By Fred Persinger II for WVMetroNews.com
Class AA No. 5 Point Pleasant (0-1) at No. 4 James Monroe (1-0)
James Monroe open up the home portion of its schedule against a team that is probably not in a good mood, to say the least.
Point Pleasant will make the trip to Monroe County after losing on a last second catch in the back of the end zone, falling to the defending Class AA state champion, Mingo Central. That loss broke a regular season winning streak of 43 games for the Big Blacks.
Now Point Pleasant has to make the long drive to Lindside to take on James Monroe, the school that eliminated the Big Blacks in the playoffs last year, 21-0.
“That’s one of those games that I look back on and think, ‘how in the world did we do that,'” said James Monroe coach John Mustain. “To go up there and do what we did, it was one of the premier wins that we’ve had in the history of this school. Everything came together that night on both sides of the ball.”
Mustain’s Mavericks are coming off an impressive 44-34 win over Class AAA Greenbrier East.
The game saw the Mavericks jump out in front 44-14 in the second half before the Spartans made a comeback. Brothers Monroe and Grant Mohler combined for 107 yards and a pair of touchdowns while QB Connor Moore found the end zone four different ways to secure the win for James Monroe.
“One of the things that we did is took advantage of Greenbrier East’s mistakes,” Mustain said. “Connor Moore had four touchdowns – he ran a kickoff back, intercepted one and ran it back, caught a pass for a score and he ran for a touchdown.”
It’s a big early season matchup between two Class AA powers.
“They’re going to have a little bit of extra motivation and they’re going to be fired up, there’s no doubt about it,” Mustain said. “We’ve played them three times and we’ve beaten them all three times – I’m sure that’s something they’ve talked with their kids all week. They’ve got some extra incentive.
“We’re going to have our hands full,” he continued. “What’s the key to victory? I don’t know. They have so many different things that they do well. They have a bevy of receivers and their quarterback (Cason Payne) is a phenomenal athlete. It’s going to take a supreme effort and we can’t have any mistakes.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday night in the Class AA MetroNews Game of the Week.
Greenbrier East (0-1) at Beckley (0-1)
Two long time rivals will battle at Beckley’s Van Meter Stadium this Friday night.
Beckley and Greenbrier East both are coming off week one losses. The Spartans lost their home opener to Class AA James Monroe 44-34. East put up 440 yards in the loss, but struggled to score early and fell too far behind as four turnovers proved costly.
Greenbrier East was led by quarterback Hunter Weis who threw for 310 yards and a touchdown. Weis had to leave the game in the fourth quarter with an arm injury and is expected to miss several weeks. Devin Persinger finished with 188 yards receiving on nine catches, filled in at quarterback and finished the scoring for Greenbrier East with a rushing touchdown.
Beckley, meanwhile, had a bad start that didn’t get better in Week 1. The Flying Eagles fumbled on their first play from scrimmage, which led to a Riverside score, setting the tone early.
It led to an eventual 45-7 loss for Beckley.
Mental mistakes hurt the Flying Eagles all game long with turnovers, dropped passes and high emotions — starting running back Micah Hancock was ejected in the first quarter and will have to sit out this week.
Senior Tyree Swafford and sophomore Lamont Lee combined for 191 yards rushing on 16 carries in the loss. Overall, the Flying Eagles have lost eight games in a row, going back to last year.
This will be the 44th meeting between the two teams. Beckley holds a 26-17 advantage all-time in the series with the Flying Eagles winning four of the last five. The exception was last year when the Spartans defeated Beckley 35-28.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 Friday night and the game can be heard on the Big Dawg 99.5 WJLS, WJLS.com or on the iheart radio app.
Nicholas County (1-0) at Shady Spring (1-0)
Two teams that are coming off impressive opening week wins will battle Friday night in Shady Spring as the Tigers and Nicholas County battle.
Shady Spring is coming off an impressive 34-0 win over Lincoln County – a game that saw the Tigers score 24 points in the second quarter and total 444 yards of offense (361 yards on the ground). Tyler Bragg led the way for Shady Spring, rushing for 172 yards on 12 carries, scoring three times. The Shady Spring defense stepped up as well, holding Lincoln County to 130 yards of offense and no points.
For Nicholas County, the Grizzlies started the season with a 42-14 home win over Class A Greenbrier West. Jared Sagraves and Jacob O’Dell combined for 262 yards rushing and two scores each, while Sagraves also threw for 90 yards in the win. For Greenbrier West, Chase Peterson rushed for 101 yards on 12 carries in the loss.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night. The game can be heard on 104.1FM 560AM WJLS, or at WJLSAM.com.
Other Games:
Bluefield(1-0) at Princeton(0-1)
Oak Hill(1-0) at Liberty Raleigh(0-1)
Independence(0-1) at PikeView(1-0)
Westside(1-0) at Wyoming East(0-1)
Valley(Fayette)-(0-1) at Fayetteville(1-0)
Richwood(0-1) at Gilmer County(0-1)
Midland Trail(1-0) at Greenbrier West(0-1)
Twin Valley, Va. at Montcalm(1-0)
Man(0-1) at Mount View(1-0)
Meadow Bridge(0-1) at Tug Valley(1-0)
River View-Idle
Summers County-Idle