Parkersburg South head coach Nate Tanner spoke to his players between games earlier this season as part of the Erickson All-Sports Facility. (Photo courtesy of Kelly Patrick)
PARKERSBURG — Considered a replacement of sorts, but still looking for his first win of the season, Linsley’s 0-7 record comes as the Cadets host Parkersburg South in a special game this Saturday afternoon. , nothing to sneeze at.
Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. at Lockhart Stadium.
“We definitely took into account who Linsley played this year.” South coach Nate Tanner said he expects the 4-3 Patriots to reverse the trend and end a two-game losing streak. “They’ve had a tough schedule, so an 0-7 record is very deceptive.”
All of Linsley’s past seven opponents have at least seven wins to date. Ashland (Ohio) and Steubenville (Ohio) are both 9-0, while Bridgeport is currently 8-0. The Cadets’ opponents have a combined winning percentage of .867 (39-6).
“Two schools dropped us, Greenbrier East and Capital, so we tried to find two games to replace those two schools.” Tanner said. “We contacted over 30 schools within an hour-and-a-half to two-hour radius. Our options were Lindsley, Steubenville and Huntington.
“At the time, we had the option of playing Huntington the week before Bridgeport. We didn’t want to do that because we would be playing two very tough opponents back-to-back, and we didn’t want to play Huntington the week before Bridgeport. I didn’t want to do the same thing.”
The Southern schedule included a road game at Linsley at Spring Mills in the second half of the regular season. The afternoon hours were part of the package since Lockhart Stadium has no lights.
“No disrespect to Spring Mills and Lindsley, regardless of who did it. Lindsley was closer.” Tanner said.
South and Linsley have met three times previously, including the most recent matchup in the 2020 COVID-19 year, which Linsley won 33-19. Linsley leads the series 2-1 and ironically has scored 33 points in all three contests.
“We restarted the game at the last minute during the coronavirus pandemic.” Tanner said. “We decided to play the game this week. It was an unusual situation with only one day to prepare.”
South is looking to bounce back from last week’s 28-14 loss to Morgantown on Senior Night at the Erickson AllSports Facility. The Patriots tied the game at 14-14 midway through the third quarter, but only had the ball for three minutes in the final quarter as Morgantown took advantage of a fumble on a Patriot kickoff return. . The Mohegans had success on the ground as well, consuming several minutes off the clock and not giving South’s offense many opportunities to get on the field.
“Morale was obviously low. Nobody wants to lose.” Tanner said. “We still have goals in front of us. We have a chance to have a winning season and a chance to make the playoffs.
“This week we changed our film studies. We spent extra time showing not only the good things they did, but also the bad clips. There were also bad clips, but this movie It showed how close they were to success in the Morgantown theater.
Regardless of Linsley’s personnel, South’s players are ready to fight back after struggling in back-to-back matchups against Bridgeport and Morgantown.
“Morgantown may have played their best game of the season.” Tanner said. “They didn’t make too many mistakes. They did a great job controlling the pace and tempo of the game in the second half. Some of that was our fault, too.
“We have good kids. They listen and they care. That’s what’s fun about this group. They’re good at trying and trying to do the right thing.”
Contact Kelly Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com
