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Wildcats not looking past Belpre

JORDAN HOLLAND The Marietta Times Waterford’s Tyler McCutcheon, left, carries the ball during a high school football game against Wahama earlier this season.

WATERFORD — It would be understandable if Waterford was thinking about playoff football instead of taking on Belpre at 7 p.m. Friday.

But the Wildcats coach, Eric McCutcheon, hasn’t even mentioned the postseason to his team this week. There’s no way he will let his team think of anything else but the Golden Eagles.

“We’re going for a TVC title and we’re not overlooking Belpre at all,” McCutcheon said. “We’re going to battle them extremely hard. They’re going to bring their best shot at us, and we’re going to give them our best.”

Waterford (8-1, 7-0) has defeated every other Hocking Division team, including a 55-0 thrashing of Federal Hocking last week. The Wildcats are also ranked No. 1 in the Division VII, Region 27 rankings – which means they will host a playoff game next week if they win on senior night.

Belpre (4-5, 4-3), fresh off a come-from-behind 25-20 victory over Eastern, would like to reach .500 with a huge upset.

“We’ve been talking about just that at practice,” said Belpre coach Greg Adams. “We talked to the team about how Waterford is ranked No. 1 in the region, and how it would be something for us to beat Waterford for the fourth straight year and get to .500.”

Adams knows it’s just talk, but he wants his young team to know it’s possible.

“We don’t have anything to lose. We’re going to try for the upset,” he said. “They are a good team and they certainly will be ready for us. We’re practicing the same and we’re getting ready for them.”

It might take a near-perfect performance for the Golden Eagles to pull off the upset. Adams likes what he saw against Eastern when freshman quarterback Brandon Simoniette led a last-second drive that ended with his a 3-yard score.

“We saw him grow up a bit that night,” Adams said. “We are very young and we’re certainly going to miss the few seniors that we’re losing, but we have been getting these kids experience these past few games.”

Waterford, though, has cruised through the TVC schedule, which includes a convincing 46-7 victory over Eastern in Reedsville.

McCutcheon said Belpre’s athleticism is what concerns him most, especially junior running back Tojzae Reams and senior wide out Deijon Bedgood.

“There extremely young, but fast and athletic. They love to get to the outside,” he said. “We have to take all of that stuff into consideration. Everyone in Waterford is expecting a good battle.”

The Wildcats have been controlling games all season with their defense, but lately Waterford has become more reliant on its running game. Against Federal Hocking, the Wildcats had 320 yards on the ground, including Tyler McCutcheon’s 165 on 18 carries. He also had two touchdowns. Braden Bellville chipped in with 85 yards and two TDs on five carries.

“We’ve been running the ball extremely well the past few weeks, but I don’t want to lose our touch passing the ball,” coach McCutcheon said. “It’s supposed to be a nice evening, so we’ll do a little bit of both and we should pass the ball. Also, our defense has been playing extremely well and putting the offense in great position.”

Sounds like Waterford will let quarterback Isaac Huffman air it out a bit more. He completed just three passes last week, but all were for touchdowns and 143 yards.

“This year has been a blast. These kids, well, anything we’ve asked them they have done it,” coach McCutcheon said. “We’ve asked kids to switch positions and no one has ever complained. These kids have bought into team. It’s been very rewarding. Our coaching staff and I are very happy of all of them.”

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