By Wes McKinney
Spring Valley (2-2) at Princeton (2-2)
Fresh off its 75-14 thrashing of Ripley, Spring Valley will finish up its rugged road trip to begin the season with their longest journey of the year.
The trip to Mercer County will mark the fourth road game in five games for the Timberwolves.
The 75 points Spring Valley scored on Friday night, meanwhile, was the most for head coach Brad Dingess’ tenure, dating back to 2008.
“Everything was clicking for us offensively,” he said. “We were able to do everything we wanted and cause turnovers. It got us on a short field and we capitalized on every mistake Ripley had.”
Not only did Spring Valley use last week as a momentum builder after losing two straight, but also a chance to rest starters.
“It also got our young kids a lot of experience,” Dingess said. “You can’t put into words how much that meant to our program as far as getting those kids a lot of playing time.”
The matchup against the Tigers will be unique for the Timberwolves, as Princeton runs a triple option offense.
“They run the type of offense that nobody else runs in our conference,” Dingess said. “It’s something new and it’s going to take a lot of time in practice to prepare for it. We are going to have to play really well to go into Princeton and get a win.”
Hurricane (3-1) at Cabell Midland (3-1)
Before losing to Huntington last week, Cabell Midland had won 15 consecutive regular season games. Despite the loss, coach Luke Salmons took away several positives.
“I thought we moved the ball very consistently,” Salmons said. “We just didn’t take care of the ball. We gave them a short field on the first play of the game when we fumbled. We didn’t capitalize when we were in the red zone two times early in the game.
“I feel like we are better this year then we were last year,” he continued. “Our offense line is playing extreme well. Our kids haven’t had to go through a lot of different situational stuff yet.”
Now the Knights will try to start another streak as they return home to face Hurricane and second team all-state quarterback Austin Hensley, who is fresh off of a five touchdown performance in a 41-21 win over Princeton.
“He’s a really good player and he’s one of the best quarterback I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Salmons said of Hensley. “He can make all of the throws. We have to stay with the game and not get frustrated when he makes some good throws. He’s going to make some good plays. They have some good receivers and they believe in what they are doing.”
Winfield (2-1) at Point Pleasant (3-0)
Three games into the season, Point Pleasant coach David Darst finally got to see his starters play for all four quarters in a 37-21 win against Logan.
After two lopsided wins against Lincoln County and Ripley, the Big Blacks were tested against the Wildcats and surrendered just 97 yards of offense.
“We knew we needed to play our starters the whole game because there’s teams on our schedule that are going to really test us,” Darst said. “There’s some of those early games where your starters don’t play the whole game and they might get a little out of sync.”
Despite the victory, Darst still sees some things his team needs to work on moving forward.
“We have a lot of room to improve especially on the offensive side of the ball,” he said. “I think it was definitely a step in the right direction to beat a team like Logan.”
As for the matchup with the Generals this week, Point Pleasant will be tested by their dynamic offense.
“They are a spread team,” Darst said. “They can throw the ball and they can use Chris Turner by putting him in the backfield and running the wildcat.”
Huntington (4-0) at Ripley (0-4)
Even though Huntington was impressive with a win over Cabell Midland last week, Huntington coach Bill Seals still expects more out of his defense.
“I don’t think we played very well, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Seals said. “When I went back and watched the film, I would give us a grade of C. The bottom line is we got out of there with a 19-7 victory. We can get a lot better in order to be where we want to be.”
As an elite showdown looms with Capital in week six, the Highlanders must first deal with a pesky Ripley team this week that is looking for their first win.
“The biggest thing I’m trying to emphasis to our kids this week is no matter who we’re playing we need to get better and fine tuning some things,” Seals said. “I’ve challenged my kids to go up and take care of business (against Ripley.)”
This isn’t the first time this season Seals and his club has had to deal with a “trap” game.
“To me, we have already had a trap game early in the year with Woodrow Wilson,” Seals said. “We played Spring Valley at home and win that game. We didn’t play real well in the first half against Woodrow Wilson. We played a lot better in the second half.”
The Woodrow Wilson game was sandwiched between rivalry matchups with Spring Valley and Cabell Midland.
As for Ripley, Seals is impressed with the Vikings, despite their record.
Along the offensive line, they have a couple of kids that are huge,” Seals said. “They are rebuilding some with a new coaching staff and new system, but they play extremely hard. We have our work cut out for us.
“We have told our kids, ‘if you think you’re going to go to Ripley and have them lay down at the snap of the ball, then you’re sadly mistaken,’” he said.
Sissonville (4-0) at Wayne (3-0)
After throttling previously unbeaten Ravenswood last week, Wayne will look to continue to knock off the unbeatens when Sissonville comes calling this week.
Dating back to 2011, the Pioneers have now won 26 games in a row.
In the victory over Ravenswood, Wayne was led by Brandon Spurlock who had 89 yards rushing and two touchdowns. The Pioneers racked up 340 yards overall on the ground.
In the last two meetings, Wayne has outscored the Indians 102-12. However, those two Sissonville clubs were a combined 7-13.
This year the Indians are 4-0 for the first time since 2006.
Bye Week
Hannan
Other Games
Tug Valley at Tolsia
Lincoln County at Lewis County