Southwestern Report: Week 9

By: Wes McKinney

No. 7 Class AAA Spring Valley (7-1) at No. 4 Class AAA Cabell Midland (7-1)

Spring Valley and Cabell Midland enter Friday’s contest coming off of impressive wins as Spring Valley dropped Nitro 58-20 on senior night, while Cabell Midland went on the road to defeat George Washington 49-7.

“It’s a good group and a close group,” Spring Valley head coach Brad Dingess said.

“They won a lot of games and played in a lot of big games. They set a goal at the beginning of the season to win all their home games and they were able to accomplish that. To go 5-0 at home in our conference is a pretty big deal.”

After being tied 7-7 at halftime with the Patriots, Cabell Midland shutout George Washington in the second half and scored 42 points of its own in the final 24 minutes.

Cabell Midland defeated George Washington 49-7 in week eight of the high school football season.

“We made some mistakes early, but give credit to GW,” Cabell Midland head coach Luke Salmons said. “Our defense played well all night. Our offense struggled at the beginning, but started getting into a groove in the third quarter. We scored 28 points in a matter of seven or eight minutes.”

The Timberwolves’ seniors that just wrapped up a perfect home slate will be looking for revenge as they have lost three straight to the Knights, including two games at Cabell Midland during the 2012 season that included a 28-26 quarterfinal playoff loss.

“These guys were sophomores when we went to Cabell Midland twice that season,” Dingess said. “They know what to expect.”

For both teams it will be a battle of strengths, as both like to pound the ball on the ground and control the line of scrimmage.

“We know they are a very good team,” Salmons said. “It’s going to be senior night. It’s a special night for us because this is the first group of seniors we’ve had for all four years. It’s pretty neat for all of us coaches and especially me.

“It’s great to see how far they’ve come and they have a chance to do special things this year,” he continued. “We have a chance to be 8-1, but I’m sure the Spring Valley coaches think they can come in here and leave 8-1 as well.”

** A MetroNews High School Sportsline Interview with Spring Valley quarterback Tyler Brown is posted above.

 

No. 5  Class AA Mingo Central (6-1) at No. 12 Class AA Scott (6-2)

The Miners took a major step towards hosting their first ever playoff game with a 53-6 win over Chapmanville.

A big key to Mingo Central’s offense success this season, in which the Miners have averaged 45.2 points per game, has been the tempo.

“I think we got beat last year because (our opponents) played at a faster pace than us,” Mingo Central head coach Yogi Kinder said. “We sat down as a coaching staff and realized we needed to get faster to stay with everyone else. I thought we could have played faster and better than we did against Chapmanville, but we still put 50 points on the board. I just hope we continue to get better week-to-week.”

Meanwhile, Scott snapped a brief two-game losing streak with a come-from-behind win over Tolsia after trailing 19-0 at halftime. The Skyhawks prevailed 20-19 over the Rebels.

“They are always tough at home,” Kinder said. “We have to stop the run because offensively they can be pretty explosive. Defensively, they are very good. If you look at their game against Tolsia, they gave up 19 points in the first half and then shut them down in the second half.”

And with a win over Scott, the Miners would be sitting in the driver’s seat for that home playoff game.

“This is a big game this week, but next week is a big game, too,“ Kinder said. “It really wouldn’t do us any good to win this week and not win the next week. We have to start getting hot. If you’re going to be in the playoffs, you have to have a hot team. Hopefully, we can play well the next couple of weeks and be hot going into the playoffs.”

 

No. 13 Class AAA Huntington (4-3) at St. Albans (2-5)

Huntington head coach Billy Seals is a believes his team has continued to improve as the season has gone on. .

After his team beat Ripley 35-0 four weeks ago, Seals said it was the best game the Highlanders had played to date. He echoed those same words after a 41-6 win over Parkersburg last week.

“That was probably the most complete we’ve played this year,” Seals said. “I felt like our kids had great focus and you’re always a little worried about that after a bye week. Sometimes you can come out a little rusty, but we definitely didn’t do that.”

Now, Seals has to get his team refocused for a pesky St. Albans team that nearly upset Hurricane last week, losing 39-36.

“(St. Albans has) been able to points on the board against everybody they’ve played,” Seals said. “They put 55 on Nitro, scored in the 30s against Princeton and put 36 on the board last week (vs. Hurricane).”

The Highlanders, meanwhile, have a big game looming next week against South Charleston

 

Sheldon Clark, Ky. at No. 3 Class A Tug Valley (7-1)

Tug Valley will look to complete its home schedule at 4-0 when it takes on Sheldon Clark Friday night.

The Panthers are coming off a 36-14 win over Calhoun County.

“We’re extremely excited right now and everyone in the community is proud to see us up there and ranked,” said Tug Valley coach Tony Clusky. “I feel like we have a pretty good ballclub. We don’t really have the so-called ‘superstar’ on the team. We’ve had several guys step up this year and play big for us.

After the game with Sheldon Clark, Tug Valley will matchup with Man in its last game of the season where home field advantage for the playoffs will most certainly be on the line for the Panthers.

“We want to finish strong and we don’t want to be satisfied with what we’ve done so far,” Clusky said. “I don’t want to look ahead to Man just yet. We have our hands full with Sheldon Clark.”

 

No. 8 Class AA Man (5-2) at Pocahontas County (4-4)

The Hillbillies rolled to a 38-12 win over Sherman in week eight to stay in contention for a possible home playoff game.

Being ranked eighth in Class A, the Hillbillies have a chance to pick up big bonus points as they have Pocahontas County and Tug Valley left on the schedule, along with Van.

After a previous string of three consecutive losing seasons, Man will be looking to clinch its second straight winning season with a road win over Pocahontas County.

 

Shady Spring (2-5) at No. 2 Class AAA Point Pleasant (8-0)

When the senior class at Point Pleasant takes the field for the final regular season game of their careers Friday night, they will do so as the winningest team in school history.

In three-plus seasons, the Big Blacks have compiled a record of 40-5. They earned their 40thwin with a road victory over Ravenswood last week, 37-20.

“There are kids in there like Aden Yates, Gage Buskirk and Jon Peterson,“ Point Pleasant head coach David Darst said of his senior class. “What a player Jon Peterson is for us. I only have two senior lineman but they are good players: Chase Moses and Noah Morgan.

“Those kids have played in a state championship team — they were only freshman, but they remember what it was like,” he continued. “They remember the preparation that senior class put into something like that. Against Ravenswood, it was supposed to be Rhys Jelich vs. Cody Mitchell and Aden Yates stole the show.”

With a win over Shady Spring, the Big Blacks could pull over another feat of being the only teams in school history to finish consecutive undefeated regular seasons.

“We’ve never done this — we’ve never been undefeated two straight season in the history of this school,” Darst said. “We’ve played football here since 1924 and these seniors know how big this is.

“We want to have momentum going into the playoffs. We don’t want to make mental mistakes and played solid on both sides of the ball,” he continued. “With it being senior night, the energy and momentum will be there for us I think. This is a group of kids that seems to show up every Friday night and is ready to go.”

As for the Big Blacks’ opponent, Shady Spring?

“We can’t let them get into their ground and pound game,” he said. “They have some big kids. They want to run the football and try to control the clock. We need to slow them down on first down and not let them get into their offensive sets. Some people may not remember, but this is a team that was in the semifinals three years ago and wasn’t far away from playing for a state championship.”

 

Poca (0-7) at No. 2 Class AA Wayne (6-1)

Wayne got past Herbert Hoover 28-14 despite quarterback Grant Ferguson not playing the second half with an injury and running back Mason Hodge missing the entire game.

Kade Sebastian picked up the slack for the Pioneers as he returned a kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown to start the game.

With winless Poca visiting Pioneer Field, it appears this will be a good week for Wayne to get healthy before finishing the season at Chapmanville before a big showdown at home with Bluefield to conclude the regular season.

“There’s always going to be pressure when you play here, but the big thing is our guys know what lies ahead and we need to continue to make progress,” Wayne head coach Tom Harmon said.

 

Other Games:

Tolsia (1-6) at Chapmanville (4-4)

No. 2 Class A Clay-Battelle (7-0) at Van (4-4)

Lincoln County (0-8) at Ripley (2-5)

 

Bye Week:

Sherman (1-7)

Logan (2-6)

 

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