CHARLESTON – The glass slipper began to come off just when it became a notion this could very well be Cinderella’s night.
Cody Clovis’ 60-yard touchdown reception saw the Clay-Battelle receiver come back for the ball and then raced right past Wheeling Central defensive back Joey Hall for a 60-yard touchdown that gave the Cee-Bees a 20-7 lead inside Laidley Field.
“I’m like, ‘Boy, maybe we’re going to do this,” C-B head coach Aaron LaPoe said.
It was just a passing thought. There was still too much time remaining with most of a second quarter and then a second half still to play.
“I knew we deserved to be in this game,” added Clay-Battelle quarterback Corey Coen. “That kind of proved it there.”
Top-ranked Wheeling Central used all of that remaining time to hand the ball off to Kade Korenous, and the senior delivered a 13th state title for the Maroon Knights following a 56-34 victory in the Class A state title game.
Korenous, a 5-foot-11, 195-pounder was nearly unstoppable. His 415 rushing yards set a state playoff record in all classifications. He did it on 41 attempts and scored seven touchdowns, which set a Class A state championship game record.
And he was the reason Wheeling Central head coach Mike Young was not panicking on the other side of the field.
“We knew we could put points on the board,” Young said. “We stayed with our game and stayed positive.”
Positive was a good word for the night. Certainly, everything was positive for Wheeling Central (10-2), which rushed for 560 yards and finished with 623 total yards.
There is always another side to the story. What the No. 3 Cee-Bees (12-2) accomplished this season by advancing to the school’s first-ever football state title game was positive, inspirational even.
“I’ll never forget this season,” said Coen, who finished with 323 yards passing and four touchdowns to earn his team’s MVP honors for the game. “This is the best year of football I’ve ever had in my whole life. I couldn’t have picked a better group of teammates to spend it with, either. I’m going to miss so many of them, but I’m happy we got to share this experience together.”
You would like to tell this story as a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for a group of kids growing up in the country out on the western end of Monongalia County coming together for a greater cause of proving the little guy can have his moment in the sun, too.
Except this just may not be a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing for the boys of Blacksville. With LaPoe steering this ship and a whole bunch of athletes coming back next season, what happened on Friday night just a hop, skip and jump from the state’s capitol building may have only been the first step in what could turn out to be an even more positive story.
“Coach LaPoe is doing a fantastic job, and I told him that after the game,” Young said. “He’s got kids who are aggressive and talented. He’s running a program the right way.”
Clay-Battelle, in no way, was an underdog story, either. Not this team that blitzed through some of the best teams in Class A, as well as a couple of bigger Class AA teams and avenged its only loss during the regular season with a semifinal playoff victory against rival Cameron.
Did the Cee-Bees belong in Charleston? You bet your footballs they did.
While coming up on the short end, Clay-Battelle still racked up 464 yards of offense. Coen had a big night through the air and receivers Braden Ponceroff (five grabs for 198 yards and two TDs) and Cody Clovis (5 receptions for 109 yards and two TDs) were impressive.
C-B running back Caleb Hall rushed for 103 yards on 12 carries. You don’t put up these types of numbers against the likes of Wheeling Central and deserve to be told you don’t belong.
“Now, we have all of this experience and the kids are going to want more,” LaPoe said. “They are ultimate competitors, and they are going to want to get back here. They are going to do what’s necessary in the offseason to do that.”
Coen is one of those who will be back for the Cee-Bees. That wasn’t on his mind, though, walking off the turf on this night. He wanted this one for so many reasons.
“At the end, they got the best of us,” Coen said. “That’s what happens in life, I guess.”
