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Notebook: Greenbrier East, Petersburg, Ritchie County eager to prove they belong

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With 48 teams putting their seasons on the line this weekend to start the high school football playoffs, there is a mixture of teams regularly playing at this point and upstart programs in all three classifications.

The following is a closer look at a double-digit seed in each of the three classes that will be in action Friday night to start the opening round of the postseason.

Greenbrier East

The Class AAA No. 12 Spartans bring a 6-4 record into the playoffs as they prepare for a regular season rematch with No. 5 Ripley (9-1).

Back in Week 8, Greenbrier East fell short at home in a 28-26 loss to the Vikings as it was unable to convert a late two-point conversion that ultimately could have forced overtime.

“It’s an exciting matchup and rematch,” Greenbrier East coach Ray Lee said. “We played them well at our place and now we get to come up here and play them at their place. I think our football team is probably more excited to play them than any other team in that field of 16. 

“It was a real good game. Coach (Eddie) Smolder does a good job over there and has some good football players. It’s going to be a good football game and a good challenge for us again.”

The Spartans have only four seniors on this year’s roster and despite going 0-3 against playoff teams in the regular season, they qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2015. Greenbrier East won only two games last year and was 6-14 the previous two seasons, meaning this year’s playoff berth likely caught many by surprise.

“I think it’s going to be a great experience for a lot of these guys,” Lee said. “We have two seniors on our team that played on the last playoff team we had in 2015. So it’s their second time, but the rest of them, it’s the first time getting to extend their season. 

“They’re excited as heck to be extending their season and getting to practice an extra week and then just waiting to see what happens from there. We tell them, ‘This is your championship week, so take advantage of it.’”

Petersburg

With three straight wins to close the regular season, the Class AA No. 13 Vikings secured just their second-ever playoff berth and the program’s first trip to the postseason in 25 years.

“It’s a great feeling. I’m just overjoyed for the kids that have put in the work,” Petersburg coach Kevin Board said. “They’ve really earned this and deserve it.

“A lot of these kids, their dads were on the ’93 team, so they’ve kind of become the second generation of an elite group when you look at the history of the school. For those guys, it’s something special.”

Petersburg (7-2) played only nine regular season games after its  Sept. 7 matchup against Grafton was deemed a no contest when officials failed to show up for it.

Both Vikings’ losses came to Class AA playoff teams — Weir and Frankfort — but they also have a win over Class A No. 8 Pendleton County.

The Vikings have also essentially been in playoff mode for several weeks and with little to no margin for error down the stretch, they knocked off Moorefield, Tucker County and East Hardy in consecutive weeks.

Now the Vikings are focused on No. 4 Nicholas County (10-0) as they’ll look to hand the Grizzlies their first loss of the season Friday in Summersville.

“We don’t want to just think that we’re here and that’s all we came for,” Beard said. “We’re hoping to come out and play hard and give everything we’ve got.”

The contest will feature two of the state’s most productive signal callers in Petersburg quarterback Jacob Hartman and Grizzlies’ QB Jared Sagraves.

“We’ve watched a couple of films on him and he’s very talented,” Beard said of Sagraves. “He runs well and throws well and he’s actually very good on defense. Jacob is the same way. He’s what kind of makes us tick and he’s the second-leading tackler for us.

“It’s going to come down to those two guys and who’s going to make another play and put the team on their back a little bit more and will them to victory. It’ll be an exciting one for sure.”

Ritchie County

Of all the teams in the playoffs that were thought to likely not be in this position before the season started, Ritchie County may be atop the list.

The Rebels had won two of their previous 36 games before the 2018 campaign began, and yet first-year head coach Rick Haught guided the program to a seven-win regular season and its first playoff berth since 2013.

Ritchie County (7-3) is the No. 14 seed in Class A and plays Friday night against No. 3 Mount View (9-1) at Princeton High School.

“We’d struggled the last few years. We thought there was some talent there,” Haught said. “I have to go back to June and the kids were just really good about showing up. I felt like we got a lot done before we ever started practice in August. 

“I told my seniors Friday night that I picked the best year possible to start coaching high school football, because they’ve just been great to work with.”

Each of the Rebels’ three losses came against Class A playoff teams — Parkersburg Catholic, Doddridge County and Webster County. The Rebels were 4-3 after falling to the Highlanders, but enter the postseason with a three-game winning streak in which they’ve outscored the opposition, 132-42.

“They just acted like it wasn’t the end of the world and we’d rebound from that and move on,” Haught said of his team’s response to the loss to Webster. “Fortunately the schedule was good enough to where that didn’t put us down too far in the playoffs.”

Now Ritchie will look to pull off the upset following a 200-mile trip against a Golden Knights team that’s unbeaten against Class A competition this season.

“We absolutely have to play error free football,” Haught said. “Penalties and turnovers, you can’t have them, because at this stage of the game, the teams are just too good.”





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