Just because your team is the higher seed in the high school football playoffs, doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee you’re moving on to the next round!
When the 1st round of the 2019 West Virginia High School Football Playoffs began last Friday night, we had 48 teams that had earned the right to move on to the second season. With that weekend now behind us, we have half that number moving on to playoff round #2, or better known as the quarter-finals. Of the top eight seeds in Class AAA, only six will be playing this weekend. In a battle of the 8/9 seeds, #9 Spring Mills defeated #8 Greenbrier East 28-27. The other upset occurred when #11 Capital went on the road and raced by #6 Wheeling Park by a final of 45-21! In Class AA, there was only one upset last weekend as #10 Mingo Central fought off #7 Shady Spring 13-7 in a very good game that was played at H. B. Thomas Field in Shady Spring. The Class A schools were exactly like the AA schools as they had just the one upset as #10 Wheeling Central Catholic scored with less than :30 seconds left in the game to defeat #7 Tolsia!
So, what does the quarter-final round hold for this weekend? To start with, we will have 5 of the 12 games played on Friday night with kickoffs slated for 7:30 and that will leave 7 games to be played on Saturday afternoon at 1:30!
In the Friday night games, Class AAA will feature #11 Capital traveling to Spring Valley to battle the 3rd seeded Timber Wolves. Those two teams met in the regular season on October 4th and in that game, Spring Valley proved too much for the Cougars and shut out the boys from Kanawha County 41-0! Head Coach Jon Carpenter’s team seems to be playing much better right now and seem confident the end result this time around will be different. In the other Friday night game this week, #7 George Washington will travel to Ona to meet up with undefeated and 2nd seeded Cabell Midland. Since becoming a high school in 1994, the Knights of Cabell Midland have met up with George Washington only 10 times with the last meeting coming back in 2015. The Knights have defeated George Washington 8 of their 10 previous matchups with the Patriots last win against Cabell Midland coming in 2002! The Saturday afternoon games in Class AAA will find #9 Spring Mills traveling the 9 miles across town to take on the #1 ranked Bulldogs of Martinsburg. In an earlier meeting this year on October 11th, Martinsburg beat Spring Mills 77-0. Over the years, the two teams have met 7 times with Martinsburg winning all seven games and outscoring Spring Mills 423-14! Also on Saturday, #5 Musselman will make the 4 hour bus ride to Parkersburg to battle the 4th ranked Patriots of Parkersburg South. Over the years, Musselman has faced Parkersburg South five other times and the Patriots have won 4 of those 5 games. The last encounter between the two schools was back in 2012!
In Class AA this weekend, there will be two games played Friday night and two on Saturday afternoon. The Friday night games will feature #8 Frankfort traveling to Fairmont to take on the #1 Polar Bears and #5 Keyser making the trip south to battle #4 Bluefield. For the Falcons, they have only played the Polar Bears three other times and all three times, Frankfort came out the winner. The last time the two teams met on the football field was 2013. For Keyser, their strength all season long has been their defense as they have shut out 8 of the first 11 opponents, including last week’s 1st round win over #12 Liberty Harrison 53-0. The Bluefield Beavers have relied heavily on their offense this season and easily defeated #13 Man last week 48-16. Keyser and Bluefield have met only twice before and both times were in the playoffs and both times, Bluefield was victorious. In 2004 Bluefield defeated Keyser 36-7 and last year, the Beavers defeated the Golden Tornado 35-0 in round two of the playoffs. This Saturday afternoon, Class AA #10 Mingo Central will travel to Bridgeport to battle the #2 ranked Indians. The Miners come into this weekend’s game with a (9-2) record while the Indians will counter with a record of (10-1)! These two fine teams have never met on the gridiron before. The other Class AA game on Saturday afternoon will feature two undefeated ball clubs as #6 Oak Glen (11-0) will travel to Poca to take on the (11-0) Dots. Both teams have explosive offenses and that has been the strength of each team this year. Just like Bridgeport and Mingo Central, Oak Glen and Poca have never met before in football.
In Class A this weekend, the quarterfinal round will get underway with only one game on Friday night and that game will feature #5 Williamstown traveling to Charmco, WV to take on the #4 ranked Cavaliers of Greenbrier West. Williamstown comes in with a (9-2) record having lost to Wheeling Central and Doddridge County, both of whom are still in the playoffs and Greenbrier West will enter the contest with an impressive (10-1) record and that lone defeat coming at the hands of Class AA James Monroe. Over the years, Williamstown and Greenbrier West have never met on the gridiron! The other three Class A games in the quarter final round will be played on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 all all three games should be good ones to watch. The Doddridge County Bulldogs are ranked #1 in Class A and they will welcome #8 East Hardy – #2 Ritchie County will entertain #10 Wheeling Central Catholic and #3 Pendleton County will welcome #6 St. Marys! Of these three games, only Doddridge County and East Hardy have ever met in football before and that game happened way back in 1991 when East Hardy defeated Doddridge County 24-6!
Don’t forget, coming up this Friday night we will have another edition of GAMENIGHT and we will have the scores of the five games played on Friday, plus take an indepth look at the seven games coming up Saturday afternoon! Look forward to talking with you then!!