HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Class AAA No. 4 Spring Valley held No. 13 George Washington to just 89 yards of offense, beating the Patriots 31-0 in the opening round of the playoffs.
“It was a hard hitting game tonight, those were two physical football teams,” said Spring Valley coach Brad Dingess. “It was a defensive struggle early.”
The two teams were scoreless after the first quarter.
A six-yard touchdown run from Graeson Malashevich gave the Timberwolves a 10-0 lead in the second, while Will Adkins connected with Carsey Wilder for a 46-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the first half — that put Spring Valley comfortably up 17-0 at the break.
Spring Valley managed 443 total yards of offense as Derek Johnson tallied 127 rushing yards and Owen Chafin added 126 yards on the ground.
It was the sixth straight win for the Timberwolves, who improved to 9-2 on the night, looking for a return trip to the Super Six.
“We’ve had some things go our way and most games we’ve won the turnover battle,” Dingess said. “Our team was missing our identity I thought in the beginning of the season. We lost a lot of kids off of that ball club from last year.
“But we’ve found our identity (now),” he continued. “We had little soul searching after the Hurricane (loss) and had some good senior leadership with some kids stepping up. We’ve gotten in a groove and we’re playing really well right now.”
Spring Valley in the quarterfinals will play the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 5 Musselman and No. 12 Cabell Midland.
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