When the high school football season began with the first week of games on Thursday, August 29th, there were 115 teams all bright eyed and ready to head to their first game of the 2013 year with the hopes of still having a reason to go to practice on Thanksgiving Day. When the regular season ended on Saturday, November 9th, only 48 teams were left holding onto that possibility. As we enter into the week of Thanksgiving and the semi-final round of the playoffs, only twelve teams remain. Those twelve teams will indeed practice on Thanksgiving morning and then get ready to play football either Friday night, Saturday afternoon and in the case of two teams, Saturday night.
When you look at the twelve remaining teams, all of them made the round of 48 last year. Three of the 12 were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs—Capital, Wheeling Park and Williamstown. Three more lost out in the quarterfinal round last year—Huntington, Bluefield and Greenbrier West. Three more of this year’s remaining 12 lost in the semifinal round—Robert C. Byrd, Bridgeport and Magnolia.
That leaves just three teams and, of course, those three teams made it to the championship games: Martinsburg, Wayne and Madonna with Martinsburg winning their third straight title and Wayne capturing its second straight. Madonna finished a close runner-up, losing to Wahama 43-42 in overtime in the Class A title tilt. So with all of that covered, we should be in for some really great games on this Thanksgiving Day Holiday weekend.
In Class AAA, both games will be played on Saturday, November 30th with No. 3 Capital making the long trip to the eastern panhandle to battle this year’s No. 2 seed Martinsburg. Both teams enter the Saturday afternoon game with identical records of 11-1 and both have been impressive in their playoff runs. Capital has knocked off No. 14 Hurricane 38-10 and the Cougars surprised a lot of folks by easily disposing of No. 6 University by a score of 65-14.
For the Bulldogs, the path has been just as easy as No. 2 Martinsburg defeated No. 15 Spring Valley 36-0 in the first round and beat No. 7 Cabell Midland last Saturday 54-28. The Cougars and the Bulldogs will square off at 1:30 Saturday afternoon at Coburn Field in Martinsburg. In the top half of the Class AAA bracket, #5 Wheeling Park will travel from the northern panhandle Saturday night to take on the undefeated and top ranked Highlanders of Huntington. The Patriots had no problem in taking care of No. 12 South Charleston in the 1st round winning 55-34. In the quarter final round, Wheeling Park traveled to No. 4 Pt. Pleasant and got by the previously unbeaten Big Blacks 28-7.
For the top-ranked Huntington Highlanders, the journey through the playoffs has been anything but easy. A slow start against No. 16 Lewis County did end in a 31-7 victory, however in their quarter final win over #8 George Washington, the Highlanders had to score with just 40 seconds remaining in the game to defeat a very good Patriot team 17-13. The winners of the two Class AAA semi-final round games will meet at high noon on Saturday, December 7th at Wheeling Island Stadium.
In Class AA, No. 1 Wayne will leave the friendly confines of Pioneer Field this Friday night and take on the Flying Eagles of Robert C. Byrd at Bob Sang Stadium on the campus of Huntington High School. The field conditions in Wayne, which is a natural grass surface, are just not playable. For the Pioneers, they have had little resistance breezing through the first two rounds of this year’s playoffs as the boys from Wayne defeated No. 16 Philip Barbour 53-25 in the first round and knocked off No. 8 Sissonville 48-7 in the quarter-finals. For the No. 13 seeded Flying Eagles of Robert C. Byrd they have been impressive upsetting No. 4 Frankfort 21-17 in the 1st round and then getting by No. 12 Ritchie County 36-6 in the quarter-final round. Wayne and Robert C. Byrd also met last year in the semifinal round with the Pioneers winning 18-0.
In the other Class AA semi-final matchup, the No. 3 Bluefield Beavers will make the trip to Harrison County Friday night to take on the second-ranked Indians of Bridgeport. Both teams have had rolled through the first two playoff rounds with Bridgeport beating No. 15 Roane County 54-20 and No. 7 Fairmont Senior 28-0. For the Beavers, they have slipped by No. 14 Ravenswood 31-14 and No. 11 Nicholas County 26-14. The Beavers will be at Bridgeport this Friday night for the 7:30 kickoff.
In Class A, the Blue Dons of Madonna have been the team to beat all year and they just keep proving why they are ranked #1 in the small schools classification. In the 1st round of the playoffs, Madonna defeated #16 Tucker County 52-0 and last week in the snow and cold in Weirton, knocked off defending state champion Wahama 77-50. Their opponent this weekend has also proven their worthiness into this semi-final round as the 4th ranked Yellow Jackets of Williamstown fought hard to defeat #13 Wheeling Central 27-25 in the 1st round and then rolled over #12 Bishop Donahue 54-12 in the quarter-finals. This game will be played this Friday night at 7:30 in Williamstown. In the other half of the bracket, the 14th ranked Blue Eagles of Magnolia continue to defy all odds as they just keep knocking off higher ranked opponents. In the 1st round, Magnolia took care of #3 and undefeated Valley-Fayette 42-16 and then last weekend knocked off #6 Moorefield 37-7. The competition continues to toughen this weekend as Magnolia will once again hit the road this time heading to Charmco, WV to battle the 7th ranked Cavaliers of Greenbrier West. In the 1st round, Greenbrier West had no problem eliminating #10 Notre Dame 54-7 and then last week the Cavaliers impressed everyone by traveling to Ellenboro to beat previously undefeated #2 St. Marys 18-0.
So, the stage is set…..semi-final weekend and practice on Thanksgiving Day! And, here’s an invitation for you to join Dave Jecklin and me for the final GAMENIGHT show of the season this Friday night. We will have the scores of the Friday night games, plus preview the Saturday contests, so join us this Friday night. Our coverage can be heard statewide on over 40 radio stations plus on our website….www.wvmetronews.com….where we stream the live audio and video of the show.
Talk to you this Friday night and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!