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Friday takeaways: Spring Valley adds another key win to resume

Spring Valley defeated Hurricane 36-0 in Week 6 of the high school football season.
Spring Valley defeated Hurricane 36-0 in Week 6 of the high school football season.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Spring Valley handed Hurricane its first loss of the season on Friday night as the Timberwolves were near perfect in a 36-0 win over the Redskins.

“Hurricane is a really good football team, but our defense just played lights out,” said Spring Valley coach Brad Dingess. “We held Hurricane to a little over 40 yards of total offense and just two first downs – one of them was by a penalty and another against our JV at the end.

Highlights: Spring Valley 36, Hurricane 0

“We played really, really well and had pretty good ball control on offense,” he said. “It was kind of a sloppy mess with it raining last night, but we had that good ball control and it was a physical football game.”

Spring Valley (5-1) took a 10-0 lead into the half and then broke the game open in the second half. Owen Porter finished with 131 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the win, while Mason Brubeck added 106 yards and a score as well.

Overall, Hurricane (4-1) was held to just 47 total offensive yards in the loss.

“We have a hungry bunch of kids and a good bunch of kids,” Dingess said. “My defensive coordinator Frank Arthur does a great job with them and has it schemed up well – they’ve bought in. We’ve played two pretty good football teams the last two weeks and to hold Hurricane scoreless like that, I can’t say enough about our kids.”

Musselman impressive with road win at Morgantown

Musselman won an important road game in a top 10 Class AAA matchup as the Applemen (4-1) defeated Morgantown (4-2) 21-14.

The Mohigans led 7-6 at the half, but the Applemen scored a pair of touchdowns in the second half and collected a key interception from Nate Tate to seal the win with just a couple of minutes to go.

Musselman collected over 300 yards rushing in the win behind Latrell Warr and Jacob Northcraft.

Highlights: Musselman 21, Morgantown 14

“That was a great high school football game,” said Musselman coach Brian Thomas. “We’re a run-first team and I told our big lineman in the fourth quarter that we needed three yards a pop every time we run the ball – they take pride in that. With those two guys running the ball and the big guys up front, we had a successful night running the ball.”

Northcraft led the way on the ground, finishing with 218 yards and a touchdown.

“Last year we played so many sophomores and this year most of our guys are juniors and seniors – so we’re a veteran ball club,” Thomas said. “We talk to them a lot about taking the next step and what’s the difference between a good team and a great team. This is a great group of kids and they’re really buying in.”

Nicholas County takes Class AA top 10 battle over James Monroe

Class AA No. 6 Nicholas County improved to 5-0 with a 25-9 road win at No. 3 James Monroe (4-1). The Grizzlies were led by senior quarterback Tate Mayes who finished with 202 passing yards and a touchdown, to go along with 78 rushing yards and another score.

“We had tough practices all week and all last week,” Mayes said. “We knew that we were going to have to fly around and hit because it was going to be a tough ball game. We knew we would get scored on this week, but we didn’t really care about that – that’s how football goes. We just had to play how we knew we could.”

More: Complete MetroNews high school football scoreboard

Nicholas County entered the game having held its four previous opponents scoreless.

The Grizzlies finished the 2015 season with a 7-3 record, but missed the playoffs. Friday’s win resulted in critical bonus points as Nicholas County looks like a contender for a high playoff seed in 2016.

“We had all kinds of confidence coming into this year,” Mayes said. “We only lost three or four seniors from last year. Our goal was to make it back to the playoffs, but we didn’t imagine to be where we’re at right now.

“It’s a blessing to have all of my teammates out there with me,” he continued. “I give it all to my front linemen, they’ve blocked very well for me this year. We have some good receivers who are reliable and two good running backs behind me. We all just work well together as a unit and get the job done.”

One of those receivers is Carter Sebert-Sweeney who had five catches Friday for 153 yards and a touchdown, including an 89 yard touchdown catch that helped set the tone.

St. Marys with physical win over rival Williamstown

St. Marys (5-0) entered this week third in the SSAC playoff ratings, but No. 1 in the Class A MetroNews Power Rankings. And the Blue Devils certainly looked like a top five team Friday, pulling away from Williamstown (11th in the SSAC and third in the power rankings) 21-7.

St. Marys quarterback Will Billeter threw for 123 yards and accounted for all three touchdowns (two touchdown runs, one passing). Braden Barnhart collected a touchdown catch in the win as well.

Williamstown quarterback Trenton Tallman tallied a 54 yard touchdown run for his team’s lone score. The Yellowjackets dropped to 4-2 with the loss.





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