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North-Central Report: Week 3

Bishop Donahue (2-0) at Clay Battelle (2-0)

A new era of Cee-Bees football begins as the new stadium at Clay Battelle High School will host a game for the very first time.

“It’s a beautiful thing for our community,” said Cee-Bees coach Ryan Wilson. “Friday night will be a fantastic evening. The workers have still been going around the clock to finish the final details and to get everything cleaned up and ready.

“Everything looks so nice and beautiful,” Wilson said. “The community can be very proud of this complex they have. It’s big time for our whole community.”

The first game at the new field should be a great one. Clay Battelle is 2-0 after beating Paden City and Allegheny-Clarion Valley of Pennsylvania on the road. Bishop Donahue has scored 107 points in season opening wins over Cameron and River, Ohio.

“They are big and powerful,” Wilson said of a Bishops’ offensive line that has four starters weighing in at 240 or better. “And they have so many weapons. They protect the quarterback and they throw the ball very well. They can also run it. They are very well rounded.

“But teams have to say that about us too,” Wilson continued. “We have weapons also.”

Wilson is hoping the emotion of the evening will work in his teams favor.

“The people in this community have talked all summer about the first home game,” he said. “You can just feel the excitement building. I just hope Friday night we just remember to play. One of the (stadium) workers said to me, ‘We’re doing our job. Make sure the players remember to do theirs.’

“I know the kids will,” Wilson said.

And it’s a series between the Cee-Bees and Bishops that’s been even of late.

“They beat us two years ago and we beat them last year,” Wilson pointed out.

 

Robert C. Byrd (1-1) at Lincoln (2-0)

Lincoln will try and beat Robert C. Byrd for the first time ever as it hosts the Eagles Friday night. Lincoln has started the season with impressive wins over Braxton County and Philip Barbour.

“We’ve started the season playing very well defensively,” said Lincoln coach Robert Herrod. “Stopping the run was a very big issue for us last year. We put a major emphasis on that in the preseason, and we are doing it so far.

“Our special teams have also been very productive the first two weeks,” Herrod said. “When you are good on defense and special teams it gives you a chance to win ball games.”

Lincoln trailed Philip Barbour by 10 points before rallying with single touchdowns in the second, third and fourth quarters to win 24-21.

“We were able to control the football in the last quarter and kind of run the clock,” Herrod said. “We were able to set our defense up where it needed to be. We’ve been able to have success throwing the ball and with the ground and pound. The biggest thing has been the effort the kids have played with.”

Lincoln will welcome an RCB team that bounced back from a season opening loss to Fairmont Senior by beating Liberty last week.

“We match up much better with them this year,” Herrod said. “They beat us 63-0 last season. Our kids have marked this game as an opportunity to show how much we’ve improved.

“We’ve got to shut their run game down and we’ve got to run the ball to win,” Herrod said. “They have a different ball club from the one they had last year but they’ve still got some kids that can break and make explosive plays. They are still a very dangerous team to play.”

 

Class AAA No. 2 Morgantown (2-0) at Parkersburg South (1-1)

MHS has rolled over its first two opponents by a combined score of 113-15.

“We’ve played well in both games,” said quarterback Ethan Goldcamp. Our offensive line has led the way with both the run and the pass.

Morgantown defeated Coolidge (D.C.) 66-8 in week two of the high school football season.

“We just need to continue to execute our game plans to the best of our abilities,” Goldcamp said. “We still have areas we can get better. But we have come all long way and we’ve improved a lot already.”

Parkersburg South followed up a season opening win over Ripley with a loss to Linsly last week. Patriots’ running back Brendan Schwendeman rushed for over 400 yards in the Ripley game. The entire Parkersburg South offense was held to just 98 total yards.

 

University (2-0) at Brooke (1-1)

Play begins in the Two Rivers Athletic Association for the Hawks this week as the schedule begins to ramp up. UHS will play back to back road games at Brooke and Wheeling Park followed by a home game with Parkersburg South on September  27th.

UHS has showed balance behind a veteran offensive line. Five of the top six linemen are seniors. Senior quarterback Travis Renner has thrown for over 100 yards in each of the first two games. Six difference receivers have caught passes so far this year. UHS has also averaged nearly 190 yards rushing over the course of the first two games.

Brooke is in year number two under head coach Sean Blumette.  Blumette got the job late last year and the Bruins finished 3-7.

“I was able to spend the entire off season with the players,” Blumette said. “That’s made a major difference. They are much more familiar with our system now. All summer we worked on adding to  base we put in during the first year.

“We are right about where we expected after two games,” Blumette said.  “We are improved. We knew Morgantown would be tough. They are good enough to win the state title. We were hoping to pull out a close one against Taylor Allderdice and we were able to (21-19). We believe if we continue to play as well as we did last week, good things will continue to happen.”

University snapped a four game losing streak at the hands of the Bruins last year with a 45-0 win in Morgantown. Six different players scored touchdowns for the Hawks in that game. Four of those players (Tony Richardson, Jack Armstrong, Travis Renner and Jace Neville) are back on this year’s team.

The Hawks had won four in a row in the series until Brooke won twice in 2009 including a state semi-final round win.  Brooke won tight games in 2010 and 2011 leading up to the Hawks blowout win last year.

 

Fairmont Senior (2-0) at Preston (0-2)

Fairmont Senior balanced its offense in week two as quarterback Austin Norman threw for 263 yards and three scores, including a 99-yarder to Nick Davisson. Fairmont Senior amassed 556 yards of offense

Altogether, the Polar Bears tallied 556 yards of offense in winning at home for the second consecutive week.

Preston is the midst of a stretch of four consecutive home games as it looks for its first win of the season.

 

Bridgeport (1-1) at North Marion (0-2)

Bridgeport’s game with Wheeling Park once again came down to a last second field goal attempt. This year, Park’s Liam Casey delivered the game winner with five seconds to go. The teams have split their last four match ups.

Wheeling Park defeated Bridgeport 17-14 in week two of the high school football season.

Bridgeport will try and bounce back against a North Marion team that has allowed 97 points in two games so far.

 

Herbert Hoover (1-1) at Lewis County (1-1)

Lewis County got the offense going in week two after being held to under 100 yards of total offense in a season opening loss at University. Last week at Preston, the Minutemen rolled up 357 yards on the ground and 490 yards of total offense in a 48-24 win.

Hoover won its opener against Scott and then had a fourth quarter lead in a game against Chapmanville. But the Huskies fumbled on four consecutive possessions allowing Chapmanville to rally and then hold on for the win.

 

Other games this week:

Buckhannon-Upshur (0-2) at Elkins (0-2)

Summers County (2-0) at Grafton (0-2)

Notre Dame (1-0) at Cameron (1-1)





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