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Week Eight is Here – And There’s Still Hope!

As we enter week #8 of the high school football season, only three weeks of regular season competition remain!  Now, if you looked at the SSAC rankings last week and your favorite team was just outside the top 16, have some hope because there is still enough time left to get an invitation to the party!  All your favorite team has to do is keep winning!

Last week, 31% of the teams that were safely inside the top 16, lost!  Which means if your team was just outside that invitation receiving magical number and they won, hope is still alive!  To break down the numbers of winners and losers from week seven that when play began were in the top 16, Class AAA had 11 winners and 5 losers….Class AA had 9 winners and 5 losers and 2 teams were idle and in Class A, there were 11 winners and 5 losers.  To add all of those numbers together, last week in the top 16 there were 31 winners, 15 losers and 2 teams that did not have to worry about playing in the rain!   That means, when the SSAC releases their rankings this week you might find your favorite team in position to receive an invitation.  Now again, I say “you might”, because a lot of things will factor into that deal. Number one, your team has to keep winning and number two, you have to be concerned about all of those bonus points and that’s a conversation for another time!

So, with that said let’s take a look at some key games coming up this week and see if they could affect your favorite team.

In Class AAA, Hurricane (4-2) will try to avoid losing three in a row as the Redskins have a tough game on the road at (5-2) Huntington.  Also in the big schools division, Princeton (5-1) will have their hands full as they play host to Class AA power James Monroe.  The Mavericks will bring a (5-1) record to Mercer County to take on the Tigers.  Cabell Midland (3-4) and winners of a big game last week over the Huntington Highlanders, will try to keep their playoff hopes alive as the Knights hit the road to Parkersburg to take on the (2-4) Big Reds and the Morgantown Mohigans (5-2) will take the long road trip to Quincy, WV to battle the (4-3) Riverside Warriors.

In Class AA, the big game will find (5-1) North Marion making the trek to Bridgeport to battle the undefeated (7-0) Indians.  This game has been tabbed as the high school football October Classic, presented by Citynet and the audio and video of that game will be available at wvmetronews.com on the MetroNews Channel.  Also in Class AA, the (5-2) Chapmanville Tigers will travel to Matewan to take on the unbeaten (6-0) Miners of Mingo Central and Independence (6-1) will host Raleigh County rival Liberty-Raleigh and the (3-3) Raiders need the win to climb back into the Class AA playoff race.

In Class A, we will have a battle of two undefeated teams as (6-0) Cameron will travel to Blacksville, WV to take on (6-0) Clay-Battelle.  The Cee-Bees need this chance to pick up some much-needed bonus points because when looking at their six wins, the won-loss record of those six teams is (3-34) and after this week’s match-up with Cameron, the current won-loss record of their remaining three opponents is (5-15)!  Needless to say, this is a big game for Clay-Battelle!  Also in Class A this weekend, the Moorefield Yellow Jackets (4-2) will look to bounce back from last week’s 46-0 loss against Northern Garrett, Md. when they host current Class A #1 East Hardy.  The Cougars have been rolling along this year and will bring a (5-0) record to Moorefield this Friday night.

Make sure to join the GAMENIGHT crew this Friday night beginning at 9:30 for all the scores plus phone calls from coaches and players from around the state!  Week #8 is here and the playoffs are just around the corner!  Talk to you Friday night!





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