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Belpre, Southern square off in key TVC game

MIKE MORRISON The Marietta Times Belpre’s Jesse Collins carries the ball during a high school football game against Fort Frye earlier this season at Ralph Holder Stadium.

BELPRE — While Belpre likes to mainly run the ball, the Golden Eagles’ football foe this Friday will be visiting pass-happy Southern as the two teams clash at 7:30 p.m. at Ralph Holder Stadium.

In winning its second straight game last week with a 41-22 decision over host Wahama, Belpre rushed for a big-time total of 440 yards on 38 carries.

But even more so, converted senior lineman Jesse Collins ran for 348 of those yards on just 18 rushes and scored all the Golden Eagles’ six touchdowns from 12, 14, 57, 55 and 62 yards out before finally returning a 40-yard interception return for a TD.

“Jesse certainly had a great game,” said Belpre head coach Mike DeVol. “But like I say — and he would probably say it too — if you’ve got holes like he ran through, they had to be created by somebody.”

And that would be the Golden Eagles’ “very young, but very good offensive line,” said DeVol, who added that “Jesse is also doing a great job for us at running back.”

Collins was one of several on the offensive line that DeVol and his staff before the season began switched them into the backfield to run the ball. “We moved Jesse from tight end and defensive end back into the backfield,” related DeVol. “He has the speed, he’s got the toughness and he will play ball at the next level (college), probably not as a running back, but as a tight end or defensive end. So he’s going to be pretty good in the future I think.”

Of course, Belpre, now 2-2, got off to a rough start this season as the Golden Eagles have done for a few years now, by having to face two toughies right off the bat in Fort Frye and Trimble, with the outcome being no different than lately with two setbacks.

However, Belpre has bounced back with wins over Miller and Wahama the last two weeks, as “right now when you look at both sides of the ball, we’ve got eight or nine sophomores starting,” said DeVol. “But every game’s going to be tough. We have to prepare, we have to get better. We only have three seniors (co-captains Collins, C/LB Gavyn Freeland, OG/DE Dakota Ross) that start. But as a team, fundamentally they’re getting much better and I think the future looks very, very good.”

On TVC Hocking foe Southern, which brings a 4-0 mark into Friday’s contest, the Tornadoes “are a pretty good team with a good quarterback and running backs, are well coached and have a lot of seniors on the team,” said DeVol. “So they’re going to be tough, and it just depends on how hard we play and what happens that’ll determine the outcome of the game.”

For Belpre under DeVol, its first priority on offense is to run the ball, but there was nary a completion on only two passes against Wahama. “We do occasionally throw the ball, but with what we have, the offense has to match the talent you have and right now we have some good offensive linemen and some good running backs, which makes for a very good running offensive team,” said DeVol.

Southern, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of Belpre on offense, as “they throw the ball a lot,” said DeVol. “They have four or five kids that are really great receivers and have got speed, while for their quarterback last week, 21 of their first 31 plays were pass plays.”

The last two wins, thinks DeVol, “gave the kids more confidence. Right now, they seem to be having fun. We’re getting new kids out all the time, from 17 when we started to 38 now. So we must be doing something right, but I also think it has to do with our senior captains’ leadership. And as long as they continue to do their jobs and the coaches do theirs, the kids will continue to get better.

“You always hate to lose, and we will have tough battles every week this year. But as long as the kids never quit, never give up and never stop playing, we’ll always walk off the field winners. So winning and the scoreboard don’t always match.”

For DeVol after four games at the Belpre gridiron helm thus far, “we’re getting better every single day and the kids are beginning to believe that we can win,” he said.

“In my opinion, when you have 25 sophomores and freshmen out and we’re at about seven or eight juniors right now, the future is extremely bright and these kids know that. So I would say the success has already started and will be here for years to come.”

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