streak as Petersburg (2-2) invades Jimmy Carey Stadium for a rare Saturday afternoon tilt set 4 p.m.
The Vikings won the first two games of the season but have lost the last two. After wins over two now 1-3 teams (Berkeley Springs and Pendleton County), the Vikings have lost to Grafton (3-1) and Hampshire (2-1) by scores of 28-13 and 33-27, respectively. That makes Petersburg the 27th rated club in Class AA.
"Last year, when we went down to Petersburg, they were 3-1 and we beat them," Red Rider coach Tony Filberto said. "They are 2-2 this year and are a similar team except they may run the ball a little more.
"My chief concern is stopping their big quarterback. He returns from last year and he likes to run and throw from a spread offense. He had a couple of pretty good receivers last year that graduated, so this year he is taking a lot on his shoulders and is running with the ball a lot more. He's a capable kid."
Filberto is talking about junior Jacob Hartman (6-3, 197 pounds).
Up front, Filberto said Petersburg has some size led by seniors Tanner Champ (6-5, 260) and Chance Jackson (6-3, 235).
"The Petersburg defense has changed some from last year when we were able to hit the inside option with Donavan Spencer," Filberto said. "We gashed them pretty good through the middle. This year, they show an odd man front that moves around. It will be something a little different for us to contend with.
"We may be able to do less option and get back more to our inside power game. I have said all along we'll deal with whatever the defense gives us."
Last week, the Keyser defense stopped the Red Rider run game cold. In the three previous games, Weir High runners gained more than 200 yards per game, but the staunch Golden Tornado defense yielded just 57 yards on the ground.
Filberto makes no bones about it. He likes a rushing offense and used it for success in a 3-0 start this season.
While the Riders couldn't get much on the ground, Filberto showed that his team can get the job done through the air when it has to. Junior quarterback Tyler Komorowski completed 10-of-16 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns.
He had scoring throws to fellow junior Reed Reitter of 69 and 46 yards, and the second one put Weir High ahead in the fourth quarter 18-14. Junior Chad Custer caught two passes for 17 yards, and sophomore Sebastian Spencer, who ran 54 yards for a touchdown on a reverse, caught three for 14. Reitter also caught three more passes for 42 additional yards.
Meanwhile, on the defensive side, Komorowski continued his hard work at defensive end with 10 combined tackles, two for loss. He was joined defensively against Keyser by senior defensive back Jaylon Bridges who had 12.5 combined tackles, and Reitter added nine.
"If you look at the total offense for each team (Weir 245, Keyser 340), there isn't a real big difference," Filberto said. "We just couldn't get the yardage on the ground when we needed a first down, so we went to the air and lost the game because we couldn't make extra points. Our first kick was blocked, so we went for two on the other two touchdowns and were not successful."
Filberto hopes his squad can turn it around this week. He feels his team is faster than Petersburg and hopes his defensive front can get to Hartman.
"We want to attack him before he attacks us," he said. "We want to get back to our power game with two running backs. I think we'll be okay against their odd man front if our kids will just follow the rules and stay out of trouble.
"We need to be comfortable and confident in what we do. I think that extra day of practice will help us get more repetitions against the Petersburg offense and defense schemes."
As for the 4 p.m. start, Filberto said he asked for it last year when the Red Riders made the long trip to Petersburg, which is in the eastern mountains of West Virginia, so his team could get there and back in one day. He said he heard that Petersburg, on the other hand, plans to travel to Wheeling Friday for an overnight stay and pull into Weirton around 1 p.m. Saturday, but he has no confirmation of that.