Southwestern Report: Week 14

— By Wes McKinney

CLASS AAA

No. 3 Spring Valley (11-1) at No. 2 Cabell Midland (12-0)

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Last Week: Spring Valley pitched its second shutout of the season against Capital as the Timberwolves posted 23 of their 30 points after halftime. Spring Valley’s defense continued to be stifling as it held the Cougars to 166 yards. 

“Anytime you play Capital, and can limit it on what they do you’ve done pretty well,” Spring Valley head coach Brad Dingess said. “I was very pleased. We made some adjustments at halftime and executed in the second half.”

Luke Christopher was big in the rushing game, and so was Brody Brumfield who had his first career 100-yard rushing game with 117 yards. 

“You know what you’re going to get with Luke,” Dingess said. “He’s a bruiser, just a hard runner. That’s what Spring Valley football is about — the kind of kids like Luke Christopher. Brody Brumfield came in and had his first career 100-yard game on offense. He came in and gave (David) Livingston a break and had a couple big runs.”

Cabell Midland stayed unbeaten as it held off a late rally from George Washington as quarterback J.J. Roberts was instrumental with two fourth-quarter runs to help seal a trip to the Class AAA Semifinals for the Knights for the first time since 2015. 

“He made some plays and the defense played really good against a good football team,” Cabell Midland head coach Luke Salmons said. “Moving onto the final four is a great feeling—just one more step to go. I’m proud of where we’re at, but we have to continue to focus on this week.”

Why It’s Important: Spring Valley has been down this road before as it will be the fourth consecutive trip to the state semifinals for SVHS. But, Cabell Midland gets to host the game because of a 28-21 win over the Timberwolves in week three of the season. 

“At Cabell Midland is one of the toughest places in the state to play, but our kids are used to it,” Dingess said. “It’s not an environment that we haven’t seen before. We’re excited to be spending Thanksgiving together again and playing.”

And it was a fast start from Roberts and company that helped propel the Knights to the touchdown victory back in the second week of September.

“Neither one of us, the way our offenses are, can afford to play from behind,” Dingess said. “They did a good job of getting up on us last time. We can’t afford to that this time.” 

Who to Watch for Spring Valley: The Timberwolves will need its vaunted defense to come up big again this week. While Spring Valley’s passing defense came with up three interceptions against Capital, the focus this week will be on stopping the triple option attack of Cabell Midland. 

In the first meeting, Spring Valley gave up touchdown runs of 77, 87 and 88 yards. “The first time we played, they were able to get three really big plays on us,” Dingess said. “When you play them, you have to limit that and tackle well—especially in space. We have to block and tackle well.”

On the offensive side, Spring Valley’s running back by committee has carried it all year with Brumfield being the latest Timberwolf to get a heavy workload. 

Who to Watch for Cabell Midland: Roberts helped close out George Washington last week, and his explosive runs early against Spring Valley helped the Knights jump out to a 21-7 lead in the second quarter  in September’s meeting. 

Though the Knights haven’t been as tough on defense as Spring Valley, Cabell Midland still has a lunch pale-mentality on defense that held George Washington and R.T. Alexander in check for majority of the Class AAA Quarterfinal game. 

“(Spring Valley is) still similar to what they were when we played them in early in the season,” Salmons said. “They are a lot like us — physical. It’s going to be a tough game.”





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