By: Jack Withrow
Class AAA – No. 4 Capital (9-2) at No. 1 Cabell Midland (12-0) Saturday, 1:30 p.m.
Capital’s Tyrhee Pratt wasn’t quite ready to see his high school football career come to an end last week. After running back Silas Nazario was sidelined early in the game with an ankle injury, Pratt took control in the 2nd half to lead his team to a come-from-behind victory over visiting Martinsburg, 35-30.
“I saw us getting down when they started making plays,” said Pratt, “I just told myself we have a long game and I just thought to myself that I need to go out there and lead my team.”
The senior quarterback rushed for a game-high 195 yards and three touchdowns while completing 8-of-15 passes for 182 yards and another score. On the season Pratt has completed 118 of 192 passes for 1,902 yards and 17 touchdowns.
“He’s just as tough as he can be,” said Capital coach Jon Carpenter. “That was amazing and I’ve never seen anyone take over a game like that. He just gutted it out for us.”
The win for the Cougars sets up a rematch with No. 1 Cabell Midland in the Class AAA semifinals.
Cabell Midland fought off turnovers and a tough Brooke Bruins team for a 30-7 victory last Saturday night. The Knights racked up 419 rushing yards – 356 yards in the 2nd half alone – as running back Devin Stapleton rushed for 219 yards and two touchdowns. Senior running back Caperton Humphrey totaled 130 yards on 21 carries while Jacob Hendricks added 61 yards and two scores.
All year teams have had a difficult time trying to stop the Knights wing-T, triple option ground attack led by two 1,000-yard rushers in Stapleton (1,826 yards, 29 TDs) and Caperton (1,529 yards, 16 TDs). But one can’t key on just those two as quarterback Tyler Brown has rushed for 534 yards and 9 touchdowns while wingback Jacob Hendricks has added 584 yards and seven scores.
“We’ve become more of a family based team this year,” said Jacob Hendricks while talking about his team’s chemistry on offense. “Once we get rolling, it’s hard to stop.”
Saturday’s semifinal game will be a rematch from the September 11th game that saw Cabell Midland defeat then No. 1 ranked Capital 21-14 as the Knights scored two 4th quarter touchdowns highlighted by the game winning 41-yard touchdown run by Stapleton with just 44 seconds left in the contest.
Nazario, who is still questionable for Saturday’s game, ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns in the week three loss to Cabell Midland.
Capital and Cabell Midland have met 23 times on the gridiron with the Cougars owning a 14-9 edge over the Knights. Kickoff is set for 1:30 Saturday afternoon.