Krull: “I would give the edge to McGuffey”
One male student stopped Ryan Krull and the Carmichaels High School football team from remaining in Class A for the next two seasons.
Barely encroaching into the enrollment requirements for Class AA, and having to replace several key pieces on both sides of the football, Carmichaels understandably struggled with the challenges that came along with the move.
And while the Mikes are out of playoff contention and still winless, there isn’t anybody who knows more about each of the top four teams of the jam-packed Interstate Conference.
Carmichaels played them all – McGuffey (5-0, 7-0), Charleroi (4-1, 5-1), Beth-Center (4-1, 5-2) and Washington (3-1, 6-1) – within the first six weeks of the season. The Mikes are the only team to play all four, which are separated by a game and a half between first and fourth place.
“All of them are complete teams,” Krull said. “When you are playing against a complete team, if you aren’t complete, it makes for a really long evening. They have the matchups they want, and often times you are going to get exploited. You can’t say you are going to take something away because they can just counter off of it.”
The conference will gain some clarity Friday, when all four of the top teams play each other. First-place and undefeated McGuffey travels to one-loss Charleroi, while Beth-Center hosts Washington in games that are going to determine important seeding and quite possibly a conference champion.
Both games are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m.
If McGuffey is victorious, the Highlanders will clinch at least a share of the conference championship. It would be the first for the program since 1994.
And Krull, whose Mikes lost to McGuffey, 55-0, in Week 3, doesn’t believe its unbeaten record and first-place positioning is a fluke.
“I would give the edge to McGuffey,” Krull said of his pick as best in the conference. “Just in terms of the relentlessness that those kids play. They just play with an edge.”
The Highlanders have rolled through the first seven games, winning by an average margin of 34 points and scoring nearly 45 points per game in their option offense.
But the much-improved McGuffey defense will be tested throughout the last three weeks of the season. The Highlanders play Charleroi, Avonworth and Washington to finish the regular season. All are one-loss teams that feature a star quarterback who powers their offenses.
“The hardest to prepare for (in the Interstate) is Charleroi because they throw and run so well,” Krull said. “(Geno Pellegrini) is a really good player, both passing and running. They have some other perimeter players who can make plays. I think they are probably the most skilled out of the top four teams.”
Krull also acknowledged how Washington and Beth-Center are powered by their quarterbacks – Zack Swartz and Bailey Lincoski.
The Bulldogs had the defending Class 2A champion Prexies against the ropes last year in Fredericktown until miscues late in the first half. The winner of Friday’s game will have at least sole possession of third place and could even move up to second.
“To be quite honest, I haven’t paid much attention to the rest of the Double-A landscape,” Krull said. “I’ve been paying attention to who is next on our schedule. But I would have to believe that our conference probably stacks up to any of the others pretty well. There is a lot of good individual talent.”