FOOTBALL PREVIEW: CONCORD at SETON HILL

3:00 PM, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23; OFFUTT FIELD, GREENSBURG, PA

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Concord Football's Homecoming victory over Glenville State last Saturday was a memorable one.

The Mountain Lions raced to a 46-0 lead at halftime and cruised to a 49-14 win in front of a near-capacity crowd on a picture-perfect autumn afternoon.

“The weather was great and we had a great group of fans,” said CU head coach Mike Kellar. “It was about as good of as we were capable of playing – offense, defense, special teams. We played about as good of a first half of football that we could play.”

But Homecoming is over. Now, Kellar and the Mountain Lions (5-2, 3-2) must avoid a letdown in their game Saturday, October 23 at WVIAC foe Seton Hill (2-6, 1-4).

“What you try to teach your team is that you have a standard of play that they need to live up to, be it a Tuesday practice or a Saturday Homecoming game or a conference championship game or a playoff game,” said Kellar. “You have a certain way that you're expected to play football, and you have to do that game in and game out.”

Getting from Athens, WV to Greensburg, PA is not a short hop. The trip requires a five-hour drive and an overnight stay before Saturday's 3:00 pm kickoff at Offutt Field.
Concord's two losses this season have come on overnight trips. CU fell 20-13 at West Virginia Wesleyan September 18 and 49-35 at Shepherd October 9.

“After we beat Glenville, we were in the locker room and I explained to them, 'we've lost two games this year and they've both been on overnight trips,'” Kellar said. “We're going to have to get better on how we travel and do things, because we've got to do it again – take a long ride, stay overnight and win on an opponents' field. We've got to take a business trip and play winning football.”

The Mountain Lions may be a bit more rested than usual following the Homecoming win over Glenville State. By opening a 28-0 lead in the 1st quarter and the 46-0 advantage at halftime, Concord was able to remove its starters and go deep into its bench in the second half.

“It's football, and you've got 11 games to play,” Kellar noted. “So for us to get the chance to get all of our guys out there to get some game experience, while still getting our starters the work they need to stay sharp and still having a chance to rest, that's going to make us a much better football team. A much deeper football team.”

One area in which needs to do better is Red Zone Offense. The Mountain Lions have one of the most prolific attacks in the conference, averaging 38.3 points and 509.3 yards per game, but are near the bottom in the red zone. CU has been inside its opponents' 20-yard line 41 times this season – the most in the WVIAC – but has scored just 28 times. The 68.3% conversion rate is next-to-last in the league.

“If you look at the stats, you'll see we have more touchdowns than most teams have trips to the red zone,” Kellar said. “Yet we're one of the worst red zone teams. That's because before last week we had five turnovers there and started 2-9 in field goals. I've told the team that if we just don't turn the ball over and put the ball through the uprights, nobody's going to beat us.”

Seton Hill has gone from the heights to the depths in its previous two seasons. In 2008, the Griffins went 10-3 and won a game in the NCAA playoffs. In 2009, SHU fell to 1-10, 0-8 in the conference.

The Griffins started their 2010 season with a 20-14 home victory over a solid Bowie State (MD) squad, but followed that with five straight losses by an average of 21.6 points. However, the Griffins have looked stronger in their last two games -- they throttled West Virginia State 48-20 in Greensburg October 9, then just missed an upset in a 24-20 loss at Charleston last week.

Which has Kellar feeling cautious going into Saturday's game.

“There's not a whole lot of difference between the team they have right now and the team that won a game in the playoffs (in 2008). They may even be a little bit in the lines than they were in that season,” Kellar said. “They just haven't caught the breaks. They've got a really nice quarterback, a good tight end, a good fullback, two very good tailbacks, and on defense they'll come after you and give you some scheme problems.”

Saturday's game will be broadcast on ESPN Radio 102.3 The Ticket (WMTD, Hinton/Princeton/Beckley), with the webcast at www.theticket102.com.
The broadcast begins at 2:30 pm with “The Mountain Lion Preview Show.” This week's special guest at halftime is Jason Woodman, Concord's Wide Receivers Coach & Special Teams Coordinator.

CONCORD FOOTBALL PAGE

SETON HILL FOOTBALL PAGE

CONCORD STATISTICS

SETON HILL STATISTICS

WVIAC STATISTICS

WVIAC WEEK #9 PREVIEW

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