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Roundup: Spring Mills clinches playoff spot ahead of schedule

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The final week of the high school football regular season wrapped up on Friday night as playoff spots were locked in for all three classes.

One of the story lines in the upcoming playoffs out of Class AAA will be Spring Mills as the Cardinals defeated Hedgesville 35-0, locking up a playoff spot for the first time in the school’s short three-year history.

“It’s definitely something that transpired a lot quicker than we had anticipated,” said Spring Mills coach Derek Munson. “With so much hard work over these last couple of years, we saw the progress and the opportunity to raise the standard and our goals. The kids have really done a great job.”

Spring Mills is expected to be announced later this weekend as the No. 13 seed out of Class AAA and face No. 4 Capital in the opening round of the playoffs. In all, four teams out of the eastern panhandle are expected to be in the playoff field — Martinsburg, Jefferson, Musselman and Spring Mills.

“It’s definitely a great year for eastern panhandle football,” Munson said. “There are a lot of quality teams and it’s just exciting that we’re a part of it.”

The top ranked teams took care of business out of Class AAA on Friday night as No. 1 Cabell Midland (10-0) beat Hurricane 56-15. Knights’ running back Devin Stapleton totaled 122 yards and three touchdowns, while Caperton Humphrey totaled 148 yards and two touchdowns.

No. 2 Point Pleasant shutout Princeton 66-0 behind Cody Mitchell’s 311 total offensive yards (280 rushing) and four touchdowns. Mitchell also collected two interceptions defensively for the Big Blacks.

Princeton drops to 5-5 on the year, but is expected to snag the No. 16 spot in the playoffs with an opening round date against top ranked Cabell Midland. Elkins’ 17-10 loss to Buckhannon-Upshur opened up the door for Princeton to still get into the playoff field.

No. 4 Wheeling Park (8-1-1) rolled John Marshall 50-0 behind Savion Johnson’s 181 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

No. 12 South Charleston (7-3), with the return of receiver Fred Crozier, is now back at full strength as the Black Eagles handled No. 7 George Washington (7-3) 48-21. South Charleston running back C.J. Perkins totaled 314 yards and three touchdowns on 40 carries.

The Black Eagles are expected to be No. 11 in Class AAA, facing No. 6 Jefferson. George Washington is expected to finish at No. 10 and face No. 7 Huntington.

Other expected, unofficial playoff seeds in Class AAA include No. 2 Point Pleasant, No. 3 Wheeling Park, No. 5 Martinsburg, No. 8 Morgantown, No. 9 Brooke, No. 12 Greenbrier East, No. 14 Spring Valley and No. 15 Musselman.

The story in Class AA centered around No. 16 Westside (7-3) and No. 5 Mingo Central (8-2) as the Renegades won a game they had to have to get into the playoffs, 45-6. Mingo Central was without several key players in the loss, playing without starting quarterback Stevie Hammond, among others, who had been banged up over the last few weeks of the season, according to Miners’ coach Yogi Kinder.

No. 2 Bluefield (8-1) kept Wayne (5-5) out of the playoffs with a 41-14 win over the Pioneers. Wayne ran 80 plays from scrimmage in the loss, while Bluefield scored on big plays, only running 20 total plays in the game.

North Marion (5-5) picked up a huge win over No. 8 Lincoln (7-3) 51-42, but the Huskies are expected to come up just short of the top 16 in Class AA.

Class A No. 4 East Hardy won a shootout over AA Petersburg 57-48, No. 6 Man (8-2) edged No. 14 Van (7-3) 42-22, No. 6 Wheeling Central (9-1) dominated No. 12 Bishop Donahue (7-3) 60-22 and No. 8 Williamstown (8-2) beat Class AA No. 14 Roane County (6-4) 49-13.

Official playoff pairings, dates and times will be announced on Sunday morning/early afternoon following meetings in Parkersburg.

The complete scoreboard from Friday night is posted here.

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