Martinsburg (3-1) at Morgantown (3-1)
Martinsburg will try to extend its winning streak in the series to eight. Martinsburg, in fact, hasn’t lost to a West Virginia school since 2009. The Bulldogs lost for the first time in 48 games at home last week as they fell to Tuscarora, Virginia.
Morgantown survived a spate of injuries in beating Washington last week in the first ever meeting between those two schools. Ethan Goldcamp threw three touchdown passes in the win. Morgantown is hoping to get most of their injured players back.
The biggest question mark for this week concerns the player who has emerged as the top running so far this year. Junior DaShon Thomas injured his shoulder against Washington. His status for this week is unknown. Tight end/defensive end Stone Wofley missed the Washington game with an injured shoulder. Middle linebacker Dylan Anderson missed last week’s game with an injured shoulder as well.
Morgantown coach John Bowers notes that seven sophomores played on defense for the Mohigans in the Washington win.
“We are playing a lot of young kids and they are doing real well,” Bowers said. “If that bodes well for the future or the present, that’s where were at.”
As far as getting prepared for Martinsburg this week?
“It would be nice to have a full complement of players to formulate a game plan,” Bowers said. “But on some, we won’t know until Thursday. We’ll do the best we can with the kids we’ve got.
“They are very, very fast,” Bowers said of Martinsburg. “Fast and smart. They are athletically better than everybody, but they are also prepared and well coached. You don’t accidentally trip and fall and win four (consecutive) state championships.
“It wasn’t too long ago that it was us winning all of those championships,” Bowers continued. “But these kids don’t know anything about that. They need to revisit that and they need to realize that’s where we want to get back to. The more people that get on board, the better off we’re going to be.”
University (3-1) at Musselman (2-2)
The Hawks were down to their No. 3 tailback and to their No. 3 fullback, but they managed their best game of the season so far in beating Wheeling Park 17-14.
“The rumors of our demise were greatly exaggerated,” said head coach John Kelley after the game.
The Hawks had lost at home to Brooke the week before. Senior quarterback Jeremy Eckels rushed for 118 yards and a score. He threw for 119 yards and a touchdown. Senior receiver Tristan Lucas had a break out game with six catches for 114 yards including a 26 yard touchdown.
Kelley also went out of his way to praise a starting offensive line of Lucas Cole, Derrick McElroy, Tyler Stouffer, Scott Dixon and Matt Minard. The unit helped the Hawks average nearly 5.0 yards per rush attempt and total 325 yards of total offense.
“Our offensive line owned the line of scrimmage,” Kelley said. “The pass protection was really good as we concentrated on the quick hitters. We just tried to keep the ball and sustain drives.
“The biggest thing was the effort overall,” Kelley continued. “Last week (against Brooke) the effort wasn’t there. This week we may have seen one of the more monumental efforts in the history of this program.”
So far in the Two Rivers Athletic Conference, University has beaten Parkersburg South only to see that team lose to Morgantown the next week. Brooke beat University, but was taken down by Morgantown.
Then UHS tagged Wheeling Park with a loss in the Patriots’ league opener.
“We’ve got more parity top to bottom then in any time since this league started,” Kelley said.
The Hawks step outside the conference this week with a road trip to face a Musselman team that had a two game win streak snapped with a 47-21 loss at Jefferson last week.
Lewis County (3-1) at Lincoln County (0-4)
Lewis County bounced back a loss to Bridgeport by smothering Fairmont Senior’s offense in a 23-7 victory last week. The Minutemen even scored on defense as corner Ryan Watson had an interception return for a touchdown. The Lewis County offense produced some long scoring drives including one of 65 yards. Another 12 play drive led to an early field goal.
Winless Lincoln County has been outscored 173-34 so far. These teams met in Weston last year with Lewis County winning 59-0.
Elkins (1-2) at Fairmont Senior (2-2)
Elkins has dropped two in a row following a season opening win over North Marion. The Tigers have had problems stopping the run in recent weeks. They allowed 380 yards on the ground during a home loss to Preston last week.
Fairmont Senior looks to get its offense going again after facing one of the best defensive teams in the region last week. The Polar Bears had just five first downs and 26 yards rushing in a loss to Lewis County. That loss snapped a two game winning streak.
Liberty (3-1) at Weir (3-1)
Liberty is on the road for the fourth time in five weeks. The Mountaineers won at Philip Barbour 42-12 last week. Liberty put that game away early as Logan Robey had three first half scores. Liberty will try and continue that success on the ground against a Weir team that allowed Grafton to rush for 355 yards last week.
Weir will be playing a representative from the North-Central region for the second week in a row. Weir gained 548 yards in a 47-32 shootout win at Grafton last week. William Larch is the name to know when facing Weir. Larch had 360 total yards and five touchdowns in the win at Grafton.
East Fairmont (1-3) at Bridgeport (3-1)
East Fairmont got its first win of the season beating Lincoln 31-21 last week. Myles Johnson had a pair of long receptions to set up the go-ahead touchdown for the Bees. Johnson then sealed the game with an interception return for a score.
Bridgeport won for the fifth straight time over rival RCB last week. The Indians scored 31 unanswered after the Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead. The Bridgeport defense has allowed just 35 points in four games. That defense allowed just 26 yards in the second half against RCB.
Bridgeport has won the last five meetings in the series by an average score of 48-10.
Buckhannon-Upshur (2-1) at Oak Hill (0-3)
The Buccaneers take some momentum on the road as they’ve won back to back home games by a combined score of 83-7. Last week in a 40-7 win over North Marion, Buckhannon rushed for 262 yards and over eight yards per carry.
The Bucs are over the .500 mark three games into the season for the first time in nearly ten seasons. These teams are meeting for the second consecutive season. Oak Hill won 23-10 at Buckhannon last season.
Robert C. Byrd (2-2) at Grafton (3-1)
The Eagles will try and snap a two game losing streak as they play on the road for the third consecutive week. RCB has dropped back to back road games to Frankfort and Bridgeport teams that are a combined 7-1.
Grafton suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of Weir despite 355 yards rushing and 375 yards of total offense. Three turnovers hurt the Bearcats in that loss.
Preston (2-2) at North Marion (0-3)
Preston snapped a two game losing streak as Josiah Nuse rushed for 286 yards and four touchdowns during a road win at Elkins. Senior linebacker Cameron Shrout led the Knights defense with 11 tackles. North Marion has allowed 123 points in three games so far.
Notre Dame (1-2) at River View (1-3)
Notre Dame earned its first win in come from behind fashion on the road at Bishop Donahue last week. The Irish rallied from a 23-14 late third quarter deficit to win 30-29 in overtime. The Irish defense stopped the Bishops on a two point conversion attempt in overtime to seal the victory.
Notre Dame running back Santino Cava put the final touches on breaking the Harrison County rushing record, finishing with 236 yards and four touchdowns — that brings his career rushing total to 4,283 yards with the Irish.
Riverview has lost three in a row. Two of the losses have come against solid Class A opponents Buffalo and Man.
Philip Barbour (0-4) at Tucker County (1-3)
The Colts have to shore things up defensively as they’ve allowed an average of 35 points per game. Opponents have scored 40 or more twice, including last week as Liberty won 42-12 at Philippi.
Tucker County has lost two in a row but is in the midst of a stretch of four consecutive home games.
Other games this week:
St. John’s, Ohio (3-1) at Clay-Battelle (3-0)
South Harrison (1-2) at Lincoln (1-3)