By: Wes McKinney, WVMetroNews.com
AAA No. 1 Huntington (4-0) at AAA No. 6 Capital (3-1)
Huntington and running back Jadon Hayes controlled the second half against Parkersburg as the Highlanders downed the Big Reds 28-6 in what was a record night for Hayes.
The senior ball carrier rushed for a Huntington single-game record of 307 yards, with 219 coming after halftime.
Huntington head coach Billy Seals and his team will now turn their attention to a pivotal contest with Capital.
“Capital is a very, very good program that has played for a state championship the last two seasons, and they are just as good as they have been the last two years,” Seals said.
“All they have done is switch quarterbacks and replace a couple of guys up front. They have big, rangy kids that can run. Coach Carpenter does a great job of finding mismatches all over the field and exploiting those throughout the game.”
The two teams have combined to play for the last three Class AAA state championships.
Earlier in the season, Seals talked about how athletic his team was on the outside, on both sides of the ball. However, this week comes one of the toughest matchups for any defense in the state with Capital’s Silas Nazario.
“We struggled against Crunchy Bays at wide receiver last year, so they replace him by moving Silas Nizario in the slot,” Seals said. “That’s another mismatch. If he gets in one-on-one situations, he’s going to make you pay.”
But Nazario isn’t the only player that concerns Seals.
“I’m impressed with Kerry Martin at quarterback,” Seals said. “On defense, they have some wardaddys with Dorian Etheridge at linebacker and Kalai Clark at nose guard.”
How Huntington controls the line of scrimmage and the tempo of the game could decide the ultimate outcome.
“We have to win first down,” Seals said. “We have to get in situations where it’s 2nd-and-4 or 2nd-and-5. We can’t put ourselves in 2nd-and-13. We have to try to make sure we limit their possessions.”
AAA No. 8 Spring Valley (3-1) at AAA No. 10 South Charleston (2-2)
Spring Valley continued to pile points on the board as it recorded a 54-21win at George Washington.
It was the third time in four games this season the Timberwolves have scored 50 or more, a feat they accomplished only four times in the previous three seasons.
But, it was Spring Valley’s defense that head coach Brad Dingess was most impressed with as it held George Washington quarterback Grant Wells to 116 passing yards.
“For us to hold Grant Wells to 116 yards passing, I thought our defense was lights out,” Dingess said. “I thought our secondary played great. We were able to get some pressure on Wells without having to blitz, so we were able to drop more guys into coverage.”
Back to the offense, though, which is being orchestrated by Derek Johnson.
“He’s making great decisions right now. Last year, he made some mistakes, but he was a sophomore. His growth, maturity and understanding of everything has been leaps and bounds from last year to this year,” Dingess said. “It helps when you have Mason Brubeck, Jonah Wellman, Isaac Howard, Kane Morrone and Austin Stambaugh.”
Johnson and his offense will see a stiff defense this week in South Charleston, but Dingess also sees an improving offense for the Black Eagles.
“What’s scary about them is that they have figured out what they are doing offensively the last couple of games,” Dingess said.
“They are a much better football team right now than they were in the first two weeks of the season. Everybody knows about Derrek Pitts, but they have some other good football players too.”
AA No. 4 Point Pleasant (4-0) at A No. 13 Mount View (2-1)
Point Pleasant dominated in a 41-12 victory over visiting Logan in Week 4. The Big Blacks turned to Grant Safford in the win as he rushed for 182 yards.
“Grant Safford is the kind of kid that when we get into games where we need to control the clock and get things under control he’s who we will turn to,” Point Pleasant head coach David Darst said. “He did a good job of finishing runs against Logan. It took two or three kids to bring him down on some of his runs.”
Safford also helped plow the way for quarterback Cason Payne who threw for 141 yards and rushed for another 152.
“He did a good job of blocking when he didn’t have the ball,” Darst said. “I’ve been a little hard on him for taking a play or two off during games, but he sure didn’t do that Friday night. He actually helped open up the running game for Cason Payne.”
Darst was also impressed with his defense’s effort to shut down David Early and the potent Logan offense.
“We just made a couple of changes in what we were doing in the secondary from the first half to the second half,” Darst said of the tight first-half battle. “I thought our defense played very well in the second half. Our kids did a good job of handling David Early and his wide receivers.”
Week 5 will be a new test and a new opponent for Point Pleasant as it has never faced Mount View in Darst’s tenure as head coach.
“I’m amazed at the athletes they have,” Darst said. “I’ve never been down in McDowell County and I’ve never seen Mount View on film or anything. The film tells me athlete here, athlete there.
“The quarterback is an athlete, running back is an athlete, the fullback is an athlete, two receivers are athletes—one is 6’8”, the other is 6’4”. Their linemen are big—couple of 300-pound kids in there,” Darst said emphasizing the athleticism on the Mount View roster. “I’m impressed. They know how to score points.”
AA No. 5 Mingo Central (3-0) at Nitro (1-2)
Mingo Central enjoyed the bye week after downing Sissonville, 52-22, heading into the off week.
The score wasn’t necessarily indicative of how the first half went though.
“It was like flipping a switch,” Mingo Central head coach Yogi Kinder said. “We started playing a lot better in the second half. We were giving up more yards in the first half than we should have been.”
During the bye week for the Miners, Kinder and his staff went back to simplifying things and making the atmosphere similar to August practice without the grind that comes with the hot summer practices.
“We worked on a lot of fundamentals during the bye week,” Kinder said. “We went back and re-taught some things and re-worked them. Our kids have responded pretty well.”
Mingo Central will get to see a new opponent in the Cardinal Conference with Nitro dropping to Class AA.
“They have pretty good size up front, but I think we match up pretty well with them,” Kinder said.
“They are a good team, but they haven’t quite put all the pieces together yet. They had a bye week as well so I expect to play a lot better than they did going into the open date.”
A No. 7 Tolsia (2-1) at A No. 12 Tug Valley (3-1)
Tolsia got the bad taste out of its mouth by holding Westside to six points in a 16-6 triumph on the road in Week 4.
After being on the road for the first month of the season, the Rebels have their home opener against a Tug Valley team riding a wave of momentum having strung three straight wins together over Meadow Bridge, Sheldon Clark (KY) and Van.
Additionally, the Panthers scored 37 or more points in the three wins.
Tolsia and Tug Valley have split the last four meetings with each team winning at home. Last season, Tolsia came away with a 31-14 win in Wayne County.
Chapmanville (2-2) at AA No. 12 Logan (3-1)
Logan could not slow down Point Pleasant in the second half as the Wildcats gave up 27 unanswered points and fell 41-12 to the Big Blacks for their first loss of the season.
Wildcats quarterback David Early finished with 173 passing yards and accounted for one of the two Logan scores on the night.
Meanwhile, Chapmanville evened its record to 2-2 with a big offensive night against Poca as the Tigers rolled to a 53-20 win. Quarterback Adam Vance tossed three touchdowns while running back/wide receiver Dylan Smith accounted for five total touchdowns on the evening.
After a pair of close losses to Herbert Hoover and Sissonville to begin the season, the Tigers have momentum coming into this rivalry game. However, Logan could lock up a 2-0 record against its fellow Logan County schools with a win over Chapmanville after an opening-week win against Man.
A No. 16 Sherman (3-1) at Wirt County (1-3)
Sherman missed at the chance to go on the road and pick up a crucial win as it fell at Gilmer County, 36-6.
Now the Tide must make another road trip into the Little Kanawha Conference to face a Wirt County team that was shutout by Parkersburg Catholic, 41-0.
This will be the first meeting between the two schools as members of Class A.
Woodrow Wilson (1-2) at Cabell Midland (1-3)
Cabell Midland has fallen victim to a rugged schedule through four games.
The Knights have faced four of the top 10 teams in Class AAA in Hurricane, Spring Valley, South Charleston and Capital.
In Week 4, Cabell Midland could not hold onto a 17-13 halftime lead on the road against Capital as the Knights were outscored 29-6 in the final 24 minutes of the game. Ivan Vaughn continued his strong play by rushing for 199 yards for CMHS.
Cabell Midland returns home after two straight on the road in what will be a battle of teams on the fringe of the playoff picture. The Knights are 18th in the WVSSAC Class AAA ratings while Woodrow Wilson is 19th.
The schedule doesn’t ease up any for Cabell Midland as it will face Belfry, Kentucky and Huntington in back-to-back weeks after the contest with Woodrow Wilson.
Wayne (1-2) at AA No. 15 Winfield (2-1)
Wayne got its first win of the season after a bye week as it scored 58 points in a comfortable 58-21 win at Pioneer Field over Oak Hill.
The Pioneers busted out in a big way on offense after scoring just 20 combined points in their first two games of the season against Tolsia and Sissonville.
Sophomore Mike Bartram and Cody Noe sparked the offense for Wayne as the duo combined for four touchdowns against the Red Devils as the Pioneers finished with 599 yard of offense on the night.
Wayne, though, has no time to celebrate the win as it travels to Winfield — coming off its own big win at Herbert Hoover — before returning home to play Mingo Central in Week 6.
Other Games:
Van (3-1) at Midland Trail (3-1)
Hannan (1-2) at River View (0-3)
Scott (0-4) at Poca (0-4)
Bye Week:
AA No. 15 Man (3-1)
Lincoln County (0-4)