Trending
WEIRTON -- John McCune and company were looking forward to a chance to be 3-0 after a couple of big wins in their first two games.
His Blue Dons might be 3-0, but that will be a matter of decision making by the first-year Madonna coach and his staff and not be the way they had planned.
McCune and company had been scheduled to make a trip to Morgantown to battle Trinity Christian on Friday night, but word came down Tuesday that the Warriors are short on players and unable to play.
Whether Madonna will accept a forfeit win to go to 3-0 or have the game ruled a no-contest was yet to be decided as of Tuesday afternoon.
Should it be ruled a no-contest, Madonna could opt to have an extra bye and have their rating in the playoff rankings divided by nine instead of 10, or they could look to pick up a game during their originally scheduled Week 11 bye.
That decision has to be made by Friday.
While it may not have been planned that way, the week off does come at a good time for the Dons as they suffered a couple of injuries in a 28-8 victory at Clay-Battelle.
"We're excited to be 2-0, we knew we were in for a physical challenge against Clay-Battelle but we were confident our speed could make a difference against them and it did," McCune said. "We fumbled at the one and left some points out there, but it was a well-deserved victory. It didn't come without some injuries, though.
"We wanted to play Trinity, we felt like it was a team comparable in size and we matched up well ... but this unplanned week off comes at a good time to heal up after a physical battle. We're working on conditioning and working on what we want to implement for next week."
The unplanned bye also gives McCune and the coaching staff some added time on the practice field to work with what is a younger group. They have a couple of games of film to work with.
"We have nine freshmen, so this is their week," he said. "We're putting them in different spots and working with them. We needed some of them against Clay-Battelle and this is a chance to work with them, it's beneficial for them and the coaching staff. It's kind of a recharge before our schedule really ramps up."
That will undoubtedly be a benefit to freshman QB Maddox Bowen, who has thrown for 383 yards and five touchdowns in his first two games as a varsity quarterback. He also rushed for a touchdown last week.
"Maddox played really well," McCune said. "If not for a couple drops he probably would have been over 300 yards. He watches film a lot, he has some of the most Hudl hours out there. The big thing for him is working on his pre-snap reads. We have a pretty intricate offense he's learning and he's asking a lot of good questions. He's one of the few guys that hasn't been sick or hurt so he's been here working every day and it's exciting to see how much he wants to get better."
Madonna's next scheduled game is Sept. 20 hosting Webster County.