MOSES TOO MUCH FOR PINEVILLE

 Round One of the high school playoffs for Williamsburg starts with the Ashland Fairview Eagles. The Eagles will come to Findlay-Legion Field with a 7-3 record having only lost to East Carter (16-13), Raceland (14-6) and Lexington Christian (42-0).

The Eagles depend on T.J. Shelton and Drew Boyd. The two have combined for 25 of the 28 rushing touchdowns while quarterback Gilbert Tyler has thrown for over 500 yards and seven TD’s.

“Coach (Nathan) McPeek is a very good football coach,” said Williamsburg Coach Jerry Herron. “He has a very good football team. They like to line up in the Wing T and run the football at you. He has a very strong line that blocks well. They have some fast backs that are athletic.”

“They will get in a shotgun set and throw the ball too,” said Herron. “It’s going to be a very challenging game for us because they run the ball with a lot of misdirection and traps. They will use a lot of counters and a lot of buck sweeps with pull guards so our defense must play better than it did Friday night.”

If there is a question about the Eagles, it might be the schedule Fairview played. The ten teams the Eagles played had a combined record of 35-65 with only two of those, LCA and Raceland, having winning records.

The ten Williamsburg opponents combined for a 45-55 record with five of those team finishing .500 or better. Eight of the Yellow Jackets opponents will be in the playoffs Friday night.

The Eagles, who have averaged 25.4 points per game and have given up only 14.0 points a contest will take on one of the high powered offenses in Williamsburg. The Jackets average 33.2, but allow 33.7.

“Defensively, they run a lot of schemes like Hazard,” said Herron. “We’ve had a little practice against it unfortunately didn’t do well, so we are going to have to work hard this week.”

“The key of the game is reading their guards and attacking the run before we let them get to our linebackers and defensive backs,” Herron said. “We have to attack the line of scrimmage and solid up front.”

“Offensively, we just have to execute our offense,” Herron said. “We just need to take what’s there and exploit their mistakes and what they give us. We just have to get after them.”

The Yellow Jackets posted 44 points in a narrow win over Pineville Friday night. “It wasn’t our best defensive effort,” said Herron.

Senior quarterback Ryan Moses hit on 17 of 31 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for four touchdowns on 24 carries. He finished the night with 206 yards. He accounted for 476 yards and six touchdowns in a 44-43 win.

Williamsburg trailed the Mountain Lions 43-30 entering the fourth quarter, but Moses marched the Jackets down the field. He scored on a 10-yard run then hit Steven Taylor for the two-point conversion as Williamsburg pulled within 43-38.

With seconds remaining Moses hit Chase Lowrie for his only catch of the night. It was a 15-yard game winner.

Senior Dusty Brown led the receiving core with 116 yards on six catches. He failed to score in the win. James Payne had four catches for 70 yards and a TD.

Travis Thomas and Steven Taylor had two big conversions in the game that helped the Jackets pull out the victory.