NITRO HITS LONG, LONG ROAD TO MUSSELMAN PREP FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK

Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 08/26/2005
Page: 4B
Headline: NITRO HITS LONG, LONG ROAD TO MUSSELMAN PREP FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK
Byline: RICK RYAN

Tonight's games

s George Washington at Parkersburg

s Riverside at Woodrow Wilson

s Nitro at Musselman

s South Charleston at St. Albans

s Winfield at Hurricane

s Herbert Hoover at Ravenswood

s Poca at Sissonville

s Roane County at Scott

s Guyan Valley at Buffalo

s Point Pleasant at Ripley

s Logan at Man

s Greenbrier East at Cabell Midland

s Nicholas County at Clay County

s Van at Duval

s Mount Hope at Sherman

Note: All games at 7:30 p.m.

rickryan@wvgazette.com

With Kanawha County schools not opening until Monday, Nitro coach Scott Tinsley was able to settle for the lesser of two evils regarding tonight's game at Musselman.

Tinsley's squad departed Thursday for the 330-mile trip to Bunker Hill in the Eastern Panhandle. That allows the Wildcats a day to recover from the excursion, but it still places the players in a foreign setting the night before the game - another worry.

"Your big concern," Tinsley said, "is if your kids are able to get a good night's sleep and all that stuff. Sleeping away from home is a bad thing, but it's still better than making a six-hour trip, getting off the bus and playing the same day.

"We're really inexperienced at a lot of positions for traveling like that and I hope it's not a factor. We've got a lot of kids starting now who were role players last year and it's a big difference on the road when you have to get a good night's sleep and get ready to play."

Nitro will have sophomore quarterback Michael Scott ready to go after he missed last week's scrimmages with a sprained ankle. Ace receiver Chris Fulmer, who sat out last week with his own ankle injury, also returns and should complement tailback Josh Culbertson, who ran for 2,603 yards and 35 touchdowns a year ago.

One of Tinsley's top preseason goals was to establish an offensive line, since only one starter - guard Chad Snodgrass - was back.

"Our line was OK," Tinsley said after last week's MSAC Grid-o-rama scrimmages against Riverside and Huntington.

"I'll just say that we didn't dominate the line of scrimmage like I'd hoped, but we weren't as bad as I feared. I think our big surprise was that we kept both Riverside and Huntington out of the end zone [respective two-quarter 'wins' of 7-6 and 6-0]. I'm real happy with that."

The Applemen, 5-5 last season under veteran coach Denny Price (233 wins in 32 years), seek their first winning record and playoff spot since 2001.

Their top returnees are senior running backs Rusty Riner (635 yards, six TDs) and Trevor Herbert (295 yards, one TD) and a pair of quarterbacks in senior Michael Marsh and sophomore Ethan French.

Marsh and French, however, combined to complete just 28-of-82 passes for 400 yards and four TDs. Nitro, by comparison, had tried 91 passes and thrown for 585 yards and five scores by its third game last year.