By Wes McKinney for WVMetroNews.com
Class AAA No. 7 Hurricane (2-0) at Class AAA No. 6 Cabell Midland (1-1)
Griffin Adkins stole momentum for Cabell Midland and then stole the show for the Knights in a matter of moments in their 49-17 win at South Charleston.
With Cabell Midland and SCHS battling, Adkins—the Knights leading tackler from 2016—stepped in front of a pass from Trae Murphy in the red zone and then broke off an 82-yard touchdown just a few plays later to put the Knights up 21-10 after it appeared South Charleston was about to take the lead.
Adkins was only playing offense because of the unavailability of Isaiah Duncan
“We have a lot of confidence in him running the ball, but we never really used him,” Cabell Midland head coach Luke Salmons said. “He’s always played running back growing up, and we worked him there in practice just in case we need to go to him. With Isaiah being out, we needed a tailback.”
Adkins finished the night with 208 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
“We try to work a lot of kids in different positions just in case things like Friday night come up,” Salmons said of the next guy up mentality.
The momentum from the unsuspecting performance from Adkins will be carried into Friday night, but one thing the Knights won’t need in week three against Hurricane?
“The kids don’t need any motivation,” Salmons said. “We’re ready to play—they’re excited about playing Hurricane. As soon as Friday night’s game ended against South Charleston, our kids were already focused and ready for Hurricane.”
Last season, Hurricane squeaked out a 34-31 win against Cabell Midland. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak over the Redskins.
“They’ve changed defenses a little bit,” Salmons said.
“They like to get the ball to the receivers. At the same time, the running back runs hard. They are maybe a little more multiple than they have been in the past. We know they are wanting to come in here and win too. We have to play physical on defense and tackle well.”
Class AAA No. 2 Huntington (2-0) at Class AAA No. 9 George Washington (1-1)
Huntington and Spring Valley played to a stalemate in the first half, but the Highlanders found two scores in the second half while pitching a shutout of the defending MSAC Champions in a 14-0 win.
“We’ve gotten to see where we’re at as a program right now,” Huntington head coach Billy Seals said. “I’m really proud of the kids. Coming off of a comeback win, we were focused in on Spring Valley and got the victory.”
It was the first shutout for Huntington since the end of the 2015 season versus Nitro. And in the last six quarters, HHS has only surrendered seven points.
“We feel like in the last six quarters we have played really physical football,” Seals said. “When you turn the film on from Friday night against Spring Valley we’re controlling the line of scrimmage—that’s Spring Valley’s bread and butter.”
Now the Highlanders will gear up for a George Washington squad that has had some trouble scoring early in the season, but is very dangerous.
“Grant Wells lit us up like a Christmas tree last year,” Seals said of Wells’ near 350 passing-yard game against Huntington last season.
“If some of the receivers wouldn’t have dropped balls, we don’t win the game last season. We have a lot of respect for Steve Edwards and his football program. They are fully capable of winning any Friday night.”
The Patriots have only put up 26 points on the young season, but George Washington has allowed just 20.
“They have a lot of good players in the box,” Seals said. “Dakota Cosby is a very good football player. Tanner Williams has been a tackling machine for three years now.
“He’s as good a linebacker that we will see,” he continued. “He seems to make a lot plays all over the field. The numbers speak for themselves—they’ve allowed 20 points in two games.”
Class AA No. 1 Mingo Central (2-0) at Logan (1-1)
Mingo Central held Wayne scoreless for the first half as Jeremy Dillon tossed four touchdowns and Drew Hatfield accounted for three touchdowns (two receiving, one kickoff return) in a 47-28 Miners’ win.
“Our team was excited to have some of the old guys back from last year,” Mingo Central head coach Joey Fields said in reference to having the 2016 title team back in town.
“The seniors on last year’s team were such leaders that I think our guys wanted to play well in front of them. Wayne is the team that we’ve always measured ourselves against.”
Now Mingo Central will face an opponent in Logan that is measuring themselves based on success against the Miners—a little role reversal from last week for Mingo Central.
“Logan will be excited for us to come into their stadium,” Fields said. “I’ve talked to Coach Toth some this offseason and I know we’re the measuring stick for his guys.”
Although the Miners are off to a 2-0 start, they’ve seen two dynamic quarterbacks and will see another in Logan’s David Early in week three.
“There’s a lot of good quarterbacks in Class AA: Point Pleasant’s Cason Payne, Keyser’s Brady Ours, Logan’s David Early, Fairmont Senior’s Connor Neal and Bridgeport’s John Merica,” Fields said. “It’s good for our defense to see the different styles of offenses. I think Logan compares more to Point Pleasant than, of course, Wayne.”
Speaking of Early, the Wildcats will get the sophomore signal caller’s services back for the contest against the defending Class AA champs after Early sat out last week with an injury.
“Offensively, we had some unforeseen circumstances because we were without David Early,” Logan head coach James Toth said. “We turned the ball over three times inside the five-yard line. You never like to have a loss, but we think we will continue to get better.”
Logan fell to Sissonville 28-12 last week.
The Wildcats and Miners have not played each other since 2013, a 26-20 win for Mingo Central.
“I don’t know if you stop Mingo Central,” Toth said. “There’s not a weakness that we can find. If you plan on stopping them, it’s probably not going to work out real well. They have good receivers, good blocking up front and Dillon throws the ball well. We just need to go in there and fight, scratch, claw and hope for the best.”
Class AA No. 4 Point Pleasant (1-1) at Warren Local (Ohio)
Point Pleasant used a workman-like effort to get past James Monroe in a tough road environment, 20-14.
Trailing 14-7 at halftime, the Big Blacks shut out James Monroe in the second half that included a late goal-line stand by Point Pleasant.
“It was one of those good, ole-fashioned football games,” Point Pleasant head coach David Darst said. “Our kids played well on defense. James Monroe has a really nice football team. To go down there and win—after losing that tight game against Mingo Central — I’m really proud of our kids.”
The Big Blacks played arguably the two toughest games in Class AA to start the season and Darst assessed the contests versus Mingo Central and James Monroe.
“We knew it was definitely going to be a test early on,” Darst said. “I by no means think we’re a really good football yet—we’re getting better. We’re so young defensively and we still make mistakes.”
Point Pleasant stays on the road this week to face an old rival in Warren Local.
“They play out of the full house backfield and run a lot of veer option,” Darst said. “They’ll also get in the shotgun and throw the football. They have lost to two good football programs. It’ll be that Ohio versus West Virginia type atmosphere—two old conference rivals going after each other.”
The two teams haven’t played each other since 2009.
Class AAA No. 5 Spring Valley (0-1) at St. Albans (1-1)
Spring Valley took a tough loss on the road at Huntington, 14-0.
“We controlled the game in the first half, and made some mistakes that cost us some points,” Spring Valley head coach Brad Dingess said. “We left 10 points on the field in the first half.”
However, perhaps the biggest advantage in the contest was Huntington playing game two while Spring Valley was getting some first-game jitters out.
“With Huntington having played week one, they had already been able to fight through adversity and we weren’t able to do that Friday night,” Dingess said.
After prepping for the big rivalry game versus the Highlanders for a month, the Timberwolves will have a short turnaround against a wide open St. Albans offense.
“Since the first of August we’ve been practicing for one team and now we have to turn around and play someone completely different scheme wise,” Dingess said. “We’re not a big passing team, so it’s hard to simulate that in practice. St. Albans creates some matchup issues that we’ll have to be able to weather the storm early.”
Spring Valley will utilize its own quarterback, Derek Johnson, to get ready for athletic St. Albans quarterback R.T. Alexander.
“The Alexander kid is really good—especially for a freshman,” Dingess said. “He’s been able to put up some numbers.”
But the St. Albans defense has been just as stingy–especially last week—when it shutout Nitro and scored two defensive touchdowns.
“They get in multiple fronts and give us looks that we don’t usually see,” Dingess said.
“They are much improved from last year. We struggled last year—I know we put a lot of points on them—but we struggled to get going. The unusual defense creates some problems for us.”
Scott at Class AA No. 9 Sissonville (2-0)
Scott backed up a 42-14 win over Herbert Hoover with a 36-22 victory against Van last week to move to 2-0 for the first time since 2014, also the last time the Skyhawks made the postseason.
The high-powered Scott offense comes in averaging 39 points per game in its first two contests. After only hitting 35 points twice last season, the Skyhawks have gone over the plateau in both games this season.
But now comes the toughest test for Scott in the early season, a matchup with a team that was seeded fourth in the Class AA playoffs last season.
Sissonville has won the last two games including blanking the Skyhawks two seasons ago in Kanawha County.
Class AA No. 10 Winfield (1-1) at Chapmanville (1-1)
After falling to Sissonville in week one of the season, Chapmanville bounced back with a 38-16 win over Poca to even its record.
Last season’s contest with Winfield was a pivotal one between the teams in week nine as the Generals won 37-23 and crippled the playoff hopes of the Tigers.
While this contest is much earlier in the season in 2017, a win may end up going a long way for Chapmanville as it doesn’t see a playoff team from last season until an October 27 date with Mingo Central.
Tug Valley (2-0 at Van (1-1)
Tug Valley has found two different ways to win in its first two games this season.
First it was a 6-0 defensive struggle against Sherman in week one, then in week two Tug Valley’s offense broke loose and put 50 on the scoreboard against Meadow Bridge in a 50-6 win.
Dating back to last season, Tug Valley has topped the 50-point mark in two of its last five games.
The Panthers will start a stretch of three straight on the road beginning with Van.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are coming of a hard-fought loss to Scott with them having a mutual win over Meadow Bridge.
Tug Valley has won five straight in this series.
Other Games
Tolsia (1-1) at Lincoln County (1-1)
Sherman (1-1) at Valley (Fayette) (0-2)
Man (0-2) at Westside (1-1)
Manchester (Ohio) at Hannan (0-2)