By: Wes McKinney, WVMetroNews.com
AAA No. 10 South Charleston (7-4) at AAA No. 2 Spring Valley (10-1) – Friday 7:30 p.m.
Spring Valley head coach Brad Dingess wanted a no non-sense approach from his team in the opening round of the playoffs — and that’s exactly what he got as Spring Valley rolled to a 54-7 victory over Buckhannon-Upshur.
“It was very business-like,” Dingess said of his team’s fast start. “I thought we came out and played well on both sides of the ball. We came out and did what we needed to do with our starters and got them out of there after a solid two quarters. We had some young kids get some important playoff time.”
Mason Brubeck scored four touchdowns on the ground, while adding 113 rushing yards.
With the Timberwolves’ dominant win, they got the luxury of resting people while their opponent South Charleston was locked up in a white knuckler with Huntington.
Listen: Spring Valley RB Mason Brubeck on the MetroNews High School Sportsline
“Huntington and South Charleston was a nail-bitter, so South Charleston is going to be banged up,” Dingess said. “We were able to get our kids out. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be well rested and injury free.”
It’s been eight weeks since Spring Valley downed the Black Eagles on the road, 29-15.
Kane Morrone scored two touchdowns in the game including a kickoff return for a score. The Timberwolves stymied South Charleston to 15 yards of offense in the win.
“I don’t think we played our best ball the first time against South Charleston,” Dingess said. “It was right after we made some changes, so I’m hoping our kids are a little more comfortable now. We certainly made some mistakes against South Charleston. I think we’re a much better ball club now.”
Spring Valley’s ability to keep the ball away from South Charleston may be the ultimate difference in the game this time around.
“We have to win the field position battle,” Dingess said. “I think we have to win time of possession too. South Charleston has a lot of athletes and if their on the sidelines they can’t score.”
AA No. 6 James Monroe (10-1) at AA No. 3 Point Pleasant (11-0) – Saturday 7:30 p.m.
Point Pleasant escaped the first round of the playoffs with a 45-42 win as it got stuck in a shootout with North Marion.
“It was one of those games where our secondary didn’t do a great job of handling the deep ball,” Point Pleasant head coach David Darst said. “Overall, we played pretty good defensively it was just two deep passes that got behind us.”
The Big Blacks were humming on offense themselves as they rolled up more than 600 yards on offense. Running back Grant Safford and quarterback Cason Payne did a bulk of the damage.
Safford rushed for 288 yards while Payne also went over 200 yards on the ground for Point Pleasant.
“Grant has always been one of those kids that can handle a 25 or 30 carry night,” Darst said.
“He can put the team on his back if we need him to. He did a good job of that against North Marion. For him to turn around and play defense too, it shows what kind of kid he is. Having a kid like him does make things a little easier for us. He definitely played like a senior Friday night.”
The second opponent in the postseason for the Big Blacks will be James Monroe who held off a late charge from Winfield to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
The Mavericks have a three-headed monster in the backfield with Evan Beasley, Grant Mohler and Devon Johnson all taking snaps.
“They run a lot of wing-T stuff out of the shotgun,” Darst said.
“They do a good job of attacking the perimeter offensively. I think they try to get their best players out in space and allow them to do some stuff. They mix it up and will put three different kids at the quarterback position.”
Defensively, the Mavericks mix it up on, too. And against Winfield, James Monroe recorded seven sacks with five coming from Jaylon Lewis.
“They are a big, strong bunch of kids. They play some even front, but we’ve seen them in some odd fronts as well on film,” Darst said. “I’m most impressed by how they get to the ball—there’s always six or seven guys around the ball. They must have pretty good team speed.”
AA No. 10 Keyser (8-3) at AA No. 2 Mingo Central (11-0) – Friday 7:30 p.m.
After leading 21-0 at halftime, Mingo Central turned on the jets in the second half and outscored Liberty 34-7 in the third quarter en route to a 55-7 opening round win in the playoffs.
Quarterback Jeremy Dillon tossed for five touchdowns and 280 yards in the game with four of the scores going to Tyler Grimmett. With the five passing touchdowns, Dillon went over 30 touchdowns on the season and now has 32.
The Miners’ opponent in the semifinal round of the playoffs know a little bit about making wins look easy themselves. Keyser went on the road last week and defeated Nicholas County, 50-12.
Keyser’s Brady Ours accounted for five total touchdowns, two passing, two rushing and an interception return for a score.
Now, the Golden Tornado will have to make a much longer trip from the eastern panhandle to the southwestern edge of the state in a trip that will total nearly 325 miles.
The only in-state loss for the Golden Tornado this season came against defending state champion Bridgeport.
A No. 12 Pendleton County (9-2) at A No. 4 Tolsia (8-2) – Saturday 1:30 p.m.
Tolsia knows how to get on the back of a Presley in the postseason.
Last year, the Rebels advanced to the Class AA championship game behind Luke Presley. In the opening round of the playoffs in 2016, Tolsia held off Tug Valley behind Logan Presley’s 152 yards and three touchdowns as the Rebels won 26-20.
Now the Rebels will welcome in Pendleton County as the Wildcats will have to cover nearly five hours and 275 miles for the Saturday afternoon matchup.
PCHS is coming off a No.12-No. 5 upset as the Wildcats knocked off Cameron, 50-30.
This will be a matchup of the high-powered Pendleton County offense that is averaging 41.1 points per game as it scored at least 30 points in nine of 11 games this season versus the stingy defense of Tolsia that limited opponents to 17.8 points per game.