Unbeaten Nicholas County looks to continue winning ways

SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — As Nicholas County continues preparations for Friday’s contest at Roane County, the Grizzlies do so as one of seven remaining unbeaten teams in Class AA.

The Grizzlies have already beaten a pair of 4-1 teams in Shady Spring and Oak Hill, the latter of which came last Friday in a 47-26 triumph at home.

“Oak Hill has a good, quality football team,” Nicholas County coach Gene Morris said, “and we’re excited that we were able to pull this one off. We’re happy to be where we are.”

Soon, the question will likely be just how far the Grizzlies can go, especially when considering they don’t face a team the rest of the season that currently has a winning record.

While the Class AA No. 3 Grizzlies don’t want to get caught looking ahead, a nine or 10-win regular season is far from out of the question.

Nicholas County features a senior signal caller in dual-threat quarterback Jared Sagraves, while fellow seniors tailback Jacob O’Dell and wide receiver Nick Kiser help to make Sagraves’ job easier.

Sagraves threw three touchdowns to Kiser against Oak Hill, while O’Dell rushed for 169 yards and a pair of scores.

The Grizzlies explosive offense, which also features a big-play threat in junior wideout Luke LeRose, has accounted for 37.6 points per game through its first five contests, having surpassed 40 points three times and scoring a season low 26 in its two-point win over Shady Spring in week 2.

“This is not a selfish team and I think that’s the reason we’re where we are right now,” Morris said. “They don’t care who gets the print. They just want to play football and that’s the best thing that they’ve got going for them. They are a team and they’re playing as a team. They just have to keep that going. We’re halfway through so we have a lot of football left.”

A year after finishing 8-2 in the regular season and suffering a first round playoff loss at Liberty (Harrison), Morris believes the success of last season’s team, along with getting a taste of the postseason, should help this year’s bunch over the second half of the regular season and beyond.

“The thing of it is last year these guys played well. And there were a lot of sophomores that were able to play well. We have a lot of juniors (16) right now playing football for us,” Morris said. “They’ve grown up a little bit, they’ve worked at it and they want to be successful. 

“The playoff experience out there as a sophomore really pays dividends as you go down the road this time of year. We know what it’s like.”

The Grizzlies were tested for a lengthy time Friday, as they struggled to stop an explosive Red Devils’ offense throughout the first half and found themselves in a 20-all tie at the intermission.

After taking a 33-20 lead into the fourth quarter, Nicholas allowed an Oak Hill touchdown, but seized control the rest of the way to win going away.

“Being able to control the line of scrimmage, staying focused and positive throughout the night, not worrying about the scoreboard and just playing the game, that’s what we focused on at halftime,” Morris said.

“You just have to stay focused and you have to stay humble,” he added. “You have to stay with the same system and you can’t try to reinvent the wheel or anything like that. Everybody just has to do their jobs and play within themselves.”





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