By Fred Persinger II for WVMetroNews.com
Oak Hill (4-0) at Fayetteville (4-0)
Two longtime Fayette County rivals will battle Friday night in Oak Hill and Fayetteville.
Both teams are unbeaten on the season at 4-0 and are looking for a pivotal mid-season win.
Oak Hill entered the season with a 19-game losing streak, but now the Red Devils find themselves right in the middle of playoff contention with a No. 6 ranking in Class AA.
Fourth year head coach Jason Blankenship said it has been a process to turn the program around.
“For some of the seniors, the win on the road at Liberty was their first road win,” Blankenship said. “To get some of the confidence in the program and rely on the history of the school has been great. And having former Oak Hill head coaches Eddie Souk and Jim Martin on my staff has helped — all of those things coming together has been the recipe for success.”
Oak Hill has relied on senior Khori Bass who has led the team all season long, but he suffered a shoulder injury against Wyoming East and is expected to miss several weeks.
But it’s not just the offense that has played well, the defense has has given up just 55 points in four games — an average of 13 points per contest.
Fayetteville, meanwhile, is coming off of an 18-6 win over Meadow Bridge. Dustin Bailey was the leading rusher for the Pirates, finishing with 67 yards in the win.
It’s a Fayetteville team that graduated 11 seniors from 2016’s semifinal team and initially only had eight players returning.
“We’ve had to really jump into the hallways and grab kids out of classrooms and pull them onto the football field,” said Pirates’ coach David Moneypenny. “One day last week I was looking at our scout team offense — our quarterback played for us last year and all other 10 kids had never played football at Fayetteville before. It’s a challenge for us.”
Fayetteville won last year’s game between the two teams 56-0.
Kickoff on Friday night is set for 7:30.
“They’re going to be very, very tough to beat,” Moneypenny said of Oak Hill. “We coach them up hard, we don’t have a lot of numbers, but these kids seem to find a way to win. They’re tough, gritty, they play hard and they believe in what we’re doing.”
Cabell Midland (2-2) at Beckley (1-3)
Both Beckley and Cabell Midland were involved in high scoring games last week — and both teams ended up on the short end of the scoreboard.
Beckley battled Hurricane throughout the game, but once again turnovers and dropped passes hurt the Flying Eagles’ chance of pulling off the upset. The two teams scored a combined 45 points in the second quarter, which included two kickoff returns for touchdowns — a 96 yard return by Dakota Williams for Hurricane and then a 77-yard return by Peyton Thomas of Beckley.
The Flying Eagles trailed 35-28 at the half and ended up falling 42-28. Beckley was able to get another back over 100 yards as Micah Hancock finished with over 100 yards for the second straight week.
Cabell Midland, meanwhile, had a tough loss to Capital in Week 4, falling 55-49 on an untimed down in the game’s final play.
The Knights rushed for 502 yards with three players scoring two touchdowns apiece. Isaiah Duncan tallied 199 yards on 24 carries, Ivan Vaughn added 162 yards on 27 carries and quarterback Jovaun Light finished with 99 yards on 18 carries.
This will be the 23rd meeting between the two teams. Cabell Midland has a 16-6 advantage and has won the last nine games in the series.
The last win for the Flying Eagles over Cabell Midland came in 2005. Beckley will also be trying to break a 12 game conference losing streak — the last win came back in 2015, a 32-15 victory over Nitro.
Kickoff from Van Meter Stadium will be Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and the game will air on The Big Dawg 99.5 WJLS at WJLS.com and on the iheart radio app.
Other Games:
Mussleman(3-0) at Princeton(0-3)
Buckhannon-Upshur(1-2) at Greenbrier East(1-3)
Bluefield(4-0) at Tazewell, Va.
James Monroe(3-1) at Wyoming East(1-3)
Mount View(3-1) at Point Pleasant(3-1)
Liberty Raleigh(0-3) at Clay County(3-1)
Westside(3-1) at Independence(1-3)
Shady Spring(2-2) at Pike View(2-2)
Greenbrier West(0-4) at Summers County(1-2)
Montcalm(3-1) at Hurley, Va.
Richwood(1-3) at Pocahontas County(3-1)
Sherman(3-1) at Van(3-1)
Valley Fayette(0-4) at Midland Trail(4-0)
Meadow Bridge-Idle
Nicholas County-Idle