Aug 22, 2018 4 min read

Some people in Fredericktown might believe in jinxes.

Or maybe just bad luck.

But not Beth-Center head coach Joe Kuhns.

The Bulldogs’ playoff woes – losing in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs each of the past seven seasons – isn’t something he is concerned with.

“I don’t get hung up with curses, hexes and all that superstitious stuff,” he said.

While Kuhns, who is in entering his third season as head coach, doesn’t think about the fact that Beth-Center hasn’t won a playoff game since its 34-12 victory over Cornell in 2010, he knows some of his players, naturally, do.

“It’s something they know about,” he said. “I remember hearing them talk about it last year before we played Serra Catholic. It’s not something I’m ever going to talk to them about, because we’re dealing with the season we’re in. In 2010, these kids were in elementary school. You’re talking about people who don’t have anything to do with people in the present.”

That doesn’t mean Kuhns doesn’t want to win a playoff game in 2018, though.

“Hopefully, we can get over that hump this year,” he said.

The Bulldogs return the second-leading rusher in Class AA last season as senior Dominic Fundy is expected to be a workhorse in the backfield again. The 6-1, 220-pound bruiser totaled 1,500 total yards and 14 touchdowns.

“He’s hard to tackle,” Kuhns said. “He’s bigger and stronger than he was last year, so he’s going to be even harder to tackle. I look for him to have another good year on offense.”

Kuhns said that some colleges are looking at Fundy as a defensive player, so he will spend more time focusing on that this season at linebacker.

Also returning for the Bulldogs is quarterback Bailey Lincoski, who ran for 900 yards and passed for 850 yards, accounting for 23 touchdowns.

“The kid came out of nowhere last year,” Kuhns said. “We went into the season wondering who the quarterback was going to be and he just proved to be capable in every way possible. The best thing about Bailey is his head. He’s a level-headed kid. He’s a good leader and makes good decisions, and he’s also a heck of an athlete.”

The Bulldogs’ three biggest departures are fullback Trevor Anderson and linemen Tim Trump and Anthony Herman. Anderson totaled 850 yards from scrimmage and 14 touchdowns last season and will be replaced by Dylan Dingle.

“Trevor did good things, but the bigger loss is Timmy Trump and Anthony Herman,” Kuhns said. “Timmy was all-state. He was one of the best lineman to play here in a long time. We always ran behind those two in big and clutch situations so that’s going to be a big replacement for us.

Both linemen are playing in college. Trump will be playing for Wheeling Jesuit and Herman at Marietta.

What could help prepare the Bulldogs, who went 7-4 last year and lost 27-20 to Serra Catholic in the playoffs, win the elusive playoff game is their “brutal” schedule. Along with playing Charleroi and Wash High in Interstate Conference action, Beth-Center will play Class A powerhouses Imani Christian and California and Class AA East Allegheny.

“It’s a good thing, but you also don’t want to get too beat up before the postseason,” Kuhns said. “Some of those teams are going to do some things that we won’t see in our conference. Imani has a spread offense and throws the ball all over the place, and California runs the triple option. Those are things we could see in the playoffs.”

While seeing top offenses like California and Imani will help the Bulldogs, Kuhns said he’s more focused on conference foes Charleroi and Wash High.

“No offense to Imani or California, but I don’t think they’d have those same numbers if they were playing the guys in our conference like Wash High and Charleroi,” he said. “Those guys scare me a lot more than Imani and California do.” o