Montcalm will adapt on the fly to River View's new regime
Oct. 14—MONTCALM — Montcalm football's unprecedented winning streak continued last weekend with a 28-8 win at Bealsville, Ohio.
This week, the undefeated Generals (6-0) once again March into the WVSSAC Class A fray, looking to take on winless River View (0-5) tonight.
If the win column mismatch weren't enticing enough for victory-hungry Montcalm fans, things took a strange turn this week when news of George Kennedy's resignation as head coach of the Bradshaw football program hit the streets. The Raiders head coaching post has been taken over in the interim by second-year River View athletic director Jordan Prater.
The abrupt exit of Kennedy — along with two assistant coaches and a trainer — obviously left Prater with little time to reorganize for tonight's game. Shouldn't this be an ideal situation for the Generals?
Not exactly, said Montcalm head coach Adam Havens, who noted that since the change occurred during River View's open week, no accurate scouting report exists on a Prater-led squad.
"I learned about that late last week. Coach Kennedy reached out to me, I think Sunday evening. I talked to him a little while. Directly from River View, I really haven't heard anything," Havens said.
"That makes the preparation a little bit different. We haven't gotten a chance to see them. They didn't play last week and we haven't had a chance to see any film since Coach Kennedy left.
"What things will be different is kind of unknown to us. So we're just trying to prepare the best that we can," Havens said.
"In contrast, Montcalm's tendencies have been well-established at this point in the season.
Quarterback Jaylen Younger leads the Generals passing attack, having completed 50 of 82 passing attempts for 737 yards and 15 touchdowns — which is the most scoring strikes to-date of any high school quarterback in Southern West Virginia. He has allowed only four interceptions.
Tristen Cline has 20 receptions for 303 yards and five touchdowns; Logan Carver has 15 catches for 181 yards and five TDs and Jayden Price has five catches for 91 yards and a touchdown. John Hall has two touchdown catches.
Rushing leaders include running back Isaiah Fink (81-372, 3 TDs), fullback Jeremy Shrewsbury (44-198, 1 TD) and Logan Carver (21-186, 2 TDs). Price has two rushing touchdowns.
Over six games this season, Twin Valley's 14 points is the most any opponent has scored against Havens' markedly-improved defensive unit.
The Generals will basically try to do what they've been doing, and do it well enough to give themselves room to adapt to whatever River View ends up throwing at it on both sides of the football.
"We're flying blind. We're kind of building this ship while we're flying it. It is what it is," said Havens, who sees no reason for Montcalm to become anxiety-ridden headed into the game.
"We obviously feel good about our record. We feel good about the way we started the season. and we feel good about our preparation going into this week," he said.
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