By: Wes McKinney, WVMetroNews.com
AAA No. 6 Capital (9-3) at AAA No. 2 Spring Valley (11-1) – Saturday 1:30 p.m.
Spring Valley broke loose in the second quarter against South Charleston, forcing five turnovers and scoring on six straight possessions en route to a 55-7 win.
“We were able to create some turnovers and capitalize on them real quick,” Spring Valley head coach Brad Dingess said. “It snowballed real quick. Our kids played real well. It was one of the fastest turnarounds I’ve seen in a game.”
The Timberwolves are in unchartered water after the quarterfinal win. Spring Valley will be making its first appearance in the Class AAA semifinals when it takes to the field against a Capital team that is playing in the final four for the fourth straight year.
“This is a tall, tall task because this is the fourth year in a row Capital is playing in the Class AAA semifinals,” Dingess said. “They have experience on us. We will have to overcome that to win.”
The Timberwolves clamped down on Capital in the regular season meeting on October 21 as Spring Valley held Capital to under 50 yards of total offense. Offensively, Mason Brubeck had 193 yards and three total touchdowns in the October win.
“We can’t take anything for granted,” Dingess said. “We can’t put too much attention towards the team we played a month ago. We have to focus on the team that just put 62 points on Jefferson last week. They are dangerous.”
Saturday will be the final time 17 seniors take the field for the Timberwolves, and Dingess admits this is a special group of leaders.
“This is the closest group of players I’ve ever been around,” Dingess said.
“They’ve had goals from day one. They clock in like they are going to work every day, but it’s a close knit bond that you can’t really describe. You talk to coaches all the time and they tell you about how their players have a bond, that’s exactly what this group is like.”
Although things are a bit crazy with the holiday weekend, Dingess will prepare his kids in the best way possible for the afternoon game at the Wolves’ Den.
“If you want to play in a state championship game, you have to play on Saturday afternoon,” Dingess said. “We were hoping that one of the teams we played would pick a day game. We’re going to bring the kids in early Thanksgiving morning and practice. We may practice during the afternoon once or twice just to get the kids acclimated. If you can’t get excited to play in this game, you don’t need to be playing football.”