Player: Evan Beasley Position: QB/P Height: 5' 9" Weight: 168 lb Academic: Junior School: James Monroe

By BRIAN WOODSON

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

LINDSIDE — Not a bad start for Evan Beasley.

The James Monroe junior quarterback led the Mavericks to a 42-38 win over Class AAA Greenbrier East last Friday night, and Beasley certainly played a big role in the Mavericks’ first win over the Spartans since 2009.

“I feel really good about it,” Beasley said. “I am glad my first start at quarterback was a win.”

All Beasley did was run for 204 yards and three touchdowns, and also completed three passes for another 59 yards.

Those numbers earned Beasley the first Pocahontas Coal Association/Bluefield Daily Telegraph Player of the Week award for the 2015 season. That follows having also been selected as The Register Herald Player of the Week the day before.

“It makes me feel really confident,” said the 5-foot-9, 169-pound Beasley. “It just makes me want to go out there next week and try to do the same thing I did this week, hopefully even more.”

He certainly did plenty against the Spartans. It wasn’t a surprise to James Monroe head coach John Mustain, who inserted Beasley into the quarterback slot after Reed McNeer graduated after last season.

“He is a kid that we felt coming in could do some stuff for us at that position,” Mustain said. “So far he has reached our expectations, but he is like everybody on the team that just have to get better.

“We had film day yesterday and you know how coaches are during film day. There are things he has got to get better at, but he is progressing pretty good.”

Even though the Mavericks had dropped five straight decisions to Greenbrier East, they only lost 21-19 last season, leaving James Monroe confident going against the Spartans.

“We knew we could definitely beat them,” Beasley said. “We have put in a lot of work over the offseason.”

It didn’t start good. Greenbrier East jumped out to a 14-0 lead, led by Zayvion Lawson, who set a school record for the Spartans with 325 yards, along with four touchdowns.

“We had to stop him,” Beasley said. “We just knew we had to keep up and start scoring and getting yards and move down the field because he is a really good running back.”

Beasley then went into leadership mode.

“I was talking to the offense when we were out there and I told the guys we have got to start scoring,” he said. “If we don’t start scoring we are going to end up losing this game. Then we just went down the field, our frontline started doing good and we started scoring.”

A lot. Beasley got the Mavericks on the board with a 39-yard touchdown run, and then answered another score by Lawson to score from 73 yards, trimming James Monroe’s deficit to 20-14 at the break.

“I just knew I had to get out there and be a leader and get our offense up, basically get our whole team up and get them behind our offense,” Beasley said. “Just to go out there and have fun, just play the game of football, that is what we needed to do and we would be fine.”

It wasn’t just Beasley who had a huge game for the Mavericks. Sophomore running back Grant Mohler also had a monster effort, rushing for 167 yards and three second half touchdowns, the first being a 75-yard run that was sandwiched between two more scores by Lawson in the third period.

Mohler was a recipient of this same award last season as a freshman.

“His vision, he has really good vision,” Beasley said. “He can find a hole, the whole defense could be running at him and he will be able to find a hole right between them and go down the field.”

James Monroe still trailed 32-21 going to the final period. It didn’t look good for the Mavericks, but they refused to quit.

“That is the thing to me about that win more than anything is we were down 14-0 and then we were down by 11 or so late in the game and just the ability and the desire that the kids showed to come back,” Mustain said. “They could have easily, especially late in the game, could have easily kind of folded up, but they didn’t, they kept clicking and that is what it takes.”

Beasley pulled the Mavericks closer with an 11-yard run for a score, and Mohler followed with a 7-yard run to put James Monroe in front, but not for long. Greenbrier East scored on a long pass to take a 38-35 lead late in the game.

“We knew we had to get in the end zone and that was our main focus was scoring,” he said.

They did, with Beasley leading them down the field, with Mohler scoring in the final two minutes on a 1-yard plunge to take the lead for good, putting 42 points on the board in the season opener.

“We just wanted to get out there and get the win,” Beasley said. “It didn’t matter how many points we scored or anything like that, we just knew we had to score points to win. We didn’t expect to score that many.”

Beasley was quick to credit the offensive line, led by starters Zach Payne, Tyler Hawkey, Noah Ramsey, Tripp Shiflet and Dante Vest.

“I hardly had to throw it,” said Beasley, who completed 3-of-6 pass attempts for 59 yards. “Once we figured it out, once our frontline figured out what to do, we could run all over the place. They stepped up.”

Beasley had long dreamed of getting his opportunity to play quarterback at the high school level. He was a wide receiver last season, but got his chance when McNeer left to play baseball at Concord.

“I started out in pee wee as a quarterback and I played quarterback up to ninth grade and then my 10th grade year I got moved to wide receiver,” Beasley said. “I was really excited to finally get to play quarterback, just to get out there and play it.”

Up next is a bye week, which might not be the best timing for the Mavericks.

“I really hate having a bye week the second week,” said Beasley, who also plays basketball and baseball at James Monroe. “Our momentum sort of goes down after that big win.”

That will be the challenge ahead for Mustain, to get the Mavericks back up to play their home opener on Sept. 11 with Summers County.

“Hopefully that can keep going,” Mustain said. “Like I told them yesterday when you have a big win or you are a team that everybody knows is potentially pretty good they are going to want to knock you off so we are going to have to work even that much harder.”

James Monroe has a proud tradition on the gridiron, winning at least 10 games each season from 2004-07, falling to Bluefield in the Class AA state finals in ‘07. That was followed by 9, 8 and 5 wins, but the Mavericks had won just 10 games combined in the last four seasons, including a 3-7 mark last year.

Getting back to those winning ways is definitely on Beasley’s mind. A playoff spot would be even better. The Mavs last reached the postseason in 2009.

“We definitely want to be back to the old ways,” Beasley said. “We want to start winning games and make it to the playoffs. That is our main goal this year is to make it to the playoffs, but we are going to have to take it one game at a time.”

That begins next week with Summers County. One game down, time to work on the next one for a football-crazed community anxious for winning football again.

“The school atmosphere has went up a lot,” Beasley said. “We are definitely excited, but we are just going to have to put that game behind us.

“We won it, let’s put it behind us and move on to the next one. That is what we are working on now.”

bwoodson@bdtonline.com

/ @bdtwoodson

Player of Week Honorable Mention

Bland County (def. Craig County 41-6): Isaiah Boyd, 7-91, 2 td rushing; Brian Arnold, 8-88, 2 td rushing; Colton Slaughter, 5-77 rushing.

Bluefield (def. Graham 28-21): Carlos Reed, 10-147 2 td rushing; Mookie Collier, 21-104, 1 td rushing, 1-42, 1 td catch;

Giles (49-21 win over Blacksburg): Brian Mann, 19-159, 4 td rushing; 3-5, 92 yards passingl Patrick Beidleman, 9-54, 2 td rushing, 1-35 catch; Brandon Chapman, 15-98 rushing.

Graham (lost to Bluefield 28-21): Jamorya’ Cousin, 23-156 rushing, 2-42, 1 td catch; Roman Workman, 9-19-121 yards, 2 td passing, 8-(-1), 1 td rushing; DeQuan Booker, 5-54, 1 td catch.

Grundy (def. Twin Valley 30-8): Jacob McNutt, 28-153, 2 td rushing; Cole Street, 2 td rushing.

Honaker (def. Lebanon 28-7): Bryson Bostic, 122 yards, 2 td rushing; Jordan Stout, 4-4 extra points, five kickoffs resulted in touchbacks; Avin Parrott, 28 td rushing, key punt return set up leading score in 3rd

Hurley (def. Holston 36-20): Brady Justice, 18-145, 2 td rushing; Coty Justice, 60 yard fumble recovery for touchdown.

James Monroe (def. Greenbrier East 42-38): Grant Mohler, 16-167 3 td rushing, 2-30 catch

Montcalm (def. Hannan 50-12): Marcus Mitchell, 9-125, 4 td rushing, 206 all-purpose yards; Colton Egnor, 16-98, 1 td rushing, interception return for td; Brian Taylor, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 forced fumble, 9 tackle, 5 for loss, 1 sack.

Mount View (def. River View 50-0): Shemar Harrison, 8-131, 2 td rushing; Quavon Valentine, 4-65 rush, 1 td rushing; Elijah Barner, 6-50, 1 td rushing;

Joseph Hayes, 2 td rushing.

PikeView (lost to Summers County 28-14): Ty Hosten, 15-47, 1 td rushing;

Joey Jennings, 18-94 rushing.

Princeton (def. Shady Spring 48-0): Jordan Jones, 122 yards, 3 td rushing; Kevin Phillips, 4-94, 1 td rushing; Je’Nye Hearn, 2 td rushing; Jared Hamm, 96 yard kick return for td; Tyler Whitt, interception on defense; Isaiah Edwards, blocked fg attempt.

Richlands (def. Gate City 42-7): Nick Blankenship, 12-99, 2 td rushing, 4-48 catches; John-Luke Asbury, 11-22, 201, 3 td passing, 3-17 rushing; Austin Atkinson, 1-39 1 td catch, 1-10 rush, 2 interception, 1 for td, returned one kick for 48 yards; Nick Barrett 6-6 extra points.

River View (lost to Mount View 50-0): Nick Bailey, 4-47 rushing.

Summers County (def. PikeView 28-14): Matt Ryan, 17-178, 2 td rushing, 10-16-76, 1 td passing, one interception on defense; Dylan Smith, 14-50, 1 td (rushing, 2-11 catch; Nathan Grimmett, 3-38 catch; Tucker Lilly, 50 yard kick return to set up third quarter score, interception on defense, 1-12 rush.

Tazewell (lost 51-13 to Virginia High): T.J. Kitts, 2 td rushing.

Twin Valley (lost to Grundy 30-8): Austin Shortridge, 25-136 rushing.