6:00pm: Sportsline with Tony Caridi

Friday Night Lights Are Now Off

I have been very fortunate over my broadcast career to be involved in a lot of great high school football games…..this past weekend, I was presented the opportunity again as a small part of the broadcast team that covered the 2013 Super Six Championships in Wheeling!  What a great weekend it was! 

Now in all fairness, the weather was anything but great!  I arrived in the northern panhandle on Thursday of last week and was greeted with a deluge of rain.  That rain turned to snow on Friday evening and by the time the Class AA championship was played we had at least 4 inches of the white stuff on the artificial surface at Wheeling Island Stadium.  For Saturday’s two championship games, the snow was officially gone and the stadium field had been cleared by the great folks that are associated with the Super Six Committee.  However, that clearing in the skies set the stage for some of the coldest weather I have ever been a part of while broadcasting these Super Six Championships!   How cold was it?  Let’s just say even the proverbial brass monkeys had enough sense to stay indoors!

Now on to the games!  On Friday night, in spite of the bad weather, the Class AA contest was fun to be a part of and it was not decided until the final play of the game!  The Bridgeport Indians outlasted the Wayne Pioneers 14-13 to earn their 7th overall state football crown and in doing so, prevented the Wayne Pioneers from winning their state record breaking 37th consecutive game and even more importainly stopped the Pioneers from capturing their 3rd straight Class AA title.  The game was exciting to watch and was the closest margin of victory in the AA championship since 2003 when Poca defeated Bluefield 21-20.

On Saturday, the Class AAA championship was contested between #1 Huntington and #2 Martinsburg and once again both teams came to play….especially defense!  The game of course ended with Martinsburg becoming the first Class AAA team to win four straight football crowns when they defeated the Highlanders by a final score of 9-7!  The margin of victory was a 2 point safety that was scored when the Bulldog punt return team blocked a Huntington punt out of the endzone!  Neither team could muster much of an offensive attack, but that was mainly because the game was filled with great, hard hitting defense@!

On Saturday evening with the cold wind blowing and the temperatures dropping into the teens, the Blue Dons of Madonna became the only #1 seed to win on the Island last weekend as they outlasted a very good Greenbrier West team from Charmco.  The Blue Dons were led by the MetroNews High School Football Player of the Year as Ross Comis did what he has done all season long…..find a way to lead his team to victory!  The Blue Don quarterback completed an unbelievable over the shoulder pitch to fellow senior Eliott Nero to keep a drive alive and avoid what looked to be a sure sack by the Cavalier defense.  It was plays like that made fan and broadcaster stare in astonishment as Comis worked his magic!  The final score in the Class A game was 24-14 but both teams would agree the game was much closer than 10 points!

All in all……in was indeed a great weekend of high school football and as we turn those Friday night lights off for another season, I personally can’t wait until HIGH SCHOOL GAMENIGHT returns!  Don’t tell my wife, but it’s only 261 days away!!







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