George Washington football coach Steve Edwards Jr. gives his players instruction during a scrimmage against Morgantown on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.
George Washington football coach Steve Edwards Jr. gives his players instruction during a scrimmage against Morgantown on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.
Steve Edwards Jr. knew coming into the season he had to find a way to fill Abe Fenwick’s shoes at George Washington.
After a senior season in which Fenwick passed for more than 2,000 yards and tossed 25 TDs, they were going to be big shoes to fill.
As August preseason practices turned into game week preparation for the season opener, Edwards didn’t have a clear-cut replacement for Fenwick. Instead, he had two.
Senior Hayden Hinkle and junior Cy Persinger took snaps on Thursday in the Patriots’ season-opening 39-0 win over visiting St. Albans. Edwards used both for a specific skill set.
Hinkle started GW’s opening drive, giving three times to running back Sai’Vyon Brown and once to Guner Flores to move the ball to the Red Dragons’ 1-yard-line.
On the next play, Hinkle plunged into the end zone for the game’s first score.
For the next series, Edwards turned to Persinger to run the offense.
St. Albans sacked Persinger on his first snap — a 4-yard loss — then returned to giving the ball to Brown and Flores to continue a punishing ground game against the Red Dragons.
Facing a third-and-21, Persinger got another passing chance. However, his intended receiver Brown fell down on a screen play and the incomplete pass resulted in a GW punt.
It wasn’t until GW’s fourth offensive series that Persinger got another chance, and he took advantage of it.
A short pass to Flores went for 9 yards. Two false-start penalties made it third-and-11, with Persinger finding Hunter Giacomo for 14 yards to get the first down.
Disaster nearly struck the Patriots and Persinger on the next play when they fumbled, but made the recovery to keep the drive alive, albeit in a second-and-long situation from their own 24-yard-line.
Persinger then found Solomon Ferrell nearly by himself in St. Albans territory. Ferrell got separation from two Red Dragons defensive backs and hauled in a perfect strike from Persinger.
Ferrell shed a tackle at the 5-yard-line and ran into the end zone for a 76-yard touchdown strike.
Persinger threw for 112 yards on 6-of-11 passing in the game.
Following the victory, Edwards said he wanted to stick with the two-quarterback system.
“Sometimes we just go by series,†Edwards said, “and sometimes it just works out that way [Hinkle handling running plays; Persinger passing plays]. That’s the way it looks like it is, but sometimes it’s not. Both of them are doing an adequate job, I’d like for them both to do a little bit better, but they’re getting better. With time, they’ll get better.â€
With Brown’s running, Hinkle didn’t need to show off a lot of his running skills, nor did he have to pass and finished the game without one passing attempt. Edwards said Persinger is a good athlete, but the junior was rarely challenged by St. Albans in the pocket.
There could still be tricks up Edwards’ sleeve that he’s hiding from the GW opponents in Class AAAA and the Mountain State Athletic Conference.
The system figures not to get a true test for another two weeks, when the Patriots are host to Cabell Midland.
Rick Elmore covers sports. He can be reached at 304-348-5122 or relmore@hdmediallc.com. Follow @ElmoreSports on Twitter/X.