MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — While the official WVSSAC football playoff ratings won’t be released until late Saturday, the playoff picture for many teams became clear Friday night.
Class AAA No. 14 Spring Mills (6-4) secured its second straight playoff berth — in the school’s fourth year of existence — with a dominant 52-7 win over No. 13 Hedgesville.
“We’ve had a good run here at the end of the year and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to our seniors,” said head coach Derek Munson. “We had a great week of practice and preparation. We’ve made some changes offensively and it’s paid off for us.”
The Cardinals, just 2-4 after a 28-24 loss to Jefferson on Oct. 7, have won four straight games to advance into the postseason.
“We just regrouped. The seniors had a team meeting and made sure that everyone was focused for our run here at the end of the season,” Munson said. “We didn’t want to run into a trap game after Jefferson — it was a really tough loss for us. But I’ve got to give our kids a lot of credit, they’re a great group of kids.”
Spring Mills’ senior standout Demetreus Jalepes had multiple touchdowns in the win, including a 59 yard touchdown catch for the game’s first score. Jalepes was a key part of last year’s playoff run that ended with a road loss at Capital.
“We faced big-boy competition and we saw what the playoffs were like,” Jalepes said. “We lost a lot of seniors from that team last year and we’ve tried to get our younger players prepared for the postseason, let them know how it is. (Making it) two years in a row to the playoffs is huge.”
Spring Mills is projected to be the 13 seed in the playoffs with an opening round road trip set against No. 4 Morgantown.
Other unofficial Class AAA playoff projections from ratings guru Ed Forshey, subject to change, include: No. 1 Martinsburg, No. 2 Spring Valley, No. 3 Musselman, No. 4 Morgantown, No. 5 University, No. 6 Capital, No. 7 Huntington, No. 8 George Washington, No. 9 Wheeling Park, No. 10 South Charleston, No. 11 Cabell Midland, No. 12 Hurricane, No. 13 Spring Mills, No. 14 Jefferson, No. 15 Buckhannon-Upshur and No. 16 Hedgesville.
George Washington beats Capital for sixth straight win
George Washington (7-3) secured a home playoff game by beating rival Capital 34-18. The Patriots were led by sophomore quarterback Grant Wells’ 318 passing yards and two scores. Ryan Thomas also had a 90-yard touchdown catch.
“We’ve had a great season, especially our last (six) games,” Wells said. “Looking back at that team that was 1-3, we’ve come a long way since then and matured a lot. We’ve gotten a lot better every single week. We’ve become a lot closer over the course of the season and have become a different team.”
Wells eclipsed the 2,000-yard mark in passing with Friday’s effort. George Washington is projected to host Wheeling Park in the opening round of the playoffs.
Mingo Central, Point Pleasant roll to undefeated regular seasons
Class AA No. 2 Mingo Central (10-0) looked the part on Friday night with a 48-9 win over No. 9 Winfield. The Cardinal Conference champions were led by standout quarterback Jeremy Dillon who totaled seven touchdowns.
Dillon completed 22-of-33 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns, adding 149 rushing yards and four more scores on the ground. Winfield was limited to just 105 yards on 47 plays in the loss.
No. 3 Point Pleasant, meanwhile, beat AAA Princeton 62-13, eliminating the Tigers from postseason play. The Big Blacks (10-0) have now put together an incredible streak of 43 straight regular season wins.
Sophomore quarterback Cason Payne threw for 200 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for another 75 yards and a score. He’s the first Point Pleasant quarterback to throw for more than 1,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season.
Roane County projected to snag final AA playoff spot
Coming into Friday night, 13 teams had already clinched playoff berths in Class AA. Herbert Hoover, Liberty Harrison and Petersburg all controlled their own destinies and could clinch a spot with a win. Roane County, meanwhile, was 18th coming into this week, needing a win over 8-win Independence and some help to get in.
While Herbert Hoover defeated Lincoln County 28-6 and Liberty Harrison took down Grafton 20-13 (securing a playoff bid for the first time since 2010), Petersburg fell on the road to East Hardy 61-12, helping open the door for Roane County.
The Raiders also got the win they needed, beating Independence 21-8 as Tyler May rushed for 156 yards and two touchdowns. Roane County is projected as the 16 seed and will travel to face No. 1 Bridgeport in the opening round of the playoffs.
Other unofficial Class AA playoff projections, subject to change, include: No. 1 Bridgeport, No. 2 Mingo Central, No. 3 Point Pleasant, No. 4 Sissonville, No. 5 Fairmont Senior, No. 6 James Monroe, No. 7 Nicholas County, No. 8 Lincoln, No. 9 Independence, No. 10 Keyser, No. 11 Winfield, No. 12 Herbert Hoover, No. 13 Weir, No. 14 North Marion, No. 15 Liberty Harrison and No. 16 Roane County.
Overtime was theme in Week 11
Late-game drama proved to be the case in many games around the state, especially for Cameron (10-0), which completed the regular season with a 36-34 win over Pocahontas County.
The Dragons trailed 28-20 in the final minute, but Colby Brown completed a 23-yard touchdown pass to Travis Mickey as regulation expired — Cameron then sent the game into overtime with a two-point conversion.
“We are where only one other Cameron has been — 1999 was our only 10-0 season until (Friday),” said Cameron coach Scott Holt. “I’m very proud of our kids and coaches. Our kids have improved as our level of competition has improved. If we have critics, I think we’ve done a lot to silence them and we were fortunate to get a win against a very good team.”
Other overtime games included a 19-13 double-overtime win for Parkersburg South (5-5) over rival Parkersburg. It may have not been enough to save the Patriots, who are projected to miss out on the playoffs at No. 17.
In Class AA, Lincoln improved to 8-2 by outlasting North Marion 56-49 in overtime.
Williamstown knocks Tolsia from top spot in Class A
Williamstown, fourth this week in the Class A MetroNews Power Rankings, entered Friday’s game as the No. 9 team in the playoff ratings, while Tolsia was rated No. 1 (sixth in the MetroNews poll).
Ultimately, it was Williamstown that dominated Friday’s top 10 clash, improving to 8-2 with a 35-8 road win. Trenton Tallman rushed for 212 yards and scored four total touchdowns in the win as Williamstown defensively forced five Tolsia turnovers.
Overall, 14 teams entered Friday night having already clinched playoff spots, while Buffalo is projected to have locked down at least the 15th spot with a win over Wahama.
East Hardy is projected to be the top seed in Class A, while games on Saturday between Moorefield-Magnolia, Hundred-Rappahannock County (VA) and Valley Fayette-Greenbrier West could have an impact on other Class A ratings.
The official WVSSAC playoff ratings are expected to be released Saturday night with first-round dates and times to be decided Sunday.