Cyclones ready for Mustangs

By Shane Mettlen

Published: October 16, 2008

A victory tonight would be a milestone for the Eastern View football players. Beat visiting George Mason and the Cyclones (4-2) can finish no worse than .500, a pretty big accomplishment for a brand-new program loaded with players that haven’t experienced much success.

“It’s the first time in these kids’ high school careers that they haven’t had a losing season,” Eastern View coach Greg Hatfield said. “So it’s something big to play for.”

Most of the current Cyclones were at Culpeper County High School last year where the Blue Devils won two games each of the past two seasons. Now the Eastern View players are finding out they enjoy success.

“Where I came from last year we went 2-8 too,” EVHS wide receiver Connor Settle, who transferred from Rappahannock, said. “We had the same record as Culpeper and it means a lot to everyone to get the school going and set it up to have good records from here on out.”

On paper the Cyclones have to be considered a big favorite against the visiting Mustangs, who come to EVHS for the school’s first homecoming. George Mason is 1-5 this season, haven’t been blowout thus far. The Mustangs have lost by an average of just 14 points, including a two-overtime heartbreaker to Manassas Park last week, and knocked off Group AAA JEB Stuart High in the first week of the season.

“They are always contending for the Bull Run District title,” Hatfield said. “They are all power football. They line it up and just try to run the ball at you. They have a couple of big linemen and a couple of backs that are pretty elusive. We’ve really to concentrate on stopping that run.”

The Cyclones have gotten good practice stopping the run so far this year. Hatfield compared the Mustangs’ ground game to Louisa County, the team that knocked off EVHS in the opening week, and Clarke County, who the Cyclones beat last month.

Eastern View also looked good stopping the run last week against Madison, limiting the production of Madison running backs Devon Boone and Logan Terrell.

“They just run the whole game pretty much,” Settle said. “Our goal is to stop them on the first drive and set the tone.”

Of course the Mustangs have the challenge of stopping a potent Eastern View running game as well. EVHS tailback Stevie Strother is coming off a 314-yard performance against the Mountaineers and has nearly 1,200 yards this season.

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or

George Mason
at Eastern View
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
at Cyclone Stadium