Week two wasn’t short on storylines. Friday morning many local fans woke up to the news that inclement weather and the fallout from Hurricane Ernesto had sacked at least a portion of the Friday night line-up for a loss. Several area teams including Elkins, Tucker County, Tygarts Valley, Bridgeport and Preston County would have their games postponed until later in the holiday weekend. On the field there was plenty to talk about as well. Coach Curtis Bodkins’ upstart Philip Barbour Colts continued their winning ways while other local squads such as Grafton and Fairmont Senior got things back on track after week one setbacks. Another area team that turned the proverbial arrow back to true north was Coach John Bowers’ Morgantown Mohigans. After dropping their first game since the month Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as California’s Governor (yes – it had been that long), MHS headed into their week two match-up against the Brooke Bruins with the eyes of the state suddenly on them for a much different reason than expected. The mighty Mohigans had stumbled in their opener against HD Woodson, and many across the West Virginia high school landscape waited to see not merely how they would respond, but if they were in fact worthy of the preseason hype visited on them. All Morgantown did was respond with a dominant 42-14 decision that saw them limit Brooke’s Scott Victorio to 10 yards on 10 carries one week after the Bruins’ star had exploded for 200-plus yards in BHS’ opening night win over John Marshall.
Many area teams enjoyed standout performances Friday night, but none were more pivotal or more impressive than the East Fairmont Bees. When you manage to upset a conference rival for the first time in over a dozen years, that tends to get people’s attention. That is exactly what Coach Bill Haddox and his Bees did last week at East-West Stadium in Fairmont with a 19-6 win over the University Hawks. In recent years, with talented skill players listed up and down the Bees’ roster - from Billy Ray to Adam Leonard to Jacob Janicki - EFHS had earned somewhat of a reputation as a finesse team. Friday night East side removed that label with a physically impressive performance that saw the Bees beat the Hawks in the trenches. Sure there were big plays on the perimeter (How could it be an EFHS game if there weren’t?) but this time around they were accompanied by a steady diet of blue collar efforts between the tackles that went a long way toward helping East side pull away for the surprising win. THEGAMEBREAKER.NET congratulates the East Fairmont Bees, our second Team of the Week for the 2006 season.
