Sports
Meigs Suffers Injuries Before St. Clairsville
By: Clark Wooley
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The Meigs Marauders (1-0) enter Friday night’s match-up against St. Clairsville (1-0) in an all too familiar situation: missing their starting quarterback.
Injuries sustained to both starter Zach Helton and backup Christian Mattox in last weeks contest against Gallia Academy brought back dark memories for Marauder fans as senior Cody Bartrum went down with a season ending injury in week two a season ago.
“We’ve dealt with more injures than anybody, it seems, in the past five years,” Meigs head coach Mike Bartrum said. “But we’re in this together, if one man goes down, we stand behind whoever is next up to take his place.”
This year, Cory Cox, a sophomore, was forced to take the reigns and held his own, leading the Marauders to a 14-8 nail-biting win over the Blue Devils. Not wasting anytime at the helm, the 5-foot-8 sophomore led his team on a 77-yard drive in the third quarter to put the Marauders on the board and eliminate any shutout possibilities.
Cox and Weston Baer, who appears to be the quarterback’s favorite target, connected for the only two Marauder touchdowns and appear to have a palpable chemistry between them. Baer was responsible for 104 of 162 of Cox’s passing yards on just seven catches.
Not to be overlooked amongst the offensive drama was the no nonsense approach by the Marauder defense. Allowing virtually nothing through the air, Meigs held Gallia Academy quarterback Justin McClelland to just 89 yards while completing just 29% of his passes.
“Our coaches are the best in the country,” Bartrum added. “We had a great week of prep and we’re doing the right things to make our guys successful.”
Suffocating defense is a staple in Pomeroy and Coach Bartrum will need it more than ever as the Marauders welcome St. Clairsville to Farmers Bank Stadium Saturday night. The Red Devils erased a 20-point deficit in their first game against Carrollton but fell just short, falling 27-21. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.