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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
The regular season isn't always an indicator of the postseason.
Exhibit A -- Windber lost to North Star, 41-20, in September before beating the Cougars, 41-20, in the District 5 Class 1A semifinals last week.
Could Exhibit B take place Thursday against Northern Bedford in the District 5 championship?
The Ramblers lost to the Black Panthers, 35-6, on Oct. 20 at Windber, but the team Northern Bedford will play at Somerset at 7 p.m. will be a lot different than the one it played that night.
Windber quarterback Tanner Barkley, who has completed 100 passes for 1,219 yards and 15 touchdowns this season, missed his only game of the season. Second-leading rusher R.J. Tallion also missed that game, and wide receiver Evan Brady was forced to play quarterback.
"(Brady) is an all-star caliber receiver, and he played quarterback," Northern Bedford coach Garry Black said. "I don't think they completed a pass. (Barkley) wasn't in, so when you take your best receiver and put him at quarterback, it makes you one-dimensional. Now they have a big, tall receiver and a quarterback that can throw the ball to him. That changes their offense."
Brady has caught 52 passes for 691 yards and 12 touchdowns this season.
"Going into that (first) game, we kind of knew where we were going to be missing four or five starters that week," Windber coach Matt Grohal said. "They are a great football team, and when you lose a couple guys of the magnitude that we had out, it just means you are fighting an uphill battle all night long. We're as healthy as we have been all year (minus Luke Hostetler), and we know it's a tall task to try and beat those guys, who have been together for three years. They have a great program."
Hostetler, who ran for 844 yards and averaged 12.6 yards per carry, played in Windber's first four games before being lost for the season, and the Ramblers haven't been able to replace his explosive big-play ability.
"We made a couple adjustments on both sides of the ball moving around a couple guys," Grohal said. "The big thing for us was to go into the playoffs with a little bit of momentum, and we got all those guys back for Week 10 against Juniata Valley and were able to try and couple different things offensively and defensively we haven't been doing much of. We took our right guard and moved him to fullback, and he's made a huge difference in our offense."
One similarity to the first game are most of the line of scrimmages, which Black feels can carry over into this game.
"A lot of their linemen were still in," Black said. "I thought we did a really good job against their line in the last game, especially our defensive line against their offensive line. That's something I'll take from it and challenge our defensive line to play as well against them as they did the first time."
The Black Panthers defeated Meyersdale in the semifinals last week.
"Last week, we only had 14 at the half, but we moved the ball and did what we wanted to do," Black said. "We just missed some things. (Quarterback) Eion (Snider) was out all week after taking a shot at Glendale, and our trainer worked with him all week to get him in a position to play, but we didn't have any designed runs for him like we typically would do. It really limited the plan for him, and without working with the offense all week, he missed a couple he wished he could have had back."
Snider is part of a large group of returning Northern Bedford players that lost in the District 5 championship, 14-0, to the Ramblers last season.
"It would mean a lot (to win it this year)," Black said. "A lot of them have been part of teams that won it in the past, but we got derailed last year against this same team. I don't think there's anything they have wanted more. From the time we lost last year, this was kind of what they thought about and what they wanted to achieve. They worked hard in the weight room over the summer and on their speed to get to this point. This is really important to this group of seniors, especially."
Despite Windber looking more like its dominant self with a 56-0 win over Juniata Valley and the win over North Star last week, Grohal said the Ramblers still have some work to do.
"This time of year, everyone is good that's left to play," Grohal said. "You need some luck to go your way. We need a couple turnovers. We had 13 penalties against North Star, so we have to clean that up. We need to eliminate the mental mistakes. Defensively, we were all over the place the first time we played them. We have to protect the football and hopefully in the fourth quarter, we're hanging around with a chance to win."
Though the game is being played on a Thursday, Black actually believes the routine will be closer to normal than if it were Friday.
"It's my preference, because there's no school on Friday," Black said. "Playing Friday is more of a derailment, because kids may be sleeping in or going hunting. Playing Thursday, everything is normal with going to school. It makes a nice smooth feel to the week."
In the end, Black believes the championship will be decided like most football championships.
"The game of football comes down to what your line is able to do," Black said. "Over the last couple of games, Windber's line has gotten them rolling. They have been able to run the ball, and if you can't stop the run game in a high school football game, you are in for a long night. I think we have a lot of kids back who started against them last year when they had John Shuster and played against them earlier this season, and I think defensively we have to play well. I'm confident our guys will."