Southwestern Report: Week 10

By: Wes McKinney, WVMetroNews.com

AA No. 12 Herbert Hoover (6-2) at AA No. 4 Mingo Central (8-0)

Mingo Central took care of Scott last week, 48-20, to inch closer to the school’s first undefeated regular season in Yogi Kinger’s final season as head coach of the Miners.

A win this week would clinch a Cardinal Conference championship as well for Mingo Central, something Kinder has been striving to do as Miners’ head coach since the school’s inception in 2011.

Outside of the win over Sissonville, a victory over Herbert Hoover would be the biggest points game for the Miners this season with 15 points available.

Mingo Central could also move closer to home field advantage in the Class AA playoffs. With Fairmont Senior and Bridgeport squaring off this week, the Miners could leapfrog the loser of that contest.

Last season, Mingo Central took care of Herbert Hoover on the road, 41-6.

 

AAA No. 11 Cabell Midland (5-4) at Jackson, Ohio (7-3)

Cabell Midland made quick work of St. Albans last week as the Knights picked up a 56-14 win in the final home game of the season.

After starting the year 2-4, the Knights have run off three consecutive victories and are primed for a playoff run.

“We had to replace 11 kids that went onto play college football and nine first-team all-conference guys, so that made it hard for us,” Cabell Midland head coach Luke Salmons said. “We’ve gotten so much better since Week 1 and we feel better about where we are as a team.”

Cabell Midland will get a tough Jackson, Ohio team that has gone 6-0 at home this season and is 7-3 overall.

“Their quarterback puts the ball on the money from hash to hash,” Salmons said.

“Their defense is very stout. Jackson is kind of like Belfry. Playing Belfry helped our kids grow and I think Jackson will be the same kind of deal. You get better by playing those types of teams. This team will prepare us for the playoffs.”

 

Woodrow Wilson (1-7) at AAA No. 6 Huntington (6-3)

After taking a 23-20 lead against South Charleston in the fourth quarter, the Black Eagles reeled off 14 unanswered as Huntington fell to 6-3 on the season.

“South Charleston is tough to tackle in the open field,” Huntington head coach Billy Seals said. “In the last six minutes of the game, we didn’t play well on defense.”

A big nemesis for the Highlanders this season has been the injury bug, including quarterback Luke Zban missing the South Charleston game, and he’s a game-time decision against Woodrow Wilson.

“The big thing for us is we got to get back to health,” Seals said. “We haven’t played with a full team since the first quarter of the Spring Valley game.”

But at 6-3, Huntington is still in the driver’s seat for a home playoff game in two weeks.

“Our senior class has been through a similar situation in 2014,” Seals said. “We were 3-3 after six games and I think everybody wrote us off — we ended playing in the semifinals that season. This team has been through the ups and downs that we’ve had this season.”

Woodrow Wilson will go into Cabell County look to spoil the home finale for the Highlanders.

“They have some guys that can make plays in the open field,” Seals said. “Jordan Hancock is a really good linebacker. Peyton Thomas has some skills.”

An improvement Seals wants to see against Woodrow Wilson and into the playoffs is third-down defense. Of the last 13 third and fourth and longs—12 yards or more—Huntington’s opponents have converted nine of those 13 tries.

 

AA No. 3 Point Pleasant (8-0) at Westside (3-5)

Point Pleasant pitched a shutout against Man as the Big Blacks eased to a 41-0 victory.

“I thought we had a real good plan on defense,” Point Pleasant head coach David Darst said. “We did a real good job of handling what was our first real power running football team of the season.”

Perhaps one of the biggest questions coming into 2016 was how Point Pleasant would handle life without Cody Mitchell. The Big Blacks are just two games away from finishing undefeated for a second straight season with contests against Westside and Princeton.

“We knew we had a lot of experience coming back in key spots,” Darst said of this year’s success. “Developing Cason Payne was big for our success this season. We had to rebuild our defense. We knew it would take time and us coaches had to be patient with it. We had to do a lot of teaching early on, but now the kids are starting to play the way we envisioned.”

The Big Blacks have given up two touchdowns or less in five of their wins this season.

Additionally, Payne is on pace for a 1,000-yard passing season and a 1,000-yard rushing season with only 150 yards needed to amass 1,000 yards on the ground.

The Big Blacks will close out the road portion of their schedule Friday night that has seen Point Pleasant travel nearly 800 miles in round trip mileage this season.

“You can tell they have put a lot of thought into how they want to move the football,” Darst said of the Westside offense.

“They have some really nice-looking linemen. Defensively, the odd front they play gives people fits sometimes. They seem to be real active on that side of the ball. They played Nicholas County tough for a while and then it sort of got away from them. They sure don’t look like a 3-5 football team.”

 

Boyd County, Kentucky at A No. 2 Tolsia (6-1)

Tolsia has quietly ascended to the top of Class A this season as all the Rebels have done is win. The only loss for Tolsia came way back in Week 2 against Mingo Central.

Last week, the Rebels won a defensive slugfest in the mud at Braxton County, 8-0.

Mike Smith’s defense has been a big reason for Tolsia’s success in 2016 as it has surrendered a touchdown or less to four teams this season.

The Rebels will host Boyd County, a team that handed Tolsia its only regular season in 2015. After the border rivalry with Boyd County, the Rebels play host to Williamstown in the final week of the season.

 

A No. 15 Tug Valley (6-3) at Man (4-4)

While a 6-4 record could still get Tug Valley in the playoffs, the Panthers want to control their own destiny and a win against a Class AA foe would strengthen the likelihood of Tug Valley making the Class A playoff field for the third straight year.

The Panthers got their sixth win by taking care of Montcalm, 50-14, last week.

Meanwhile, Man was shutout against Point Pleasant last week, 41-0.

With the loss, the playoffs start in Week 10 for the Hillbillies. Man finishes the season with Tug Valley and Class A rival Van in Week 11.

Tug Valley and Man split a pair of meetings last season with Man taking a 14-12 decision in the regular season before the Panthers eliminated Man in the first round of the Class A playoffs, 38-28.

 

River View (2-6) at A No. 12 Sherman (7-2)

Sherman concludes its most successful regular season since 2009 Friday night with a home game against River View.

The final game of the 2016 season will be more enjoyable for Sherman after it came from behind and converted a late two-point conversion to sneak past Greenbrier West, 22-21, on the road to grab the pivotal win.

 

Wayne (2-6) at Chapmanville (5-4)

Chapmanville is squarely on the Class AA playoff bubble.

After falling to Winfield 37-23 last week, the Tigers sit 18th in the Class AA playoff ratings in Week 10.

Step one in Chapmanville returning to the playoffs for a second straight year is beating Wayne in its regular season finale. The Tigers will then need some help as they are .38 points behind Petersburg for the final playoff spot.

Chapmanville lost to Wayne last season 54-35.

 

Other Games:

Lincoln County (2-6) at Elkins (4-4)

Scott (2-6) at Nitro (1-7)

Logan (3-5) at Oak Hill (0-8)

Beallsville, Ohio at Hannan (1-7)

Bye Week

AA No. 2 Spring Valley (8-1)

A No. 11 Van (6-2)





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