Bluefield – Each week Fred Simon’s young Bluefield squad grows up.
Friday they grew into a legitimate championship contender.
In the final meeting for the foreseeable future between the storied rivals, Bluefield gave Beckley a dose of its own ball-control medicine executing a 12-play 90-yard drive in the final four minutes that culminated in a 1-yard touchdown run by Jeremiah Jones with 47 seconds left, lifting the Beavers to a 34-28 victory Friday night at Mitchell Stadium.
The final Bluefield drive was full of gambles and gut-punch plays.
The biggest came on fourth down.
Facing fourth-and-1 on his own 42, Simon rolled the dice and went for it. A designed quarterback run by Max Simpson, his only designed run of the night, turned into a 7-yard gain and conversion.
“On fourth and short, our punting game’s not great and I feel like if we can’t get a yard or a yard-and-a-half or so, then we shouldn’t win,” Simon said. “We battled our butts and went for it on a few fourth downs because to beat a quality team sometimes you have to roll the dice. We executed and I don’t know that we missed a fourth down tonight.
“We did it three or four times and I knew once we got it, we’d have a shot because we left their defense on the field. A nice play call by (offensive coordinator) Fritz (Simon). He told me he was going to run Max and I said ok. Jeremiah did a nice job lead blocking and it worked out. It could not have but it did. I’m happy as hell for our players. They worked hard.”
“He trusted me to get the first down and I got it,” Simpson said. “The line made an awesome hole and I got it.”
Immediately after the conversion the Beavers started delivering the haymakers.
A 34-yard completion to Pax Calhoun put the hosts in the red zone before Jones followed with a 16-yard run to the 1. He punched it in on the next play for the go-ahead score, capping a drive that perfectly summarized the Beavers’ offensive approach out of the intermission.
Each team had just three possessions each in the second half with Bluefield’s three consisting of 10, 11 and 12 plays, respectively. It was largely enabled by a run game that found its groove, compiling 202 yards on the ground, with 120 coming in the second half.
WillCee Wilson accounted for 140 on 14 carries while Johnson, who had just 19 carries coming into the night, toted the ball 14 times for 58 yards and a pair of scores.
“We went into the locker room and started going over film and started going over their defense,” Jones said. “We had some more carries for me and WillCee and we started hitting the holes.”
“We had a talk and I told him how talented I thought he was,” Simon said. “I said, ‘I’m going to let you be a captain if you play like one.’ Did he? He damn sure did. He’ll be captain next week. He’s got a lot of talent and I’m proud of him.”
Beckley’s run-heavy attack helped it engineer long drives early with a 9-play 57-yard drive and an 11-play 82-yard drive ending in touchdown runs of 3 and 1 yards, respectively, by running back Gage Burdette and quarterback Gage Price.
The trouble for the Flying Eagles came on defense where blown coverages cost them 14 points.
The first came on a 57-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Calhoun to tie the game at 7-7 and the second came after A.J. Thomas gave the Flying Eagles a 21-14 advantage on a 47-yard punt return touchdown with 2:43 to play in the second half.
Simpson again found a wide open receiver in Jaleel Jones who walked into the end zone from 62-yards out to tie the game before the break.
Those two plays accounted for 119 of the 244 yards the Beavers picked up through the air.
“Just big plays man,” Beckley head coach Street Sarrett said. “You can’t give up big plays against Bluefield and that’s what we did all night. Just young people playing in some spots.”
Wilson gave the Beavers their second lead of the night on a 46-yard touchdown run on third-and-9 in the third quarter but the Flying Eagles had an answer in the form of a 10-yard pass to Thomas, capping a 12-play 57-yard drive.
Bluefield’s ensuing drive came up empty with the Beckley defense generating a pair of negative plays to force a punt but the Beaver defense answered the bell. Facing third-and-1, Bluefield hit Burdette in the backfield for a loss, bringing up fourth-and-2 at the Beckley. Sarrett elected to put the game in his defense’s hands with a punt that pinned the hosts on their own 10.
“We just wanted to punt and get the ball down the field. Play some defense,” Sarrett said.
From there Simpson and Co. delivered the dagger, notching five first downs on their 12-play journey.
“You work hard and a lot of times you can win with talent,” Simon said. “They work hard and we found a way to win. Man, I’m proud of my son, I’m proud of my kids, I’m proud of all of the coaching staff. The players are the ones working hard.”
Simpson led the Beavers completing 14 of 21 passes for 24 yards, connecting with Calhoun seven times for 135 yards.
Burdette rushed for 102 yards on 28 carries for the Flying Eagles while Price completed 10 of 15 passes for 121 yards, connecting with Preston Clary five times for 88 yards.
Bluefield (3-1) is off to its best start since 2020 and will look to extend that next week when it travels to Class AA No. 1 Independence (4-0) in what could be a potential Class AA state semifinal or championship game matchup.
Beckley (2-2) is on a bye next week before traveling to Preston.
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