September 12, 2008

GW visits for Nitro home opener

By Rick Ryan, Assistant Sports Editor

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Nitro knew its attack would need a shakeup after losing 10 offensive starters from last year, as well as coach Scott Tinsley, who's recognized as one of the state's top offensive minds.

Little did the Wildcats realize how true that would be.

John Sowards, who replaced Tinsley as coach, helped shake sophomore quarterback Bodie Johnson out of his doldrums two weeks ago, and Nitro responded with a 38-35 comeback win at Poca. That sets up tonight's home opener for the Wildcats against George Washington (1-1), last year's No. 1 team in the final Class AAA rankings.

Johnson, who replaced three-year starter Michael Scott under center, wasn't very sharp at the outset of the Poca game, and Sowards let him know it.

"He came out in the beginning,'' Sowards said, "and I thought, 'We're going to have a long night the way he threw in the first series.' Then for some reason - I have no idea why - I gave him a shake. To be quite honest, it shook the cobwebs out and he came back and threw pretty well.''

Johnson hit on 21-of-28 passes for 433 yards and four touchdowns against Poca, the only game so far for Nitro (1-0). That earned him a share of the Associated Press state player of the week honors.

Nitro will likely need several repeats of that performance if it intends to earn a sixth straight playoff berth.

"I'm sure that with a sophomore quarterback, obviously there will be a learning curve every game,'' Sowards said. "Bodie's doing a good job learning the offense and distributing the ball. I think he hit six, seven different receivers at Poca. He's doing a good job going through his reads and progressions. Any time you throw for that many yards, you're doing something right.''

Tonight's game pits Nitro's strength - its passing game - against one of GW's strengths, its defensive secondary, which is stocked with speed and athleticism.

"I think we have some athletes and some talent playing back there in the secondary,'' said Patriots coach Steve Edwards Jr. "They do a good job scheming what we try to do. There are a lot of new faces back there, too. Besides [Greg] Jones and [Michael] Tucker, everyone else is brand new. Guys are still jelling together, but up to this point they're doing a nice job. They still have a lot of room for improvement.''

They'll likely get tested often tonight by Nitro, which relied almost exclusively on the pass in its opener, running just nine times for 7 yards. Sowards acknowledged the expectations for Johnson.

"I can see where there's a little added pressure this week to do the same thing again,'' Sowards said. "But I told [Johnson] there's no pressure on him. The pressure's on me to get him the right calls.''

Edwards thinks Nitro may opt for a few more run calls tonight, owing to the fact GW gave up 175 yards rushing to Capital tailback Keion Wright in its opening win and 213 more rushing yards in last week's 13-12 loss at South Charleston.

"Maybe. Maybe not,'' Edwards said. "Maybe they think they can run on us because both teams we've played were able to run the ball with a little bit of success. Maybe they'll mix it up. I don't think you can come into a game one-sided [on offense] because if you can take away half someone's offense, that's the goal of any defense. We'll try to slow them down and keep them out of the end zone as many times as we can.

"My main concern is that they've had two weeks off before they play us. They've had two weeks to concentrate on us, and that's to their advantage.''

George Washington has featured a more-balanced offense to this point, rushing for 306 yards and passing for 281. Jones (162 yards) heads the ground game, and Taylor Norman has thrown for a pair of TDs.

"They've got a lot of athletes running around,'' Sowards said of GW, "and they're big up front. We didn't play them, but we saw them at the 7-on-7 at WVU. We're aware of what GW has. I really don't [know what to expect] because they mix it up quite a bit - they put the ball in the air, run between the tackles and run around the ends. They can do it all.''

Reach Rick Ryan at 348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com. Tommy R. Atkinson contributed to this report.