Published: August 28, 2008 09:06 pm            

G-Men would like ‘boring’ game

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Doug Marrs wants the crowds to fill Mitchell Stadium for tonight’s 82nd edition of the Beaver-Graham (or Graham-Bluefield game).

However, he wants the 10,000 or so fans to remain in their seats.

“We’ve got to control the line of scrimmage, we’ve got to keep the ball and that’s the bottom line,” said Marrs, Graham’s fourth year head coach. “I would like to see the game be boring.

“I’d love for it to be boring. Just four yards here and three yards there, that’s what I would like to see.”

Over the years, the Bluefield series has provided all kinds of different results, from a 6-4 Bluefield win in 1991 to 32-25 Graham victory in ‘61.

Marrs tries not to put more relevance on this game than any other, but there’s little doubt there is a little more meaning to this one. After all, it has been ranked as one of the top rivalries in America.

“It’s just because it’s a cross-town rival,” Marrs said. “I don’t think any game carries more significance than another game, but it’s a big game.

“It’s a great game to be a part of.”

Marrs, a 1975 graduate of Graham, has fond memories as a player and a coach. In ‘74, Marrs was part of a team that snapped Bluefield’s 10-game win streak in the series, and he led the G-Men to an emotional 21-14 victory over the Beavers in ‘05, only days after the death of Glynn Carlock.

“As a player we broke that 10-game streak when I was a senior and then I think probably our first two years after Coach passed away,” Marrs said. “Coming from behind and beating them and then beating them the next year so those are big memories.

“I know one time they had us down 20-0 and we came back and won 21-20. “There’s a lot of memories, more memories there than there are anywhere probably. I lived in Bluefield Virginia so it’s been a part of me ever since I was a kid.”

Marrs knows that success tonight won’t be easy. Bluefield is the defending Class AA state champion, and are picked at the top of the heap to start this season too.

“It’s going to be a terrific challenge for us,” said Marrs, who is 2-2 as a head coach against the Beavers. “They have so much speed that they can run at us, and some awful good skill athletes.

“You get speed with the ball and it is a double-edged sword for us right now.”

While Bluefield is playing its season-opener, Graham opened with Christiansburg last Friday, the first time since 1985 that had happened. The G-Men dropped a 34-29 decision to the Blue Demons, scoring 19 points in the fourth quarter before running out of clock.

Graham had two backs eclipse the century mark, including junior Dominique Lane (25-162, 2 td) and Bluefield transfer Kyle Harris (7-122, 1 td). Lane also caught a scoring pass from junior signal-caller David Marrs, who threw for 122 yards.

“We did move the ball well offensively, but we still made a lot of mistakes on offense,” Marrs said. “We’ve got to eliminate those mistakes tomorrow night against a good football team if we hope to come out of there with a victory.”

Defensively, it wasn’t a good night for the G-Men, which allowed more than 450 yards in rushing, with three Blue Demons reaching triple figures.

“We’ve got to tackle people, it’s a new defense and it was a defense we had gone against in scrimmages and we’re still tweaking it, but in this defense you can’t cowboy,” Marrs said. “You could kind of cowboy in our old defense a little bit, but you can’t cowboy this defense. You have got to be where you’re supposed to be.”

There’s little doubt what Graham wants to do offensively, and they’ll try to do behind a veteran offensive line led by Josh Halsey, Tony Barreras, Josh Mooney, Darrius Carper, and Alex Marrs. Meanwhile, the Beavers’ interior lines on both sides of the ball have been completely rebuilt.

“I don’t know if that will play into our hands or not, but that is what we’re going to do,” said Marrs, who also has Ronnie Scott and Zack Michel who can run and block for the G-Men. “We’re not going to deviate from what we like to do.”

While Bluefield did lose plenty of talent off last year’s team, they still return such two-way stars at Marcus Patterson, Will Cole, Cody Wassum and Jake Lilly. Containing them, along with other youngsters like Trey Williams, Levi Beckett, Isaiah Manns and Donte’ Baker, will come down to an experienced defense and the knowledge of where to be.

“We got effort (against Christiansburg) and we never quit. We fought, the effort was there,” Marrs said. “If the effort is there, it’s up to us to get them in the right places.”

Having played a game provided a unique opportunity for Graham to learn a little bit about themselves, but Marrs isn’t sure how much that will help, other than possibly avoiding the opening game nervousness.

“We know probably a little bit more about where we are with regards to some things that you don’t work on in scrimmages like the kicking game,” Marrs said. “You’ve probably got that first game jitters out from under your belt, or at least you hope so.”

There’s little doubt that the place to be tonight is Mitchell Stadium. Marrs knows what the particular football game means to the two towns.

“It’s about town pride, it’s about family pride, it’s about school pride,” Marrs said. “It’s a lot pride, it’s a lot about bragging rights, it’s a lot about being able to walk around town with your chest stuck out for a year so it means a lot.”

Marrs does have one piece of advice for the crowd that does plan to file into Mitchell Stadium for tonight’s 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

“I’d say get here early.” he said, with a laugh.

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

        

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