WHEELING, W.Va. -- Too big, too strong, too fast -- not much else to it.

When the Thomas Jefferson football team traveled Monday to the Friends of Coal Classic at Wheeling Island Stadium, the defending WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA champions ran into something that was, quite simply, insurmountable.

"They were better then us, in every aspect," Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak said.

They were the Glenville Tarblooders, a squad from Cleveland that, piece by piece, dismantled the Jaguars, 34-13.

The undeniable negative: Sure, Thomas Jefferson dropped to 0-1 on the season.

But the positive? In reality, the game didn't mean all that much in regard to where the season could lead.

The Jaguars will do their best to forget about what happened Monday when they play at Uniontown (1-0) tonight in a non-conference game.

Cherpak knows the importance isn't in what happened in Wheeling, but in the application of the lessons learned.

"We'll learn," Cherpak said in the moments just after losing to Glenville. "We'll go back home and get ready for our season. We will learn from this. When you play the best competition, you hope that you get better because of it and that is our hope ... that we got better through this experience."

What became evident through the Glenville game was that the Thomas Jefferson offense will be, as predicted, led by quarterback Tyler Wehner and running back Brian Baldrige.

Wehner went 12-for-25 passing with a tremendously thrown 16-yard touchdown pass to Dan Virgin.

Baldrige was consistent throughout. A senior coming back from a knee injury that forced him to miss almost all of his junior year, Baldrige rushed for 78 yards on 22 carries Monday.

In addition, Virgin (five catches, 76 yards) acclimated himself well, making a point that he'll be one of the go-to guys in the passing game.

But there is no question the Thomas Jefferson defense needs to improve if the Jaguars want to reach the heights predicted by most of the preseason prognosticators. The team has hung its hat on a solid run defense through the last decade or so, but the usually stout Jaguars allowed Glenville to run for 236 yards.

Cherpak knows that needs to improve, but he also understands Glenville brought a skill set not seen all too often.

"We can't simulate that speed they had, but that wasn't only what they had," he said. "What hurt us is that they all know their roles, they all do what they are supposed to. They keep coming at you and they do not let you breathe."