On August 1, 2016, 127 high school football teams began working and sweating and then working some more, all with the hopes to still be practicing high school football on Thanksgiving Day! Well, that 127 is now down to 12 and those remaining 12 hope to be 1 of just 6 that will travel to the northern panhandle next weekend to compete in the Super Six for the ultimate prize in high school football and that is a coveted State Title!
Of the top 16 seeds in Class AAA, numbers 1, 2, 4 and 6 have advanced to semi-final weekend. In Class AA, seeds 1, 2, 5 and 6 have made it to the next to final weekend of high school football in WV and in Class A, seeds 1, 2, 3 and 12 are the final four standing. Let’s break down each class:
In Class AAA, no surprise to find top seeded Martinsburg still alive! The Bulldogs are undefeated and have outscored their first 12 opponents 632 to 99! That’s an average of 53-8 per game and they have been that dominating over the season. This Friday night, they will battle a familiar foe as they welcome the 10-2 and 4th seeded Mohigans of Morgantown to Coburn Field. Back on September 23rd, Martinsburg made the trip to Pony Lewis Field in Morgantown and came back home with a 33-6 victory over the then undefeated Mohigans. This weekend, Morgantown gets to travel the 152 miles east and they hope the outcome will be different. The game will kick off at 7:30 this Friday night. On the other side of the bracket, we have another regular season repeat as #2 Spring Valley will welcome #6 Capital to Huntington. The Timber Wolves sport an impressive 11-1 record with their only defeat coming back in week number two of the season when they lost at home to Huntington by just 4 points. For Capital, it has been a little of an up and down season even though the Cougars will bring an impressive 9-3 record into Saturday afternoon’s game. Capital lost two of their last three regular season games but have since righted the ship as they hold wins over Cabell Midland and Jefferson. One of those two late season losses came on the same field the Cougars will battle on this Saturday as Spring Valley shut out Capital 21-0 back on October 21st. The game will kick off at 1:30!
In Class AA, it’s still yet another repeat game and this time the two teams are located just 17 miles apart! Anyone surprised to see that Bridgeport is the #1 seed in Class AA? Didn’t think so! Anyone surprised to see Bridgeport still undefeated? Again, didn’t think so! The Indians of head coach Josh Nicewarner are indeed again the #1 seed and they are indeed undefeated again and they are looking for a chance to snag their 4th straight Class AA football championship! Ironically, their opponent this Friday night is the 5th seeded Polar Bears of Fairmont Senior, the same team they met in last year’s Class AA semi-finals! Certainly, the Polar Bears head coach J. L. Abbott is hoping for a different outcome than the one his team got in the regular season match up with Bridgeport….and that semi-final game last year with Bridgeport….and the regular season match up from last year with Bridgeport…..well, you get my point! Bridgeport has definitely held the dominate hand over Fairmont Senior recently, but in all fairness to the Polar Bears, Bridgeport has been the same way with all the other Class AA teams they have played. The Indians/Polar Bears encounter will kick off at 7:30 this Friday night. On the other side of the Class AA bracket, undefeated and #2 Mingo Central will welcome 6th seeded and once beaten James Monroe to James Buck Harless Stadium in Matewan this Saturday night and the Miners hope to continue this magical season for their veteran coach Yogi Kinder who has already announced he will retire when play is finished this year. Mingo Central has rolled past their opponents this season outscoring them by a combined score of 574 to 133. However, their opponent this week is a ball club that has turned a few heads of their own this season. The Mavericks of James Monroe bring an impressive 11-1 record to Matewan this Saturday night and none of their wins are any more impressive than last weekend’s quarter-final round victory over Point Pleasant. The Big Blacks were undefeated and seeded #3 in Class AA, but last Saturday night, James Monroe went to Mason County and shut out the high scoring Big Blacks 21-0! Coming into that game, Point Pleasant was averaging 47 points per game! Mingo Central’s Yogi Kinder knows his kids will have to play their best game of the season if they hope to win and move on to Wheeling for the first time in the school’s history!
In Class A, of the four teams still alive, three are still undefeated so this shapes up to be a great weekend of semi-final play. The top seeded Cougars of East Hardy were the #2 seed last year and they made it to Wheeling Island Stadium where they lost in the title game to Magnolia. If head coach Chad Williams and his ball club wants to get back to the title game, they will have to get by the hottest team still alive in the small schools division. The Wildcats of Pendleton County are the 12th seed in this year’s playoffs, but they are playing like a #1 or #2 seed! In the first two games of the playoffs, head coach Rod Cooper and his Wildcats have outscored #5 Cameron and #4 Tolsia 96-46! And, Pendleton County has won six straight games! However, the last team to beat the Wildcats is the next team they have to play! That’s right, East Hardy was the last team to knock off Pendleton County and they did so on September 30th by a final score of 40-16. That 40 points were the most allowed by the Wildcats all season long. This regular season repeat game will kick off this Saturday afternoon in Baker, WV at 1:30. On the other side of the Class A bracket a pair of undefeated teams will square off this Friday night as the 11-0 and 3rd seeded Pirates of Fayetteville will travel the 150 miles to St. Marys to take on the 11-0, 2nd seeded Blue Devils. While both teams have scored over 500 points this season, they have also been outstanding on defense. Fayetteville is averaging giving up only 13 points per game, while St. Marys is even better allowing only 10 points per game. St. Marys would love to make it one step farther than they did last year as the Blue Devils lost in the semi-finals to East Hardy 36-19. Fayetteville has really turned things around from last year as they Pirates finished 2015 with a 3-7 record and well outside the playoffs.
So, semi-final weekend really shapes up to be special with three games scheduled for a Friday night kickoff at 7:30……two games on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 and one game Saturday night at 7:30. If your favorite team is still alive, or if there is a game in your area, then get out and support high school football. And, after the game be sure and tune in GAMENIGHT……the show can be heard on over 40 radio stations around the state and we stream the audio live at wvmetronews.com. This Friday night will mark the final show of what has been our 15th year and we really appreciate all the support we have had!
Talk to you Friday night!!