By: Shawn Rine
The Wheeling Intelligencer and News-Register
Class A
No. 6 Wheeling Central (9-1) at No. 3 Fayetteville (11-0)
After not having to break much of a sweat in a 45-8 victory against Sherman in the opening round, the road gets tougher — and longer — for Wheeling Central. The Maroon Knights will make the 225-mile trek south to tangle with unbeaten Fayetteville at 1:30 on Saturday.
“We have been playing very well and clicking on all cylinders,” Wheeling Central coach Mike Young said. “And doing a good job of getting the ball down field.
“I have been very pleased with how we are executing our schemes on both offense and defense and utilizing all of our talents.”
The Maroon Knights received a boost with the return to the lineup of sophomore running back Bray Price. He carried just five times against the Tide, but gained 239 yards and scored four touchdowns.
“Bray is very quick and has so much speed into the hole,” Young said. “But he will also be the first person to tell you how important his offensive line is and what a great job they have done all season.
“He was questionable going into last week after getting hurt against Bishop Donahue, but he played and was outstanding. No question he was a little apprehensive after getting hurt in the first game of his freshman season against Bellaire and missing the rest of the year.
“But it has been just a great sophomore campaign for him and we are very pleased with how much he has progressed.”
Listen: Wheeling Central QB Isaac Rine on the MetroNews High School Sportsline
Senior quarterback Isaac Rine had another good night against Sherman, completing 10 of 15 passes for 132 yards and a pair of scores to go past 1,000 yards through the air. It doesn’t hurt that Rine has one of the state’s premier wide receivers in classmate John Burkhalter. Dawson Wear also picked up 105 yards on eight carries against the Tide.
“They are a very well-coached, athletic team that has very intelligent kids,” Pirates coach David Moneypenny said. “They are a program with a very rich tradition and let’s face it, when you are talking Class A football in West Virginia the last 15-20 years, Wheeling Central is the king of the hill.
“This year is no exception. They have kids that are continuing to contribute to that tradition and they are just a very, very good football team.”
Fayetteville is coming off a 28-0 shutout of Van last week. It marked the fourth time the Pirates have blanked an opponent and they held three other teams to eight points or less.
Moneypenny’s squad is led by sophomore running back Jordan Dempsey who ran for 169 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries last week. He’s run for nearly 1,200 on the season. Quarterback Will Fenton threw eight passes and connected on five for 85 yards with Alex Hewitt and Marcus Lively his top targets.
Fenton, who is a 6-foot-5, 210-pound, four-year starter, threw for more than 1,800 yards. Dalton Dempsey, Jordan’s older brother, is also a four-year starter at wide receiver, and according to Moneypenny, a near clone of Fenton.
“Fayetteville has a real nice quarterback and a couple of good receivers and a quick running back,” Young said. “They move the ball around very well and can throw it or run it at any time.
“They are very aggressive, but at the same time they are not as big as some of the other teams we have played this season. We are expecting a battle, but I also believe that if we go down there and play our game we are going to be just fine.”
Class AA
No. 13 Weir (8-3) at No. 5 Fairmont Senior (8-2)
If at first you don’t succeed, try again. That’s the mantra this week for Weir, which suffered a 20-3 setback against then-undefeated Fairmont in Week 7. The teams are set for a 1:30 p.m. Saturday rematch at East/West Stadium.
Fairmont Senior stumbled a bit after that game losing to Class AAA Jefferson by a score of 35-24, which is the most points it has allowed in a game. Jefferson finished as the 14th seed in AAA and upset No. 3 Musselman last weekend 36-0.
After that loss, Fairmont Senior took a 17-14 loss from Bridgeport, which wound up as the top seed in Class AA. Coach J.L. Abbott’s Polar Bears bounced back for a 48-7 win over rival East Fairmont in the finale of a nine-game season.
“We had a little lull there, but we’re picking it back up and hitting our stride now,” Abbott said.
When these two teams met previously, Weir had the services of its leading rusher, Cody Enrietti, but the weather and the Polar Bears defense held the entire Red Riders offense to 94 yards rushing.
Enrietti damaged a knee playing in the 11-7 victory against East Liverpool on another rainy night and hasn’t played since. Enrietti finished his season with 1,358 rushing yards on 191 carries, scoring 13 touchdowns and averaging 7.11 yards per touch.
Weir coach Tony Filberto said injuries are part of the game of football.
“We miss his over 1,300 yards, but Domenick Murphy has filled in nicely and last week controlled the game like Enrietti did,” he said. “We didn’t have any major injuries last week against Sissonville, but we have several other players that have been out much of the season that could have helped us.”
He was referring primarily about seniors Matt Komorowski and Jacob Rosnick and junior Cameron Pierce, all starters that have missed almost all of the season.
Abbott said he scouted Weir’s come-from-behind, 29-27 victory at Sissonville in the opening round last Saturday.
“Murphy did a nice job,” he said. “He runs hard and I also was impressed with Weir High’s defensive players coming off the edge, (Jordan) Allen and (Tyler) Komorowski. (Donavan) Spencer is a fighter. We can’t let him get turned loose around the edge.”
Allen is the sack leader of the Red Riders, but Komorowski got one for a safety against Sissonville.
“I noticed that Weir has only six players that go both ways,” Abbott continued. “We have eight. I think these are two evenly matched teams and the team that makes the least mistakes should win.”
Filberto is of the same opinion.
“Fairmont is a heck of a football team,” he said. “We’re a heck of a football team. This should be a good football game.”