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North-Central Report: Week 4

Robert C. Byrd (2-1) at Bridgeport (2-1)

Bridgeport has won four in a row in this rivalry series, including a 2011 playoff game. Last season, the Indians dominated the first half en route to a 35-0 lead at the break and a 42-14 victory.  Bridgeport rushed for 421 yards last year in the win. The rivalry is renewed Friday night.

“The rivalry seems bigger among the fans,” said Bridgeport coach Josh Nicewarner. “The fans typically make this a bigger game than it is. It’s still a very important game, but we’ve got to be fundamentally sound and not try to buy into the rivalry aspect and just worry about ourselves.”

Bridgeport bounced back from a loss at Wheeling Park by winning a defensive struggle, 14-7 over Lewis County last week.

“We’ve got to get tougher,” Nicewarner said. “We dominated that (Lewis County) game statistically and we only won by a touchdown. The grit of this team needs to get better.”

RCB lost a late lead as the Eagles fell on the road at Frankfort 27-21 in double overtime last week. The game was a rematch of a 2013 playoff game won by Byrd. RCB led this year’s contest 14-0 in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles thought they had recovered to win the game in overtime, only to have a potential game winning touchdown pass wiped out on a holding call. RCB was penalized nine times for 85 yards in the game.

RCB played most of the Frankfort game without senior two way standout Ben D’Annunzio who appeared to injure an ankle during a first half interception.
Wheeling Park (2-0) at University (2-1)

The Hawks lost for the first time last week as they had trouble sustaining drives without top running backs Jace Neville and Isaiah Utt. University’s defense spent a lot of time on the field and the Hawks allowed a total of 517 yards of total offense.

“We really had a hard time getting off the field on third down,” said University coach John Kelley. “That is three games in a row where our defense was just asked to do too much. The first two, we just gave up yards. We gave up yards and touchdowns in this one.”

University got its scores on big pass plays. Senior quarterback Jeremy Eckels threw 51 and 43 yard scoring passes to Michael Ramsey. Senior Tristan Lucas got his first score of the year on a 28-yard reception.

“We’ve got to do more on offense,” said Kelley. “Eckels is trying to do too much. We’ve got to help him out a little and get a consistent run game going.”

Things will only be more difficult this week as the Hawks face an excellent Wheeling Park team.  What’s worse, UHS has lost yet another running back to injury as senior backup fullback Dylan Cole is out as well.

The Hawks face a Wheeling Park team coming off a bye week. Park will be playing on the road for the first time as it beat Taylor Allderdice, Pa. and Bridgeport at home to start the season at 2-0.

 

Morgantown (2-1) at Washington (1-2)

The Mohigans make the three hour bus ride to the eastern panhandle for the first ever meeting between these two schools. MHS is coming off its first loss of the season as turnovers plagued the Mohigans in a 35-26 home setback at the hands of Parkersburg South.

“Our kids played hard but we just didn’t execute,” said Morgantown coach John Bowers. “Our fundamentals were poor and I was very, very frustrated with the turnovers and penalties.

“We couldn’t get off blocks,” Bowers said. “We were doing things that were very unsound fundamentally. It seemed like it was someone different every play that busted an assignment.”

Morgantown will try and get things cleaned up quickly as the Mohigans face a tough stretch of games with the long trip to Washington followed by a game with four time defending Class-AAA champ Martinsburg.

After that, it’s back to back road trips to Wayne and Wheeling Park.

Washington won its opener against Hedgesville, but the Patriots have lost back to back games to Spring Mills and Sherando, Virginia.

 

Fairmont Senior (2-1) at Lewis County (2-1)

A new rivalry is set to begin as Lewis County hosts Fairmont Senior.

The Polar Bears are on the road for the third time in four weeks as they have secured back to back wins over North Marion and Preston. Malik Boody returned the opening kickoff for a score last week as the Polar Bears were never headed in a 28-18 win over Preston. Fairmont Senior won that game despite being outgained 292-208.

Lewis County had a tough time moving the ball against Bridgeport as the Minutemen were held to negative rushing yards and to just 94 total yards. Lewis County managed to stay in that game with its defense as Bridgeport scored a fourth quarter touchdown to win 14-7.

Lewis County had a two game winning streak snapped with the Bridgeport loss. That Minutemen defense has allowed an average of just 11.6 points per game.

 

Weir (2-1) at Grafton (3-0)

The brilliant start for the Bearcats continued during week three when they dominated the second half in a 21-0 win over South Harrison. Nate Moses continues his fine season with three more touchdowns.
Weir is playing a West Virginia opponent for the first time this year. The Red Riders have wins over Catholic Central and Edison Local to go along with a close loss to Harrison Central all of Ohio.
Preston (1-2) at Elkins (1-1)

Preston continues to run the football well despite back to back losses to Lewis County and Fairmont Senior. The Knights rushed for 246 yards and Josiah Nuse found the end zone three times during last week’s 28-18 setback at the hands of the Polar Bears.

Elkins suffered a overtime loss at Hampshire last week when the Trojans executed a successful two point conversion after matching an Elkins touchdown in overtime. Elkins just missed starting the season 2-0 for just the second time in the last 10 seasons.

Preston won last year’s game with Elkins 47-26. That victory snapped a four game winning streak by the Tigers in the series.

 

Liberty (2-1) at Philip Barbour (0-3)

Logan Robey had a career high 26 carries for 267 yards to lead Liberty to a win over Lincoln. Liberty rushed for 374 yards and had 463 yards of total offense to win for the second time in three weeks.

Liberty’s line played very well on both sides of the ball.

Philip Barbour had trouble stopping the run in a loss in a 19-15 loss to Braxton County. The Eagles accumulated 234 yards on the ground, gaining nearly 5 and a half yards per carry. Three turnovers helped stall the Philip Barbour offense.

These teams have split the last six meetings. Liberty had a three game win streak in the series between 2009-2011. Philip Barbour has won the last two. The Colts won 28-7 on the road in Clarksburg last year.

 

Lincoln (1-2) at East Fairmont (0-3)

With the drop to Class AA a few seasons back, East Fairmont has had to revamp its schedule and one of the AA schools the Bees have picked up is Lincoln. The teams met for the first time last year with Lincoln winning 22-10.

Its been a rough start to the 2014 season for East Fairmont as the Bees have allowed an average of 44 points per game so far.

Lincoln is 0-2 on the road so far this season with losses at Braxton County and Liberty. Lincoln played last week at Liberty without senior quarterback Jerrod Keller who missed the game with a shoulder injury. Freshman Kobie Carpenter was his replacement. Carpenter threw for 201 yards and a touchdown in his first career start.

 

North Marion (0-2) at Buckhannon-Upshur (1-1)

Buckhannon rolled up 399 yards of total offense and forced five turnovers on defense in beating East Fairmont 53-0 last week.

North Marion is coming off a bye week. The Huskies will play on the road for the first time this week. They lost their first two games at home to Elkins and Fairmont Senior by an average of 28 points.

 

Notre Dame (0-2) at Bishop Donahue (2-1)

Notre Dame has started the season with a very difficult schedule with loss at Wheeling Central and at Parkersburg Catholic. The Irish play their third consecutive road game to start the season, facing a Bishop Donahue team coming off a close loss to unbeaten Clay-Battelle.





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