Speaker 1: Sports fans, it's time for the Friday Free-for-All. Over the
Speaker 1: next two hours, we'll bring you all the latest from
Speaker 1: across the region in high school and college sports.
Speaker 2: It took a long time to get the result from
Speaker 2: the most important game of Thursday night, but finally it happened,
Speaker 2: and wow, what a game between RCB and Fairmont. senior
Speaker 2: Alex Wieterspiel Michael Minnick it's the Friday free-for-all brought to
Speaker 2: you by Dan Cavatoda World and we are here we're
Speaker 2: back we're ready for week two Mike uh week one
Speaker 2: was fun I think week two is going to be
Speaker 2: more fun if the weather permits.
Speaker 3: It if the weather permits it but I think we
Speaker 3: got we got the appetizer well said that you mentioned
Speaker 3: I mean Robert C. Bird and Fairmount senior two teams
Speaker 3: that I think have been that have been fighting for
Speaker 3: that number two spot in the The Birds got in
Speaker 3: the upper hand now, won a playoff game at East-West,
Speaker 3: and now come back and win on their home field
Speaker 3: in the regular.
Speaker 4: Season this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it is funny how this kind of
Speaker 2: goes in cycles, right? I think the kick return a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago in the playoff game when Fairmont
Speaker 2: Senior was a 16th seed, that's one of those, like,
Speaker 2: where were you sort of West Virginia high school football moments, obviously,
Speaker 2: and it was a playoff game. And I'm not saying
Speaker 2: what has happened in either of these last two games
Speaker 2: is more significant than what leads to ultimately winning a
Speaker 2: state title like Fairmont Senior did that year. But there's
Speaker 2: got to be a little bit if you're RCB, if
Speaker 2: you're an RCB fan, if you're a lifer, you're feeling
Speaker 2: pretty good at the moment after back to back wins
Speaker 2: over this program.
Speaker 3: Well, especially the way that you won when you you
Speaker 3: you wanted to pass by your your. quarterback turned receiver
Speaker 3: turned quarterback again, Junior Smith to Isaiah Heflin. And I
Speaker 3: think the other thing too, was it wasn't just like
Speaker 3: you threw it in the end zone and Heflin caught it,
Speaker 3: like Heflin caught it, beat a couple of guys and
Speaker 3: then went into the end zone after a long weather delay.
Speaker 3: I'm sure the legs were a little bit heavy at
Speaker 3: that point because he runs as well as throws it,
Speaker 3: plays defense. That's a long night for him, but it sure.
Speaker 4: Did end well.
Speaker 2: I think the extra rest will help. And we'll certainly
Speaker 2: talk more about that coming up with Bill Nestor on
Speaker 2: the other side of this break. We've got a great
Speaker 2: crew coming up today. All of our usuals are going
Speaker 2: to join us. Plus we've got a little bit of extra.
Speaker 2: So we're going to get to all the Harrison County schools.
Speaker 2: One thing I will note, we haven't talked as much
Speaker 2: about East Fairmont. We're not going to do it today.
Speaker 2: I promise we're going to get a little more East
Speaker 2: Fairmont conversation on the air coming in the next couple
Speaker 2: of weeks. It's just one of those things where we've
Speaker 2: been so packed early in the season that I that's
Speaker 2: on me and I will get us some East Fairmont
Speaker 2: football coming up soon. Mike, before we go to break, though,
Speaker 2: most intriguing thing that happened in week one for you.
Speaker 2: Most intriguing thing you're going to be watching for week two.
Speaker 3: I think the most intriguing thing for me in week
Speaker 3: one locally was was the job that Grafton did, even
Speaker 3: in a loss against Philip Barber to make that a game.
Speaker 3: I did not think that would be much of a game.
Speaker 3: I thought they would be able to compete for a
Speaker 3: half like they have in the past. I think Bobby
Speaker 3: Butler is going to get that program in the rise,
Speaker 3: but it happened faster than I expected. So now looking
Speaker 3: at this Grafton team and saying, what is their ceiling?
Speaker 3: I think this is a team that could be in
Speaker 3: the playoffs where things fall. Well, if they play like
Speaker 3: they did in week one. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And it's going to be, and we'll talk with John
Speaker 2: board about this a little bit later. It's really going
Speaker 2: to be about how this team, how quickly this team
Speaker 2: figures out how to win football games, right? That's, That
Speaker 2: is the next step. So we will we will find
Speaker 2: out hopefully what John and what his viewpoint is on
Speaker 2: that and all of that coming up on an absolutely
Speaker 2: packed show today. South Harrison Lincoln, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 2: Bridgeport Martinsburg, we'll talk about that. We will get to everything.
Speaker 2: And we've got a bonus segment coming up with Chris George,
Speaker 2: who will join us during the eight o'clock hour. But
Speaker 2: he's going to spend even more time with us. during
Speaker 2: the nine o'clock hours. And don't you go anywhere. This
Speaker 2: is the Friday free for all brought to you by
Speaker 2: Dan Cabot to the world. He's Michael Minnick. I'm Alex Wiederspiel.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan Cabot,
Speaker 1: Toyota Buick, GMC Friday free for all.
Speaker 2: He is a little tired. I think that's to be expected.
Speaker 2: He's going to have, I hope a restful weekend, a
Speaker 2: restful long weekend ahead of him. Bill Nestor is on
Speaker 2: the line with us right now to break down, which essentially,
Speaker 2: I want to use the term instant classic to talk
Speaker 2: about RCB Fairmont Senior, but I don't think anything with
Speaker 2: a two-hour lightning delay can be considered instant, right, Bill?
Speaker 5: Definitely not. I kept looking for something to eat, couldn't
Speaker 5: find anything up there. It just seemed like the two
Speaker 5: hours took forever.
Speaker 6: It was unbelievable.
Speaker 5: The longest weather delay I've ever been a part of,
Speaker 5: and it just seemed like it was a gift that
Speaker 5: kept on giving.
Speaker 3: Couldn't Uber eat something to the press box? They weren't
Speaker 3: delivering in the lightning storm?
Speaker 5: Mike, it's so funny that you mention that. Someone, I
Speaker 5: think it was Mr. Frazier, Zach's dad, who does caller
Speaker 5: for Fairmont Senior, had mentioned that. And I thought, why
Speaker 5: didn't you mention that about an hour and a half earlier?
Speaker 5: But he waited until about five minutes before we came
Speaker 5: back on to make that suggestion.
Speaker 2: It's a good idea. I don't know what you would
Speaker 2: have Uber, because also the other problem would have been
Speaker 2: I could not believe what I, so I was doing our,
Speaker 2: our annual fantasy football draft, which I unfortunately am the
Speaker 2: commissioner for 16 years running and we've really customized this thing.
Speaker 2: So it's a, it's a zoom draft where I have
Speaker 2: to manage, you know, 13 other idiots and. And I'm
Speaker 2: watching and I'm like, is this game still in a
Speaker 2: lightning delay? How is this possible? And mercifully, the draft
Speaker 2: in the game ended at almost the exact same time,
Speaker 2: which is wild. So talk about the resiliency, though, Bill,
Speaker 2: for RCP to battle through everything to come away with
Speaker 2: this win.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, you look at this game from
Speaker 5: the start to how it ends. It starts out as
Speaker 5: Robert Seabird with a great opening drive and They end
Speaker 5: up getting on the board, and they take a 6-0
Speaker 5: lead early with about 521 left in the opening quarter
Speaker 5: of play. And it was one of those drives where
Speaker 5: they just imposed their will, and it looked like they
Speaker 5: were going to be in the driver's seat. But Fairmont
Speaker 5: Senior says, hey, hold the phone here. They come back,
Speaker 5: and they come back in just an amazing way. They
Speaker 5: score a couple TDs within a minute and 27 of
Speaker 5: each other. within three plays, three offensive plays. I mean,
Speaker 5: you want to talk about quick strike ability. That's what
Speaker 5: the polar bears had. And they, they jump out to
Speaker 5: the 14, six advantage. And then RCB is thinking, okay,
Speaker 5: what are.
Speaker 6: We going to do now? How do we respond?
Speaker 5: And they do, they, they respond as, as Heflin. You
Speaker 5: got to give him a lot of credit.
Speaker 6: He threw the ball.
Speaker 5: Well, had around 200 yards in the first half passing,
Speaker 5: but he also scored on a pair of TV runs,
Speaker 5: you know, three, three yard run. in the second quarter
Speaker 5: of play with 1027 remaining to, to help tie the
Speaker 5: game after the two point conversion from junior Smith. And
Speaker 5: then they also had a, a touchdown with a five
Speaker 5: 26 left to give Robert C in the second quarter
Speaker 5: to give them the 2014 advantage.
Speaker 6: So they, they looked really good. Things were going their way.
Speaker 5: And then momentum shifts with, with about three 49 left
Speaker 5: in the third quarter. When, when, the polar bears get
Speaker 5: an interception return about 75 yards to get the score
Speaker 5: and go back up 21, 20. And then it just
Speaker 5: seems like both teams were running out of gas. And
Speaker 5: that's when you get the, the lengthy weather delay. And
Speaker 5: then you, you come back with Fairmont senior having the
Speaker 5: ball first and Tim from their own 26. And they
Speaker 5: just go straight to the ground and they just start
Speaker 5: pounding the football and picking up big chunks of real estate, 10,
Speaker 5: 12 yards a carry. And they get themselves all the way.
Speaker 6: Down the field.
Speaker 5: And then Robert Seabird just remarkably comes back. They get
Speaker 5: control of the football. It's a Junior Smith fumble recovery.
Speaker 5: And they make their way down the field. And they
Speaker 5: get into a fourth down and five. And it just
Speaker 5: felt like they're down to their last effort. What's going
Speaker 5: to happen? They used all the tricks in their bag.
Speaker 5: They turn out to have one more trick left in
Speaker 5: the bag as Heflin throws a pass that turned out
Speaker 5: to be a lateral to the near side to Junior Smith,
Speaker 5: who's played his share of quarterback over his career at
Speaker 5: Robert Seabird. He hauls it in. fakes like he's going
Speaker 5: to run with it. He avoids a couple would-be tacklers.
Speaker 5: And you've got to give Isaiah Heflin credit. He doesn't
Speaker 5: just immediately dart down the field. He kind of takes
Speaker 5: his time. Then he gets into a route. He throws
Speaker 5: in the football at about the 10-yard line. And then
Speaker 5: Heflin takes off for the far corner of the end zone,
Speaker 5: all the way to the far corner, outraces a pair
Speaker 5: of polar bears, and gets in for what eventually is
Speaker 5: going to be the winning touchdown of But there's still
Speaker 5: 17 seconds on the clock, guys, and it's a five-point spread.
Speaker 6: And if you look back a.
Speaker 5: Few years ago, Robert Seabird was in this same position
Speaker 5: with a chance to advance in the playoffs, only to
Speaker 5: have a kickoff return returned all the way to the
Speaker 5: house for the winning touchdown. So you can't just say
Speaker 5: the game's over with.
Speaker 6: So you're thinking, okay, you've still got to kick it off.
Speaker 5: Fairmont Senior still has time and a timeout in their
Speaker 5: back pocket. Robert Seabird goes to the onside kick, and
Speaker 5: Tylan Evans recovers it, and then Robert Seabird runs out
Speaker 5: the clock with a couple victory formation plays. And just
Speaker 5: what an unbelievable rollercoaster emotional game for this team that
Speaker 5: looked like they were dead in the water, but it's
Speaker 5: that no-quick attitude that Austin Scott just preaches, and you play...
Speaker 5: every play, and you line it back up. You don't
Speaker 5: give up. You don't look at the scoreboard. You give
Speaker 5: your very best, and that's what this team did from
Speaker 5: start to finish.
Speaker 3: Hasn't always been on the field or on the court
Speaker 3: the last couple years, but when Junior Smith plays, it
Speaker 3: seems like he makes plays to win games for teams,
Speaker 3: whether it's basketball or football.
Speaker 6: You're exactly right.
Speaker 5: And throughout this game, there were three or four possessions
Speaker 5: where Robert Seabird faced the third and long, and he
Speaker 5: came up with a big reception. And it wasn't just
Speaker 5: to move the chains. It was a 20-, 25-yard reception.
Speaker 6: It was an emphatic play, a big play.
Speaker 5: And he's that guy that you go to to make
Speaker 5: a difference. And you look at the first half for
Speaker 5: Robert Seabird, six different players caught passes in the first half.
Speaker 5: So it was definitely a total team effort and a
Speaker 5: great job by quarterback Isaiah Heflin to find different guys
Speaker 5: at the right times, as well as Smith making those
Speaker 5: big plays on the third downs when they mattered the most.
Speaker 6: And you can't say enough about the stoppers.
Speaker 5: The defensive unit didn't allow a score after the 152
Speaker 5: mark of the first quarter of play. And let me
Speaker 5: tell you, the Polar Bears, an extremely talented team. And
Speaker 5: they've got a great coaching staff. And you've got some
Speaker 5: great play callers up there. You know, Cole Fisher, who
Speaker 5: I got a chance to watch, one of my favorite
Speaker 5: players of all time at Robert C. Bird when his dad, Brian,
Speaker 5: was coaching. And you got guys like that calling plays.
Speaker 5: And they've got such great weapons over there. So to
Speaker 5: be able to hold them to without a score after
Speaker 5: the first quarter play says a lot about what the
Speaker 5: defense did as well.
Speaker 2: Bill, do you have college football this weekend? Do you
Speaker 2: have Wesleyan?
Speaker 6: No, no. So I've got a break. I don't have
Speaker 6: anything going on this weekend.
Speaker 2: I'm happy for you. Also, congrats to Wesleyan on breaking
Speaker 2: the losing streak. That's a huge win for Coach Keller.
Speaker 6: Oh, yeah, huge win for Coach Keller.
Speaker 5: Got a chance to talk to him before the game,
Speaker 5: and then we interviewed him afterwards. And you've got to
Speaker 5: love that if you don't know him, you meet him,
Speaker 5: and he just becomes an instant, like a guy that
Speaker 5: you feel like you've known for 20 years, that kind
Speaker 5: of guy.
Speaker 6: You just want to be around him. You want to
Speaker 6: gravitate around him.
Speaker 5: And the environment there on game day, The way his
Speaker 5: team approached the game going into it, the way they
Speaker 5: were prepared, kudos to Coach Keller and his staff for
Speaker 5: the way they were.
Speaker 6: And it was electric there.
Speaker 5: And what Kyle Hoffman's done as the athletic director and
Speaker 5: President Moore and just the environment and what they did,
Speaker 5: I think there's going to be some great things coming
Speaker 5: up for this football program in Buchanan.
Speaker 2: Very good, Bill. Much appreciated, man. We're going to let
Speaker 2: you go rest your voice and have a fantastic long
Speaker 2: Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 5: Guys, as always, thanks for having me on. Have a
Speaker 5: great rest of the show and a great weekend as well.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break. We've got so much
Speaker 2: more coming your way. It is a packed show today.
Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 7: Snap in the end zone hand off to lana cartman
Speaker 7: he goes off the right side with a burst he's
Speaker 7: still going they never called.
Speaker 2: The play down he's at the 30 there's not a
Speaker 2: man in sight he's at.
Speaker 7: The 50 he's at the 40 he's at the 30
Speaker 7: 20 10 5 touchdown philip harbour bring.
Speaker 2: The bear out of the mountain tower oh my goodness how.
Speaker 4: About that play never stopped he never stopped rolled right
Speaker 4: over he knew it right away too It was a
Speaker 4: Saquon Barkley move.
Speaker 2: Landon Carpenter, 97 yards, and Phillip Barber apparently needed every
Speaker 2: single inch that he provided them in that game. Welcome in, everybody. Back,
Speaker 2: at least. The Friday Free-for-All brought to you by Dan
Speaker 2: Cavatier of Buick GMC. I guess, you know, I was
Speaker 2: a little surprised, I'll admit, when I saw that Phillip
Speaker 2: Barber and Grafton was going to be televised. And I
Speaker 2: was like, what does Metro know that I don't? And
Speaker 2: the answer is they knew a lot that I didn't.
Speaker 2: They knew a lot. That was maybe, that was one
Speaker 2: of the best regular season high school football games in
Speaker 2: a really long time. How much more can you ask for, right?
Speaker 2: You got a rivalry game, brand new coach on one side.
Speaker 2: You got a team coming off its best performance ever
Speaker 2: in program history, and they meet for the opening game
Speaker 2: of the season, and it is as good as you
Speaker 2: could have possibly hoped for. Came down to the final second,
Speaker 2: took every single inch to win a one-point victory for
Speaker 2: Phillip Barber. Alex Wiederspiel, Michael Minnick, and now Brian Bybee,
Speaker 2: the play-by-play voice, who you just heard of the Phillip
Speaker 2: Barber Colts, is with us. Brian, Um, I don't even know, like,
Speaker 2: did I, did I do it justice? Cause that is
Speaker 2: an insane, that is an insane set of circumstances. I
Speaker 2: couldn't believe as I was, I was providing the score
Speaker 2: updates during halftime and I was like, man, it's a
Speaker 2: good game. It's a good game. And I, I just,
Speaker 2: it was remarkable.
Speaker 7: It was an instant classic, uh, Alex and Michael, it
Speaker 7: was an instant classic. It's certainly a rivalry game. Um,
Speaker 7: but so many things happening in that game. And I'm
Speaker 7: going to tell you right now, Grafton is a much
Speaker 7: improved football team. They are going to win some ballgames
Speaker 7: this year. It's not that Phillip Barber played bad. Grafton
Speaker 7: played really, really well. Phillip Barber shot themselves in the
Speaker 7: foot a couple times with some turnovers, but let's give
Speaker 7: credit where credit's due. Grafton forced those. So it was
Speaker 7: a nip and tuck game, man, right down to the wire,
Speaker 7: like you said. And, yes, Lane and Karpner, we needed
Speaker 7: every one of those 197 yards that he had.
Speaker 6: To get.
Speaker 3: On the ground.
Speaker 7: Plus, you know, we didn't even talk about what he
Speaker 7: had in the air. I mean, he had three receptions
Speaker 7: for 85 yards and two on that last drive to
Speaker 7: set him up for the field goal for Aiden Thorne
Speaker 7: and to hit that one and send him home for
Speaker 7: the win. If he doesn't have those two catches, we're
Speaker 7: talking about a loss on opening night.
Speaker 3: Basically, half of Carpenter's yards came on that one run, though.
Speaker 3: So it seems like Grafton did a pretty good job
Speaker 3: of limiting him, at least on the ground.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, Michael.
Speaker 7: They're big up front. They're very athletic. They put a
Speaker 7: lot of pressure up the middle. And I think they'll
Speaker 7: do that all season long. And again, you have to
Speaker 7: look at Phillip Barber's line. I mean, they're young. You've
Speaker 7: got four out of the five that really have not
Speaker 7: played on the offensive line, or at least in those
Speaker 7: type of game situations. So learning curve for them. But
Speaker 7: they just kept.
Speaker 6: Pounding the rock.
Speaker 7: And Landon is so stinking athletic. I mean, that 97-yard
Speaker 7: run that he.
Speaker 4: He broke off.
Speaker 7: He plays to the whistle every play, and that's what
Speaker 7: happens when you do that.
Speaker 2: Week one is so hard to judge sometimes. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think at every level of football, it's the weirdest week.
Speaker 2: Weird stuff happens in week one. And so I try
Speaker 2: not to take anything that happens too seriously until we
Speaker 2: get a larger sample size. But I am curious, from
Speaker 2: your perspective, and if you've had a chance to talk
Speaker 2: with Coach Maley at all, what's the number one thing
Speaker 2: that would have to change moving forward, something that they
Speaker 2: can't repeat? from that game the rest of the season?
Speaker 7: Well, they've got a shorter tackling up. He talked about
Speaker 7: that with me last night and offensive line play for sure.
Speaker 6: We've got it.
Speaker 7: You got to give Robbie Jones a little bit more
Speaker 7: time to throw the ball back there. Those are the
Speaker 7: two big things.
Speaker 3: And I know they run Robbie a little bit by design,
Speaker 3: but 14 passes and 12 carries tells me that he
Speaker 3: was running for his life a little bit more than
Speaker 3: he wanted.
Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely. Michael, that was part of the, part of
Speaker 7: the issue. you've got wide receivers that can catch the ball,
Speaker 7: but if they don't have time to get the ball
Speaker 7: to them, it's not going to do you any good.
Speaker 7: And that's exactly what Grafton did. They just applied a
Speaker 7: lot of pressure and they're very talented. They're a very
Speaker 7: athletic group up front there on that defensive front for Grafton.
Speaker 2: Obviously very different this week. And it's interesting because I
Speaker 2: think it's fair to say, you look at the early
Speaker 2: start to the schedule and you go, oh, it's Grafton
Speaker 2: and Buchanan-Upshur at home. This is a good way to
Speaker 2: start the season. But Obviously in both cases, you're going
Speaker 2: up a classification. Grafton clearly looks much improved compared to
Speaker 2: where they were. I call that the John board effect.
Speaker 2: You get John board running your weight room. You're obviously
Speaker 2: just going to be, you're going to be way better off. I, I,
Speaker 2: I will say though, Buckhannon Ups, you're obviously coming off
Speaker 2: a really tough week themselves, but at the same time,
Speaker 2: this is going up to quad a. So there are
Speaker 2: some challenges here.
Speaker 6: Well, they are.
Speaker 7: And one's numbers too, is they, they, present a very
Speaker 7: strong vertical passing game. You know, now they didn't get
Speaker 7: a chance to do that very often against Bridgeport. And really,
Speaker 7: let's be honest, who does? But that's something that's going
Speaker 7: to test our young secondary. And Coach Maley and I
Speaker 7: talked about that.
Speaker 4: He knows that.
Speaker 7: He said, hey, you know, this is what we've been
Speaker 7: practicing for. Let's see what you're made of. And we'll
Speaker 7: get tested on the back end Friday night.
Speaker 3: Talked about Lennon's great performance but do they need to
Speaker 3: maybe get a couple more running backs involved in the
Speaker 3: long term to make sure he doesn't wear.
Speaker 7: Out well absolutely and that's you know Mason Jones the
Speaker 7: other uh the senior running back you know he's more
Speaker 7: of a bulldozer type but uh uh he didn't have
Speaker 7: uh but but one or two carries there uh against
Speaker 7: uh Grafton but it really just the the game flow
Speaker 7: just did not dictate that Michael for him to be
Speaker 7: involved from that standpoint you know Mason was so active
Speaker 7: on the defensive side of the ball there I don't
Speaker 7: know if that anything to do with the the play
Speaker 7: calling or not, but they were having to do a
Speaker 7: lot of stretch plays, you know, stretch zone. And that's
Speaker 7: where certainly Landon is going to be your ball carrier
Speaker 7: in that regard.
Speaker 2: Any positive surprises from week one that you think could
Speaker 2: carry over into either week two or further into the season?
Speaker 7: Oh, certainly for Phillip Barber, resiliency. Talking with Coach Maley,
Speaker 7: he's like, you know, Brian, they never quit. They didn't
Speaker 7: quit on me. You know, going back, Alex, you and
Speaker 7: I talk about this every year. What, four years ago
Speaker 7: when we first got together, you know, they probably would
Speaker 7: have hung their heads and lost this game. Down by
Speaker 7: nine points with, I think, literally like two minutes to go,
Speaker 7: whatever it was, they come back and win this ballgame.
Speaker 6: You know, who would have thought? They did.
Speaker 7: They didn't quit. They thought we're going to get this
Speaker 7: ball back. They make the long pass to Tristan Price.
Speaker 7: They get the stop on the fourth and one with
Speaker 7: the fumble, which was in Colts territory. And if Grafton
Speaker 7: gets that first down, you know, they win the ball game.
Speaker 7: They kneel and they're done.
Speaker 4: They fumble.
Speaker 7: We take it over and down the field we go
Speaker 7: and set Aiden Thorne up for that, I think it
Speaker 7: was a 24-yard field goal, right through the uprights. Time expires,
Speaker 7: you walk it off.
Speaker 3: Brian, we've talked a lot about Phillip Barber's emphasis on
Speaker 3: special teams. This is where that pays off, right, when
Speaker 3: you can get yourself in position to kick a field
Speaker 3: goal and be confident that you can make it.
Speaker 7: Yes, and here's the thing. You know, I'm down there
Speaker 7: walking the track July 4th. It's got to be 100
Speaker 7: degrees out there. And who's out there kicking field goals
Speaker 7: by himself? Aiden Thorne. You know, he's kicking– he can easily, guys,
Speaker 7: easily 48, 49-yard field goal every time. And, you know,
Speaker 7: when you're that dedicated to your craft Good things are
Speaker 7: going to happen to you. They feel very confident. If
Speaker 7: they get to the 30-yard line, he's going to bang
Speaker 7: one through for them.
Speaker 2: So Philip Barber gets the win. The Facebook cannon up, sure,
Speaker 2: coming up this week. Remind folks where they can catch
Speaker 2: the broadcast.
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
Speaker 7: So 1240 a.m., 99.9 FM, WD & E. That's going
Speaker 7: to be locally. And pregame will start at 640, kickoffs
Speaker 7: at 7. You can also find us on the World
Speaker 7: Wide Web at www.wdnefm.com. And just go to Music &
Speaker 7: More and hit the Philip Barber stream. And then I
Speaker 7: highly recommend that WBRC Media app. It's pretty cool. Take
Speaker 7: that anywhere with you on your phone, your tablet, and
Speaker 7: catch us there on the WD & E app.
Speaker 2: Brian, you're a man of the 21st century. I love it.
Speaker 2: We're going to switch over to Grafton here in just
Speaker 2: a moment. John Board will join us.
Speaker 6: Momentarily.
Speaker 2: Here's the hand off the nest.
Speaker 8: It's a foul ball!
Speaker 2: The Cokes pick it up! And they're at the 35-yard line.
Speaker 2: Holy cow!
Speaker 8: Parker Herod bounced right to him, and he was ready.
Speaker 2: All right, so we just talked a little bit with
Speaker 2: Brian Bybee about the Philip Barber one-point win over their
Speaker 2: arch rivals from Grafton. Now John Board is with us
Speaker 2: on the line to talk about it from the Grafton perspective.
Speaker 2: And John, last week we talked, and you were very
Speaker 2: confident about the steps forward taken by this program. It
Speaker 2: is hard to ignore the steps forward. I know there's
Speaker 2: no such thing as a consolation loss, but it's hard
Speaker 2: to ignore the steps forward that Grafton football took last week.
Speaker 9: And I think you're absolutely right. we knew that these
Speaker 9: kids are, these kids are, have been in the weight room.
Speaker 9: They're well coached. We made some mistakes as you know,
Speaker 9: kids make mistakes. We made two big mistakes at cost.
Speaker 9: This ball game, actually three, because we fumbled when it
Speaker 9: was fourth down and one. So you have three mistakes here,
Speaker 9: a different ball game. I mean, we, we played extremely hard.
Speaker 9: Phil Barber's good football team. I'm not going to take
Speaker 9: anything away from them. They're good. Um, But it was
Speaker 9: just three mistakes cost us the game.
Speaker 3: What do you think was the one thing, if there
Speaker 3: was one thing, that they did better this year versus
Speaker 3: what you saw from them last year?
Speaker 9: I think their running attack. Their running game was much better.
Speaker 9: They probably have one of the best running backs in
Speaker 9: the area. Everybody says that, but they actually have one.
Speaker 4: He.
Speaker 9: The running back was extremely good and extremely smart.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious, from your perspective, I want to talk
Speaker 2: about the mistakes, especially the one on fourth down late
Speaker 2: in the game where Grafton could have iced it. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that's a big one. Young football teams, they make those mistakes.
Speaker 2: Mike and I have talked about it a lot on
Speaker 2: the show today in general. There is a learning process
Speaker 2: to winning. But I think what I'm curious about is
Speaker 2: you talked about how hard they played. What are some
Speaker 2: of the things, especially from your perspective managing the weight room,
Speaker 2: what are some of the encouraging signs that you noticed
Speaker 2: from a strength and conditioning perspective?
Speaker 9: Number one, the team didn't quit. These kids didn't quit.
Speaker 9: The closest we've come to beating Phillip Barber in the
Speaker 9: last four years is 21 points. They've hung 50 on
Speaker 9: us twice. And these kids would not give up. And
Speaker 9: as the game wore on, I think you saw our
Speaker 9: conditioning was better. They can debate that, but our conditioning
Speaker 9: was better. And these kids, there's no quit in them.
Speaker 9: They fought the whole game. The first half, they made
Speaker 9: some first-half mistakes. But the second half, they played extremely well,
Speaker 9: and they kept coming back. It was impressive. I mean,
Speaker 9: it was. To see the last four years and then
Speaker 9: to watch Friday night, it was impressive.
Speaker 3: What did you see from Chase Kenzie, junior, you know,
Speaker 3: dual threat guy, threw the ball pretty well, ran for
Speaker 3: 33 yards as well. What did you kind of see
Speaker 3: from him week one?
Speaker 9: His leadership. He took control. Chase's leadership. He was leading
Speaker 9: that team. And he got hit a few times. He
Speaker 9: got hit pretty hard a few times. And he'd get
Speaker 9: back up, and he was always encouraging. And he was
Speaker 9: a sophomore last year, so probably not so much the
Speaker 9: leadership as I saw this year, at least in the
Speaker 9: first game.
Speaker 2: So looking ahead now, and this is, I think, the big,
Speaker 2: you know, Next step now, Grafton, I think this is
Speaker 2: probably a message to the rest of the teams on
Speaker 2: their schedule. Hey, I mean, I would hope this would
Speaker 2: be a message. If you're a good coach and you
Speaker 2: just watched what happened between Grafton and a semifinalist from
Speaker 2: AA last season, you should be looking at this and going, okay,
Speaker 2: they might not be, and perhaps we cannot treat this
Speaker 2: as a pushover game. This is not a gimme. How
Speaker 2: do you now approach this next week against an East
Speaker 2: Fairmont team who I think showed some defensive proficiency last
Speaker 2: week but really labored offensively? What's this one look like
Speaker 2: for you guys?
Speaker 9: I think that last Friday night, even though they didn't win,
Speaker 9: we earned people's respect. I mean, I'm hearing it from
Speaker 9: you two. You know, we earned their respect. Now we've
Speaker 9: got to win a ball game. And I think that's
Speaker 9: what the kids were focused on, been focused on all week,
Speaker 9: is winning the game. We proved we could go out
Speaker 9: and slug it out with one of the better teams
Speaker 9: in the area, a team that's been in the playoffs,
Speaker 9: and we slugged it out with them. It was the
Speaker 9: last four seconds we lost the game. We won the respect.
Speaker 9: Now we've got to win the game.
Speaker 3: I imagine the atmosphere around the program is pretty high
Speaker 3: this week, even though they lost, just knowing that they
Speaker 3: put in that kind of performance and knowing that they
Speaker 3: can replicate it.
Speaker 9: Well, and I think you're right. I think one of
Speaker 9: the things always in the back of their mind, there
Speaker 9: was a doubt. Are we competent? Are we that good?
Speaker 9: Can we be that good? And I think, again, looking
Speaker 9: at it from my perspective, they realized how hard they played.
Speaker 9: And like I said, it was the last four seconds
Speaker 9: of the game.
Speaker 2: Is this one of those situations where... it might take
Speaker 2: the whole year for these guys to learn how to
Speaker 2: close out football games. Or do you think that's something
Speaker 2: that can come a little bit faster because they do
Speaker 2: have some experience with Bobby Beltner?
Speaker 9: I definitely think it's going to happen. I mean, they're
Speaker 9: going to close out. And I tell you right now,
Speaker 9: don't be surprised they don't close out Friday night. I mean,
Speaker 9: they are hungry for a win. They know they can win.
Speaker 9: And if you know you can win, that's a, That's
Speaker 9: a big deal. The last four years is, you know,
Speaker 9: you've got to go back into the 1920s to find
Speaker 9: a worse four years than what we had the last four.
Speaker 9: Back in the 20s, Grafton High School football. And these kids,
Speaker 9: these kids see themselves a little bit different now.
Speaker 3: As you look at these, these Fairmont team, what do
Speaker 3: you think their, their biggest challenges are? A team that's beaten,
Speaker 3: beaten Grafton the last five years?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think number one, you look at their size. Um,
Speaker 9: They're big up front. They're a lot bigger than us
Speaker 9: up front. They've got some talented receivers. They've got a
Speaker 9: decent running back. And they've got a quarterback with experience.
Speaker 9: It's not going to be a cakewalk. But I just
Speaker 9: think our kids are ready for a win.
Speaker 2: Remind folks where they can catch the broadcast of East
Speaker 2: Fairmont and Grafton. This one is at East West Stadium.
Speaker 2: Grafton doesn't open their home stretch until next week. Remind
Speaker 2: folks where they can catch tonight's broadcast.
Speaker 9: WGIE 92.7.
Speaker 10: Very good.
Speaker 2: And pregame coverage begins when?
Speaker 9: At 645.
Speaker 2: John, appreciate it, man. And you'll have to regale us
Speaker 2: with more stories from the weight room after East Fairmont,
Speaker 2: or excuse me, after Grafton gets their first win, which
Speaker 2: could potentially come this week against East Fairmont. And we'll
Speaker 2: talk with you next week.
Speaker 9: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2: All right, Mike, we've now heard from, we've heard from Brian,
Speaker 2: we've heard from John and I, I listen, I want
Speaker 2: to be, I want to be really careful here. Cause
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, Phillip Barber did win.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: And, and like that is worth remembering. And I think
Speaker 2: that's going to look like a really good win. If
Speaker 2: Grafton does indeed take a big step forward. What kind
Speaker 2: of like we thought they were taking a step forward,
Speaker 2: you know, two years ago and then took a, you know,
Speaker 2: big step back last year. I think if they take
Speaker 2: a big step forward that this is going to look
Speaker 2: like a great win for Phillip Barber, but it's, it
Speaker 2: is kind of crazy that ultimately the story of this
Speaker 2: one is not about who won. It really is about
Speaker 2: Grafton hanging with one of the best teams in the
Speaker 2: big 10, one of the best teams in class AA.
Speaker 2: And I know that's a class down, but you look
Speaker 2: at the totals, the last year, you know, three seasons,
Speaker 2: last four seasons. I mean, this game hasn't, hadn't been close, uh,
Speaker 2: at any stretch. The, the, the closest margin was 35,
Speaker 2: 14 in 2024. And that year, uh, that was Grafton's
Speaker 2: best season, uh, of the last four years, they've won
Speaker 2: three games. Uh, so it's, it's, it's really interesting. It's a,
Speaker 2: it's a really interesting situation there. And I think they,
Speaker 2: you know, one way or another, they still feel like
Speaker 2: the big story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to see them produce a little bit
Speaker 3: more offensively this week. They were able to make some
Speaker 3: good plays on defense and special teams and kind of
Speaker 3: stay in that game. But they really didn't have a
Speaker 3: ton of offensive yards. I think this is an East
Speaker 3: Fairmont team that, as you mentioned in the interview with
Speaker 3: John Board, played pretty well defensively week one but couldn't
Speaker 3: really score. So I feel like Grafton's going to have
Speaker 3: a lot of possessions and a lot of chances to
Speaker 3: put up numbers. I want to see them do it.
Speaker 3: But I do feel like, as I said in the
Speaker 3: pre-for-all yesterday, The schedule says that well for them, but
Speaker 3: they could win two or three of these next four
Speaker 3: or five games and put themselves in a solid position.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really interested in this. I mean, if they
Speaker 2: if they can beat East Fairmont, I think they have
Speaker 2: a real chance to go on a little bit of
Speaker 2: run here leading into that Elkins game. The schedule is
Speaker 2: not easy, but it's not hard, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2: There's it's sort of a. a softer part of the schedule.
Speaker 2: And then the second half of the season goes, not
Speaker 2: so much.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Elkins, RCB, Bridgeport, North Marion, and then Lewis County, certainly,
Speaker 2: you know, not to say anything negative against Lewis County,
Speaker 2: but among those five, they're probably the weakest. So you
Speaker 2: get four, four, tough teams in a row four teams
Speaker 2: who are expecting to be in the playoffs one of
Speaker 2: whom is expecting to be competing for a state championship
Speaker 2: um and another one who is expecting this to be
Speaker 2: their best season in years that is a very tough
Speaker 2: stretch so this is if grafton and again i don't
Speaker 2: want to throw the p word around right now it's
Speaker 2: ridiculous to throw it around this early but if they
Speaker 2: do at least want to be in that conversation it
Speaker 2: does start with this is the part of the schedule
Speaker 2: where they're going to have to pick up some wins Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Think the next four, East Fairmont, Lincoln, Hampshire, Brooklyn Springs,
Speaker 3: all winnable games that they played like they did last week.
Speaker 3: But again, nothing's guaranteed. You got to continue to bring it. And,
Speaker 3: you know, the intensity clear was there. It was a
Speaker 3: rivalry game. It was week one. You got to be
Speaker 3: able to do that every week. And if Grafton can
Speaker 3: do that every week, and I see no reason why
Speaker 3: they couldn't, I think they'll be in a decent position
Speaker 3: in the first half of the year. And again, this
Speaker 3: is one of those things where expanding the playoffs helps
Speaker 3: a program like Grafton. When you have 64 making instead
Speaker 3: of 48 and you're four and six, five and five,
Speaker 3: you're in position where you might make it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And again, I just go back to year two under
Speaker 2: Nick Maley. They went three and seven and their three
Speaker 2: wins were blowout wins. So they were clearly a cut
Speaker 2: above the three teams they played who were decent. Big
Speaker 2: Ten schools, Grafton, Liberty, Harrison, Elkins, and then you look
Speaker 2: at the games they lost, and yeah, they lost to
Speaker 2: some good teams. They lost to Robert Seabird, but the
Speaker 2: four of their seven losses were by one possession, and
Speaker 2: one of their losses was by two possessions, by 13 points,
Speaker 2: which we know can sometimes be, you know, a little
Speaker 2: deceptive in terms of that could have potentially been a
Speaker 2: closer game. And sort of my point behind that was, like,
Speaker 2: it did take Phillip Barber an entire year, really. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you think about it, because they obviously, Nick Maley's
Speaker 2: first year, they were even worse, but it took them
Speaker 2: that entire season to learn how to be in those games.
Speaker 2: And then the next season they turned those close losses
Speaker 2: into wins. And a couple of them were really tight.
Speaker 2: So like, that's the question for me on graft. And I'm,
Speaker 2: you know, we'll have more time. I'm sure next week to,
Speaker 2: to get into it. But that, that to me is
Speaker 2: the question is, Can you can you accelerate that timeline
Speaker 2: at all? Because this is not as big of a rebuild. Again,
Speaker 2: the history that Bobby Beltner has with these kids already,
Speaker 2: the fact that so many of them already have experience,
Speaker 2: like it's not like this is a big group of
Speaker 2: freshmen and sophomores, comparatively speaking to what you would normally
Speaker 2: see in a first year of a head coach. So
Speaker 2: I don't know. These are all questions that are going
Speaker 2: to get answered, I think, in the next few weeks.
Speaker 3: And then the other side of that equation, Phillip Barber,
Speaker 3: this is a big win for them to pull this off,
Speaker 3: to come back, to win by one, because you've got
Speaker 3: Buchanan up for this week. That's the game you're favored in.
Speaker 3: But then you're playing North Merion, Bridgeport, and Elkins after that.
Speaker 3: So if you don't win that game against Grafton, one
Speaker 3: and four, two and three is a possibility at the
Speaker 3: midway point of the season. So winning that game, I think,
Speaker 3: is really important to put themselves in a position where
Speaker 3: That second half, when things get a little bit easier
Speaker 3: and they're playing more in their class, they're in a
Speaker 3: position where if they can win four of those five
Speaker 3: games or five of those five games, they're hosting a
Speaker 3: playoff game.
Speaker 2: We're going to go ahead and take a break. We've
Speaker 2: got a lot more coming here on the Friday free-for-all.
Speaker 2: It's Bridgeport time next, though, and we're back right after this.
Speaker 2: Our show brought to you by our friends at Dan Kavitz,
Speaker 2: Toyota Buick, GMC. He's Michael Minnick. I'm Alex Wiederspiel. We're
Speaker 2: back right after this.
Speaker 1: Now, back to the Dan Cava Toyota Buick GMC Friday
Speaker 1: free-for-all on 103.3 WKMZ.
Speaker 10: Now back, and here comes Gavin around the corner, kick out.
Speaker 11: Block, end zone, touchdown. Gavin Williams.
Speaker 10: Pays dirt for the 28th time on the ground the
Speaker 10: last two seasons.
Speaker 11: Four yards out in Bridgeport.
Speaker 10: Takes advantage of that excellent starting field position to take
Speaker 10: an early 6-0 lead.
Speaker 2: Friday Free-for-All rolling on here, brought to you by our
Speaker 2: friends at Dan Cava, Toyota Buick, GMC. You just heard
Speaker 2: Travis Jones on the call as Bridgeport absolutely dominated Buckhannon Upshur.
Speaker 2: And certainly not necessarily anything that we're surprised by. But
Speaker 2: there are, I will say, Travis, there are some moments
Speaker 2: when I look somehow... the sticker shock of seeing a 68,
Speaker 2: nothing score still does take me aback for just a
Speaker 2: moment as I'm, as I'm reading it, you know, during, uh, uh,
Speaker 2: did a, did a post game score update segment on,
Speaker 2: on our South Harrison broadcast. And I did take me
Speaker 2: aback for, for just a moment. I mean, it's, it's
Speaker 2: a lot of points.
Speaker 6: You're right. It's crazy.
Speaker 10: I guess that's the advent of offenses, I guess. And
Speaker 10: maybe the, um, the advancement in, in the student athletes bodies, because,
Speaker 10: you know, you go back and, you know, I'm, uh,
Speaker 10: a guy that has kept some historical records on Bridgeport football,
Speaker 10: and you go back and look at the scores even
Speaker 10: into the 70s, that never happened. Much more ball control
Speaker 10: back then. Less spread, I think, has led to more scores.
Speaker 10: But you bring up an interesting point. I think there's
Speaker 10: probably a case study to be done there as to
Speaker 10: why we see such, not even lopsided scores. There's always
Speaker 10: been some lopsided scores, but higher scoring averages in high
Speaker 10: school football.
Speaker 3: But anyway, that's not why you call it. I think
Speaker 3: one theory that I have is, One area that's definitely
Speaker 3: improved in the state in the last 20, 30 years
Speaker 3: is special teams. So take this game as an example.
Speaker 3: Bridgeport kicks off.
Speaker 6: It's a touchback.
Speaker 3: They get a stop. They get the ball in BU territory.
Speaker 6: They quickly score.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, exactly right. And what, five touchbacks on the night? And,
Speaker 10: you know, Jalen had multiple kicks inside the five-yard line.
Speaker 10: Gavin Williams with the touchback. So, yeah, that was the
Speaker 10: other story of the game was, you know, Buchanan just
Speaker 10: did not have very good starting field position and just
Speaker 10: had– trouble running the football from the jump, finished with
Speaker 10: negative rushing yards on the game and only had two
Speaker 10: first downs. So, you know, that makes it tough. But again, guys,
Speaker 10: you know, as we went into this last week, not unexpected.
Speaker 10: I just, I wonder, and I asked Tyler about this
Speaker 10: on Tuesday night, how much do you gain from a
Speaker 10: game like that? You know, Bridgeport, I think heading into
Speaker 10: the Martinsburg game, that's really not what they wanted. Uh,
Speaker 10: they had to pick the positives out of what they got, but, uh, in,
Speaker 10: in theory, they would have liked, you know, to at
Speaker 10: least had to have played, you know, into the, into
Speaker 10: the third quarter with the starters.
Speaker 2: That was going to be my question to you. In fact,
Speaker 2: it's what, what do you gain out of a game
Speaker 2: like this? And, and it's nothing, I mean, it's nothing
Speaker 2: to do with the scheduling. I mean, this is a
Speaker 2: class quadruple a team. You're, you're thinking in theory that
Speaker 2: this is probably not going to happen when teams go
Speaker 2: up a classification. Typically there is some level of, of, um,
Speaker 2: there is some level of difficulty that changes. If I'm
Speaker 2: playing video games and I play on all Madden instead
Speaker 2: of on all pro games, harder games, harder, but you know, seriously,
Speaker 2: I mean, but this is not the case here.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I, in, in.
Speaker 10: Terms of what, what you gain, I do think that
Speaker 10: anytime you can get out there and, and look at
Speaker 10: some lineups and, and look at matchups and, and assignments
Speaker 10: and get some film and, You know, those type of things.
Speaker 10: Certainly getting your young kids out there, there's benefit to that. But,
Speaker 10: you know, quite frankly, it probably ends there. Things get real. But,
Speaker 10: you know, conversely, Martinsburg had about the same situation with
Speaker 10: Hedgesville Friday night as well. So I think, you know,
Speaker 10: from a level standpoint, both teams are on about common
Speaker 10: ground coming into Friday.
Speaker 4: I think, too, Travis, we.
Speaker 3: Saw Buchanan try and throw it a decent amount, 16
Speaker 3: passing attempts. They hit a couple. but a lot of
Speaker 3: them were just kind of underneath. Long was 13 yards,
Speaker 3: so it felt like when they tried to go deeper,
Speaker 3: which is something Bridgeport, I know, wants to work on,
Speaker 3: they didn't have a lot of success. Bridgeport covered them well.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you're right, and I was impressed with Proney McDaniel's
Speaker 10: arm strength from Buchanan. I mean, when he missed, he
Speaker 10: overthrew receivers, and these were You know, they went early,
Speaker 10: no question. First play of the game, they go right
Speaker 10: at Bridgeport's new starting corner, Carson Bastien. So, yeah, so
Speaker 10: good point, Mike. That was good to get the secondary
Speaker 10: a little bit of a look. Of course, you know,
Speaker 10: tonight the game picks up a lot, lot faster with
Speaker 10: Martinsburg's speed than what you saw last Friday night. But
Speaker 10: it did give them an opportunity to kind of see
Speaker 10: all that work with the back-end coverage and trying to get,
Speaker 10: you know, a pass rush. Tonight's a little bit different.
Speaker 10: You know, you've got to have a controlled pass rush
Speaker 10: because Brian Dix certainly can hurt you with his feet.
Speaker 2: According to Four Seasons Football, this is the first regular
Speaker 2: season matchup between these two since 1952?
Speaker 11: That's correct.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 10: That is correct.
Speaker 9: Okay.
Speaker 10: All postseason since then. And again, it's been a long
Speaker 10: time coming, this series. There's been conversations previously about getting
Speaker 10: this game on the schedule, and the weeks just didn't
Speaker 10: match up. one way or the other, you know, Martinsburg
Speaker 10: typically it had more openings, uh, than Bridgeport. You know, we,
Speaker 10: we talk about how difficult it's been for the Indians
Speaker 10: here in the last 10 years, you know, finishing out
Speaker 10: their schedule with the non-conference portion of the schedule, you know,
Speaker 10: amplify that about 10 for Martinsburg. Uh, you know, they
Speaker 10: only have nine games right now. They're still looking for
Speaker 10: a 10th, you know, they're having to go to upstate
Speaker 10: or not go to, they're having teams from upstate New
Speaker 10: York and a team from Canada come in this year.
Speaker 10: They've had to go down to Iron, Ohio. I think
Speaker 10: they've played a team from Canada before. So yeah, when
Speaker 10: Bridgeport talks about difficulty filling out the non-conference schedule, Martinsburg
Speaker 10: is sitting there yawning because it's a problem that they've
Speaker 10: had for a long, long time.
Speaker 3: Had to play Highland Springs home and away, too, and Richmond.
Speaker 3: That's not an easy trip either, Don, 81 and 95,
Speaker 3: to play one of the best teams in Virginia, too.
Speaker 10: Yeah, no doubt about it. So, you know, I don't
Speaker 10: know what the future of this contract is. Bridgeport goes
Speaker 10: to Martinsburg next year. We'll see what happens after that.
Speaker 10: But certainly I think that any time you can get
Speaker 10: a matchup like this, it only benefits the fans, and
Speaker 10: really it only benefits the team. I mean, let's face it,
Speaker 10: Martinsburg's the favorite in this game. From Bridgeport's standpoint, even
Speaker 10: if they lose the game, you know, with the new,
Speaker 10: the way the rating is set up, with the strength
Speaker 10: of schedule, this will still be a very beneficial game
Speaker 10: for Bridgeport, as opposed to playing maybe a two-win team
Speaker 10: in Week 2.
Speaker 2: Right, and I do think, looking at the way this
Speaker 2: is set up for Bridgeport, like, again, I know you
Speaker 2: don't want to lose and you go into every game
Speaker 2: thinking that a, you want to win and you want
Speaker 2: to have some level of pressure on you, but it
Speaker 2: actually feels like there's less pressure than there would be
Speaker 2: because this will not, they're not going to see them again.
Speaker 2: This does not matter long-term. It's really about who are
Speaker 2: we right now in this moment? And let's, let's test
Speaker 2: ourselves against the very best.
Speaker 10: Well, I think the coaching staff and Tyler has said
Speaker 10: continuously that this team needs this. Uh, they need this
Speaker 10: type of competition. They need to see, uh, This speed,
Speaker 10: this physicality that they'll see later in the season.
Speaker 11: I'll say this.
Speaker 10: I think it falls in a good spot for Bridgeport
Speaker 10: in terms of getting Martinsburg early in the year. They're very,
Speaker 10: very good in the skill position. If they have any questions,
Speaker 10: it's along the offensive line. They're replacing a ton of
Speaker 10: starters there. They only have one starter back in Zion
Speaker 10: Reeves at right tackle along the offensive line. So they're
Speaker 10: only going to get better. But conversely, I think Bridgeport's
Speaker 10: only going to get better as well. So, but if
Speaker 10: it's a, you know, if you're going to play Martinsburg
Speaker 10: anytime this season, I think you certainly want to play
Speaker 10: them early, if at all, you know, if at all.
Speaker 3: We've talked a lot about Gavin Williams kind of being
Speaker 3: the headline guy on this team, but how important in
Speaker 3: this game are Gabe Martin, Eli Knight, two guys that
Speaker 3: are a little bit more physical runners to kind of,
Speaker 3: because I figure Bridgeport's hope, I mean, they'd love to
Speaker 3: score on the first play, but they're going to have
Speaker 3: to sustain some drives to win this game.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think you're exactly right, Mike, because, you know, again,
Speaker 10: I just go back to the last two meetings with Martinsburg.
Speaker 10: Each were a handful of years ago in the playoffs.
Speaker 10: Saw what Martinsburg did against this offense. You know, they
Speaker 10: really loaded up the middle, forced Bridgeport to run outside,
Speaker 10: and then they had the speed outside to chase it
Speaker 10: all down, right? When Bridgeport lost to Morgantown in the
Speaker 10: regular season a few years ago at home, same thing. Very,
Speaker 10: very good free safety from Morgantown. Chased everything down. So
Speaker 10: that's going to be the game plan for them. They'll
Speaker 10: put Boston Todd kind of in center field and let
Speaker 10: him try to control the outside. So as you mentioned,
Speaker 10: it comes back, I think, a lot to Eli Knight
Speaker 10: and Gabe Martin. And are they able to muscle it
Speaker 10: up and kind of pound it in the middle and
Speaker 10: get the 3.5, 4 yards per carry advantage? that Bridgeport
Speaker 10: is looking for to keep the drive alive. Last time
Speaker 10: we were in Martinsburg, I thought Bridgeport moved the ball
Speaker 10: between the 20s, just bogged down, and I think they
Speaker 10: went 0-3 on fourth down conversions in the red zone
Speaker 10: in that game, and that was the difference in the game.
Speaker 10: So there's no question about it, and I even asked
Speaker 10: Tyler last night, In a perfect world, yeah, you would
Speaker 10: like to have about five 80-yard drive, time-killing drives, keep
Speaker 10: Martinsburg's offense off the field. But you get into these
Speaker 10: type of games where you think they're going to score
Speaker 10: a lot. You've got to try to keep up. You've
Speaker 10: got to take points whenever you can get them in
Speaker 10: any way you can get them. So if you break
Speaker 10: a long one, you break a long one. Certainly, you're
Speaker 10: going to take it. But I think if you're talking
Speaker 10: about the way that Martinsburg would like this game to
Speaker 10: play out and the way Bridgeport would like it to
Speaker 10: play out, Bridgeport certainly would like to win the time
Speaker 10: of possession. roll up some first downs, keep Martinsburg's offense
Speaker 10: on the sideline, and cash in with points on those drives.
Speaker 3: As you look at Martinsburg's offense, what do you feel
Speaker 3: like maybe their best matchup is against Bridgeport?
Speaker 10: Well, I think they're going to put Boston Todd, they're
Speaker 10: going to get Boston Todd the ball, whether they have
Speaker 10: to hand it to him, screen it to him, throw
Speaker 10: it to him, slant it to him, go route it.
Speaker 10: I mean, they'll get him the football. They'll try to
Speaker 10: get Bridgeport's linebackers safeties and corners in space that's what
Speaker 10: they do to everybody because they feel like they've got
Speaker 10: you know superior athletes you know top to bottom than
Speaker 10: everybody else in the state so I don't think there's
Speaker 10: any question about that you know they're going to try
Speaker 10: to run the ball some Bridgeport shuts that down and
Speaker 10: holds McDonald Gibson you know under control then they'll run
Speaker 10: the quarterback Brian Dixon and they're going to find ways
Speaker 10: to get the ball into their playmakers hands and you know,
Speaker 10: like a Boston Todd and a Ty Ricketts. And, you know,
Speaker 10: I'll tell you what, the other kid that nobody really
Speaker 10: talks about is Christian Irving. He's a sophomore. Watched him
Speaker 10: on film, saw him last year in his freshman year.
Speaker 10: You know, he's the next big star for Martinsburg. So he's,
Speaker 10: you know, he's the type of kid that any time
Speaker 10: you pay and give too much attention to Boston Todd
Speaker 10: and put him on one-on-one, you know, he's going to
Speaker 10: hurt you. So they've just got, they've got a ton
Speaker 10: of weapons, you know, offensively. We saw it last year
Speaker 10: in the state championship game. And all those guys are
Speaker 10: back for the most part with a year of seasoning.
Speaker 10: So yeah, I mean, Bridgeport, any team Martinsburg plays, the
Speaker 10: Indians included this year, they're going to have their hands
Speaker 10: full with this offense. There's no question about that.
Speaker 2: Travis, go ahead. And as is tradition, remind us where
Speaker 2: we can catch tonight's broadcast.
Speaker 10: All right, 6.06 tonight, right here on 103.3 KMZ. You
Speaker 10: can also listen on the Bridgeport Sports Radio app. And
Speaker 10: of course, this is also the Metro News Game of
Speaker 10: the Week. So the television broadcast will be there For
Speaker 10: you as well, Eli Brady and Coach Nick Bartik on
Speaker 10: the call. If you're a Bridgeport fan, come out first
Speaker 10: and foremost. Had a great crowd last week. Hopefully the
Speaker 10: stands are packed. I anticipate it will be. You'll get
Speaker 10: Bridgeport fans there. You'll get Martinsburg fans there tonight. I
Speaker 10: think you're going to get just the common football fan
Speaker 10: who wants to come out and watch a great game.
Speaker 10: And then you'll also get the fans that want to
Speaker 10: come out and watch Bridgeport lose. So you always get
Speaker 10: that as well.
Speaker 2: Very good. Thanks, Travis.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 11: Thanks, guys. Here's Graham. Back to pass. Looking wide open. Duran, 15, 10, 5.
Speaker 11: In zone. Touchdown. They brought the wing in motion.
Speaker 10: They had run that play earlier in the drive, and
Speaker 10: that set up the fake. And then Graham Benson with
Speaker 10: a beautiful strike right in stride to Brody Duran, the senior.
Speaker 10: And he pulls it in and scores a receiving touchdown,
Speaker 10: and Bridgeport builds the lead to 13-0. Coach Ferris on
Speaker 10: his coach's show this week says, we like the pass,
Speaker 10: we want to score.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what happened on the first pass attempt of
Speaker 2: the night for Grant Benson. This is the Friday Free-for-All
Speaker 2: brought to you by Dan Cava, Toyota World, Alex Wiederspiel.
Speaker 2: and Michael Minnick still with you. You just heard the sultry,
Speaker 2: I don't know if anyone's ever actually described Travis's sultry,
Speaker 2: but you just heard the dulcet tones. You just heard
Speaker 2: Travis Jones.
Speaker 3: The sultry tones of Travis Jones, it even rhymed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. You just heard the play-by-play call of Travis Jones,
Speaker 2: a couple of touchdown calls from that Buckhannon-Upshur game. There were,
Speaker 2: of course, several touchdowns to go around in that game.
Speaker 2: Chris George is now with us to have sort of
Speaker 2: the final word on Bridgeport-Buckhannon-Upshur and give us his thoughts
Speaker 2: on Bridgeport-Martinsburg. What's up, Chris?
Speaker 4: How you guys doing?
Speaker 2: Man, just working through what a start to the high
Speaker 2: school football second week. And hopefully Bridgeport Martinsburg has the
Speaker 2: potential to live up to this. I don't want to
Speaker 2: say the hype because I think there are plenty of
Speaker 2: reasons why this could not be a good game. But
Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of intrigue behind it. So
Speaker 2: I'm excited for it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think everybody is. I think this is a
Speaker 4: matchup that people have been wanting to see for a
Speaker 4: long time. I mean, we got to see a sample
Speaker 4: size of it in the playoffs back in the early
Speaker 4: 2020s here. And, you know, we we knew how good Martinsburg,
Speaker 4: you know, is. Obviously, they're one of the winningest programs
Speaker 4: in the last five. you know, 15, 20 years than anybody,
Speaker 4: and Bridgeport's right there with them. You know, and I
Speaker 4: think it's funny. Everyone, when they think Martinsburg, they think
Speaker 4: high-flying offense, which, yeah, it's true. They can score a
Speaker 4: ton of points. They can throw it. They can run it.
Speaker 4: They've got all the skill. But what people that are
Speaker 4: unfamiliar with Martinsburg don't understand is how good their line
Speaker 4: of scrimmage is. And, you know, any football guru understands that,
Speaker 4: you know, this team's scoring well. as many points as
Speaker 4: they are per game and doing what they do on
Speaker 4: balance with offense, their line of scrimmage is pretty good,
Speaker 4: which means their defensive line is pretty good too. And
Speaker 4: that's been the difference in the two playoff games when
Speaker 4: Bridgeport played Martinsburg in the playoffs at the time, then
Speaker 4: it was quite a Bridgeport Indian football team. And, you know,
Speaker 4: that was the one team that was kind of Bridgeport's kryptonite.
Speaker 4: They couldn't really move the ball. I mean, they could
Speaker 4: move up between the twenties. They get inside the red
Speaker 4: zone and bog down. Now, Since then, I think we've
Speaker 4: had a couple of Bridgeport teams that were more talented
Speaker 4: offensively than some of those teams in the playoffs, but
Speaker 4: we'll see. Big test is tonight, Martinsburg, probably, in my opinion,
Speaker 4: the best team in Class 4A against Bridgeport, who could
Speaker 4: be the top team in Class AAA. We'll find out
Speaker 4: right now, you know, while this is going to be
Speaker 4: answered tomorrow or tonight, and it should be fun.
Speaker 3: Asked Travis this question too, but how important is the
Speaker 3: power running game going to be? We know what Gavin
Speaker 3: Williams can do, but being able to kind of get
Speaker 3: a little bit between the tackles, especially in a third
Speaker 3: and short or a fourth and short.
Speaker 4: I think it's important. I think you want to sustain
Speaker 4: drives against this Martinsburg team to kind of keep their
Speaker 4: offense off the field. But, you know, single wing's a
Speaker 4: different type of offense. It's a big, you know, the
Speaker 4: single wing is like the spread in the passing game.
Speaker 4: You know, single wing is built to, you know, run
Speaker 4: the football a ton. We understand that, but it's a
Speaker 4: big play offense. And everyone's like, well, how can you
Speaker 4: run the ball 98% of the time and have a
Speaker 4: big playoff offense? Well, the single wing is designed to
Speaker 4: score almost every time you touch it. Because if you
Speaker 4: block everything up, how in the hat, you know, do
Speaker 4: everything right, you can score a touchdown almost every time.
Speaker 4: And we've seen Bridgeport score a ton of touchdowns on
Speaker 4: long runs over the years, big plays, two and three
Speaker 4: yard drives. But, you know, they have that this year.
Speaker 4: They have the interior threat with a healthy Gabe Martin who,
Speaker 4: provided that last year you know first half of the
Speaker 4: year before he suffered that injury and we lost it
Speaker 4: in the second half and I think it was the
Speaker 4: difference in that team down the stretch so I think
Speaker 4: it's very important tomorrow because if you want to run
Speaker 4: to the perimeter you've got to you've got to be
Speaker 4: able to run a little bit on the inside so
Speaker 4: you've got to make them take away that inside running
Speaker 4: game if if running backs like Gavin Williams and Graham
Speaker 4: Benson and whomever it might be even even Gabe can
Speaker 4: get outside if you want to get the outside run
Speaker 4: game going but All in all, it starts up front, guys,
Speaker 4: you know, and this is a huge test for this
Speaker 4: Bridgeport front. You know, it's an experienced front that got their,
Speaker 4: you know, feet wet last week. A lot of them
Speaker 4: in roles as varsity starters for the first time are
Speaker 4: guys who started a year ago, like Tristan Noble, who
Speaker 4: played right side tight end on the strong side. Now
Speaker 4: he's moved the inside tackle on the right side. So yeah,
Speaker 4: he's got plenty of experience, but he's playing a different position.
Speaker 4: So this ought to be fun. It's going to be
Speaker 4: a good test. And, uh, boy, we could talk, we
Speaker 4: could talk for an hour on this one. I think.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Real quick before we, we, uh, move on. Um, cause we're,
Speaker 2: we're low on, we're low on time here. I am, uh,
Speaker 2: I am kind of curious about your perspective on what
Speaker 2: this game means for sort of the, the totality of
Speaker 2: the season, like a day's end is the most important
Speaker 2: thing they can do. Just not get hurt. Or is
Speaker 2: there something to prove here for Bridgeport?
Speaker 4: I think every time you play, there's something to prove.
Speaker 4: And I think Tyler Ferris understands that this year, some
Speaker 4: inexperience up front. So every time out, this team has
Speaker 4: something to prove. They want to be better every game.
Speaker 4: You know, we talked about this a few weeks ago,
Speaker 4: and Tyler was right. He felt last year's team did
Speaker 4: not get better as the year went on. He felt
Speaker 4: they peaked early. And this year he wants to get
Speaker 4: back to that, you know, Bridgeport football where they get
Speaker 4: better every game. So this is game number two. Next
Speaker 4: week is step number three. Then we've got step number
Speaker 4: four and so on. So, yeah, ultimately you don't want
Speaker 4: to get anybody hurt. Ultimately you don't want to get
Speaker 4: blown out, which I don't think they will. Ultimately you
Speaker 4: want to win the game. Can they win the game?
Speaker 4: Sure they can win the game. Will they lose the game? Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's possible. You know, it's a tough matchup. You want
Speaker 4: to break it down X and O's. I think there's
Speaker 4: a lot of advantages that go to Martinsburg's way. But
Speaker 4: Bridgeport playing at home, they're physical, and we'll see how
Speaker 4: Martinsburg handles it in week two. I know one thing.
Speaker 4: I talked to Dave Walker earlier this week. He's concerned
Speaker 4: because– He knows his teams don't play their best football
Speaker 4: early in the season. That's his biggest concern, and he
Speaker 4: knows how physical and how well Bridgeport executes what they
Speaker 4: do offensively, and he knows it's going to be difficult
Speaker 4: to stop. I think he'd rather play this game week
Speaker 4: eight or nine. I think Bridgeport would rather play this
Speaker 4: game week eight or nine. However, it's week two, and
Speaker 4: it will be played tonight.
Speaker 3: Seeing that Martin's routine a couple years ago, it was
Speaker 3: Ezra Bajent, the younger brother of Tyson Bajent, the current
Speaker 3: Bears backup quarterback, And he could run it a little bit,
Speaker 3: but I feel like with Dick, it's much more of
Speaker 3: a dual threat sort of thing, and he can do
Speaker 3: both really well.
Speaker 4: He's unbelievable. And that's what concerns me tomorrow is him.
Speaker 4: He is a guy that can throw it, and he
Speaker 4: can run it, and he's 210, 215 pounds, and he
Speaker 4: can run you over, he can run around you, and
Speaker 4: he's just a weapon. And I think Brian Dick, being
Speaker 4: as good as he is offensively, puts a big– it's
Speaker 4: a big issue for this game coming up because– You
Speaker 4: take a look at it, all in all, who is
Speaker 4: going to– you've got to be very disciplined tonight. You've
Speaker 4: got to be very disciplined in how you play the
Speaker 4: RPO and the zone read because he can pull it,
Speaker 4: then he can throw it, he can pull it, then
Speaker 4: he can run it, or he can just hand it off.
Speaker 4: So you've got to be disciplined. You can't over-pursue the
Speaker 4: football or they'll hurt you.
Speaker 2: One last quick note. Thoughts on the potential for– we
Speaker 2: obviously saw what it did last night with the inclement weather.
Speaker 2: Any concerns about what the weather could do to this game?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's concerns. You know, I was driving home from
Speaker 4: Fairmont last night, back to Elkins after the Fairmont State broadcast,
Speaker 4: and it was a humongous, wonderful, beautiful lightning show. And
Speaker 4: all the way back to Elkins, it was dry. Everything
Speaker 4: was north of us. But, you know, as soon as
Speaker 4: we got back to Elkins, we got out of the
Speaker 4: shower about 11.45, the rain hit, the storm hit. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's possible. You worry about it. In this situation last year,
Speaker 4: it got us in a heritage game. Bridgeport was on
Speaker 4: the winning side of things when the game ultimately was called.
Speaker 4: You know, I think this game, if it gets in
Speaker 4: that situation, I think both teams are going to wait
Speaker 4: out as long as they can to get it done.
Speaker 4: So hopefully we don't have that issue. There are scattered
Speaker 4: thunderstorms in the forecast for today, but it looks like,
Speaker 4: according to the forecast, by later evening, nighttime, it should
Speaker 4: start to dissipate a little bit. But man, you just
Speaker 4: never know if the weather and the hot, humid weather
Speaker 4: in the month of September in West Virginia.
Speaker 2: Oh, that is the truth. All right, we're going to
Speaker 2: take a quick break here and come back. We've got
Speaker 2: much more to go here. Chris is going to rejoin
Speaker 2: us during the 9 o'clock hour, so if you want
Speaker 2: to hear a little bit more, and we're going to
Speaker 2: get a lot deeper into some other teams around the state,
Speaker 2: stick with us. We've got lots more high school football
Speaker 2: to talk here on the Friday Free-for-All, brought to you
Speaker 2: by Dan Cava, Toyota World.
Speaker 1: Back to the WKMZ locker room for more high school
Speaker 1: sports on the Dan Cava Toyota Buick GMC Friday free-for-all.
Speaker 2: Maxwell takes a knee. It was not always pretty. South
Speaker 2: Harrison led 14-7 when this game went into a lightning delay.
Speaker 2: They will finish with a 20-19 win and improve to
Speaker 2: 2-0 on the season. That was the final call from
Speaker 2: South Harrison's victory over Lincoln last season. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you guys remember that one. It took multiple days
Speaker 2: to complete. So you're going to hear these two teams
Speaker 2: in the same segment a lot this year. And coincidentally,
Speaker 2: they happen to also play uh this week and and
Speaker 2: of course uh last year it was a kind of
Speaker 2: do or die game which we didn't really realize at
Speaker 2: the time but it was do or die for south
Speaker 2: harrison they had to get the win if you look
Speaker 2: back uh kind of at the way the season went
Speaker 2: down uh over the course of two different days thanks
Speaker 2: to some stormy weather that we could see a repeat
Speaker 2: of today the hawks managed to hold off lincoln and
Speaker 2: win 20 to 19 over the lincoln cougars now lincoln
Speaker 2: of course has a much tougher schedule As a result,
Speaker 2: the Cougars probably didn't need that game. In fact, as
Speaker 2: we now know, they did not need that game. They
Speaker 2: still finished ahead of South Harrison in the playoff ratings.
Speaker 2: We have Craig Dutton with us, the play-by-play voice of
Speaker 2: the Lincoln Cougars. And that makes for an interesting dynamic
Speaker 2: in this, Craig, in that for Lincoln, they have sort
Speaker 2: of a lot of different options for a game like
Speaker 2: this and for a path into the playoffs. And I
Speaker 2: think this kind of makes this a must win for
Speaker 2: South Harrison. And it's definitely a game Lincoln would like
Speaker 2: to have. I don't know if this is a must
Speaker 2: win for them, though.
Speaker 12: I'm not too sure the way the season's going about.
Speaker 12: It may not be a must win for them, the
Speaker 12: way things are going. especially the way their season started
Speaker 12: last year. Four wins most likely can get Lincoln in
Speaker 12: in Class AA with their schedule in Class AAA. But
Speaker 12: it's hard to say with the way these two teams
Speaker 12: have been playing at the start of the season. I
Speaker 12: think the key right now is wondering how good South
Speaker 12: Harrison's defense is versus Lincoln, how structured they're going to
Speaker 12: be with their offense. They're going to have a different
Speaker 12: starting quarterback this week. They start with Jacob Bart last
Speaker 12: week with Bear Saab. Bear Saab is going to get
Speaker 12: the nod to start for Lincoln. They're going to move
Speaker 12: Jacob Bart back as a second and third option there
Speaker 12: in the receiving for Lincoln now.
Speaker 3: So Bart throws for about 200 yards and they have
Speaker 3: a better option. That's a very good sign for the
Speaker 3: Lincoln offense.
Speaker 12: That's how Coach Hawkins is looking at it. Bear Saab
Speaker 12: came to Lincoln and And he's been on a few
Speaker 12: flag football teams in the past through the bridge and
Speaker 12: has had a lot of success and can toss the
Speaker 12: ball a good bit. And they feel very confident with
Speaker 12: him running the offense and with all the pieces around them.
Speaker 12: They feel that Jacob Bart would be better suited to
Speaker 12: be the flanker for the Cougars and then move back
Speaker 12: and allow Cypher to be in that backup role again.
Speaker 12: Last week, he did a great job. Chase and Cypher
Speaker 12: gained like four inches of height and he played pretty
Speaker 12: well versus Elkins last week. Still, Colton Edwards as a
Speaker 12: guy was the main target for Jacob Bart. I think
Speaker 12: it will continue to be that way for Bear Saab.
Speaker 12: It'll be either Colton Edwards or Jacob Bart. On any
Speaker 12: one night, we'll have a great evening for the Cougars receiving.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of curious, how do you grade the way
Speaker 2: Lincoln looked? I think that scoreline probably doesn't do justice
Speaker 2: to how well Lincoln played in parts of that game,
Speaker 2: but how do you grade them? How do you think
Speaker 2: the coaching staff is grading them after the loss to Elkins?
Speaker 4: After that loss.
Speaker 12: They're kicking themselves again because on consecutive years now, they've
Speaker 12: allowed a team to set the single game rushing record.
Speaker 12: They did versus Devin Nash at Nicholas County last year,
Speaker 12: about midway through the season. And then Seth Robinson, I
Speaker 12: did not realize that. I thought there was a few
Speaker 12: teams under when Greg Haught was coach in the 2000s.
Speaker 12: There was a few kids that may have set that record,
Speaker 12: but it wasn't. It was set by Seth Robinson last
Speaker 12: week with 326 yards. That's a single-game record in Elkins'
Speaker 12: history for rushing in one game. A lot of that
Speaker 12: came in the fourth quarter. It was 21-21 after three
Speaker 12: quarters of play. It just felt like Lincoln dominated some
Speaker 12: of the field possession early on versus the Tigers, and
Speaker 12: then towards the second half, they just got a bit
Speaker 12: tired trying to stop the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 12: That was Seth Robinson up the gut. I don't know
Speaker 12: if they'll be able to run Robinson like that all season,
Speaker 12: if Jaden Hatfield's going to come back, but they also
Speaker 12: found a quality back in Tony Sylvester, which the words
Speaker 12: of Mike Wolf, he could just rip the top off
Speaker 12: of any game and give that fast option out of
Speaker 12: the backfield for the Tigers. So they're going to be
Speaker 12: pretty good as the season goes on. Lincoln really needs
Speaker 12: to sure that up. They could expect somewhat of the
Speaker 12: same versus South Harrison this week with the stick eye,
Speaker 12: but it's going to be a lot more consistent trying
Speaker 12: to focus on stopping them around the corners and and
Speaker 12: not let anything up the gut again. It's going to
Speaker 12: be exactly the same thing, and they just don't want
Speaker 12: the Hawks to try to dominate the clock. They want
Speaker 12: to have as many opportunities as they had last week
Speaker 12: versus Elkins.
Speaker 3: Connor Rice had a 62-yard run in this game. That
Speaker 3: was half of his yards in this game. How do
Speaker 3: you feel like the run game shaped up last week?
Speaker 11: Really good.
Speaker 12: We haven't seen Trent Moore yet, and that was something
Speaker 12: we really expected to see. Maybe they're holding him for
Speaker 12: another game. But Connor Rice held his own, did really good.
Speaker 12: He ran him most of the drive. That's why Cade
Speaker 12: Mooney had one touchdown because his helmet got ripped off
Speaker 12: and then Mooney just finished a job. Mooney did an
Speaker 12: outstanding job on defense and special teams for the Cougars
Speaker 12: as well. We're going to be mentioning his name a
Speaker 12: lot more this year and next year. But Rice did
Speaker 12: outstanding in terms of the run game. Even Jacob Bart
Speaker 12: did a good job in trying to manage it and
Speaker 12: watch what was going on in the field. I think
Speaker 12: that was the big win is that they know they're
Speaker 12: pretty confident in the quarterback game, but they're really happy
Speaker 12: with what Connor Rice can do and pull out a
Speaker 12: couple yards per play. I think he's going to continue
Speaker 12: to tote the load, and if they feel it's a
Speaker 12: night where they could run the ball even more, they're
Speaker 12: going to give him some breaks and allow Caden Mooney
Speaker 12: and hopefully Trent Moore some opportunities on offense.
Speaker 2: Do you want to talk a little bit about what
Speaker 2: Lincoln can do potentially better on either side of the ball, really?
Speaker 2: But I guess the biggest things to take forward, not
Speaker 2: just in this South Harrison game, but through the rest
Speaker 2: of this season.
Speaker 12: Through the rest of the season, it's got to be
Speaker 12: stopping the run game. I mean, most of their teams
Speaker 12: on their schedule now all run a run primarily offense.
Speaker 12: Coach Hawkins and I were talking about it. based on
Speaker 12: what everyone does, it's primary run with everyone. No one
Speaker 12: runs a spread locally. And, again, that goes to the
Speaker 12: roots in traditionalism. You know, it's in the north, central,
Speaker 12: west Virginia area when it comes to a running sort
Speaker 12: of game. So your defense is preparing for something completely different,
Speaker 12: what your own offense runs from time to time. I
Speaker 12: feel the balance is there. That's been a success on offense.
Speaker 12: They just need to extend drives. They can't have three
Speaker 12: and outs and just give the ball right back. And
Speaker 12: on defense, you've got to get teams off the field quickly.
Speaker 12: especially in the run game. Even if it's just a
Speaker 12: couple first downs, you're trying to stop a run game consistently.
Speaker 12: That's going to be tough. Elkins went to the air
Speaker 12: a lot more than was expected last week. This week,
Speaker 12: you just know what South Harrison's going to do. They're
Speaker 12: not going to put the ball in the air about
Speaker 12: eight or nine times like Elkins did, maybe two or three,
Speaker 12: and I hope to convert on those and really try
Speaker 12: to pull the Lincoln defense in on the box if
Speaker 12: they can. So they just got to be ready to
Speaker 12: stop the run at any one moment, even if they
Speaker 12: have to sell out and get away from the pass
Speaker 12: defense and focus fully on the run because there are
Speaker 12: some athletes there. Mooney had a great job on defense.
Speaker 12: I have to confirm he had close to 20 tackles.
Speaker 12: You just got to be able to get your line
Speaker 12: to sync up with what the linebackers are trying to do.
Speaker 3: Talked about what Elkins was able to do last week. Obviously,
Speaker 3: South Harrison comes off a win. Grafton lost. That's the
Speaker 3: week three opponent, but they look good. Nicholas has a win.
Speaker 3: North Marion has a win. So the first five teams
Speaker 3: Lincoln are playing are four and one. So again, that
Speaker 3: speaks to the strength of the schedule.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 12: And that's why I think four wins on a AAA-dominated
Speaker 12: schedule would do enough. And there are some winnable games
Speaker 12: in the middle of the season, but you don't want
Speaker 12: to depend upon those right now. Lincoln's got to be
Speaker 12: able to try to focus in and get a few
Speaker 12: of these in the early part of the season. They
Speaker 12: did that with Grafton last year before that middle stretch.
Speaker 12: It's going to be harder to tell if they can
Speaker 12: do that versus the Bearcats on the road. So this
Speaker 12: week they're fully focused on this home opener in hopes
Speaker 12: that they could try to steal back a game that
Speaker 12: was hard fought between South Harrison and Lincoln last year.
Speaker 12: Both teams did a really good job about holding their own.
Speaker 12: A few mistakes on both sides. I would say right
Speaker 12: now the biggest key, and you look at everything, is
Speaker 12: honestly I think it's South Harrison's defense. I think that's
Speaker 12: the opportunity we're really going to see. Are they for real?
Speaker 12: They did really good in their scrimmage versus Elkins, and
Speaker 12: they shut out Braxton County last week on their home opener.
Speaker 12: So it's dependent on what South Harrison, I think, can
Speaker 12: do defensively. That's where either they're going to force enough
Speaker 12: mistakes to cause Lincoln trouble, or they're just going to
Speaker 12: put it all on their offense one way or the
Speaker 12: other to try to determine the outcome of the game.
Speaker 12: And Lincoln doesn't want to do that. They want their
Speaker 12: offense to try to dominate and pick up first downs,
Speaker 12: control the pace of the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say, and we'll talk more about South
Speaker 2: Harrison coming up here in a moment, but I can
Speaker 2: certainly say that's a Hawks defense. They're really excited and
Speaker 2: happy about the 11 guys they have on the field.
Speaker 2: As with every instance with South Harrison, they're trying to
Speaker 2: figure out, okay, when we need to get a 12th
Speaker 2: guy out there to sub in, 13th guy, when we're
Speaker 2: subbing in and out, how can we develop these guys
Speaker 2: over the course of the season so that we feel
Speaker 2: good about that? Because These guys are going to have
Speaker 2: to get a break eventually. Hey, Craig, remind folks if
Speaker 2: they are looking for the Lincoln Home broadcast where they
Speaker 2: can catch that tonight.
Speaker 12: It'll be on 93.5 FM, WFBY.com, the new WVRC media app.
Speaker 12: And then our audio will run via the Harrison County
Speaker 12: Board of Education's free huddle feed as well. We'll run
Speaker 12: that on there as well for the broadcast.
Speaker 2: Very good. Thanks, Craig. And let's play a quick clip
Speaker 2: from the last game and we'll switch over to South
Speaker 2: Harrison in just a moment.
Speaker 12: Bart back at quarterback. Again, he'll bring Cypher onto the field.
Speaker 12: A handoff to Connor Rice. Breaks around one tackler. Second
Speaker 12: tackler breaks around a third at midfield. That's a 45.
Speaker 12: Changes to the right side. It's a foot race to
Speaker 12: the 30, 20, 10, 5, and push to the end zone. No,
Speaker 12: they're going to say he's out at the 2. It
Speaker 12: looked like he went out over the pylon, but they're
Speaker 12: going to mark him down to 2, and that will
Speaker 12: be a 63-yard run by the senior Connor Rice.
Speaker 2: So obviously a really big game this week in Class AA.
Speaker 2: We just heard from Craig Dutton about the Lincoln Cougars.
Speaker 2: A year ago, South Harrison had to take on Lincoln twice,
Speaker 2: sort of. I guess two halves, if you will. They
Speaker 2: played basically the first half of football on Friday night.
Speaker 2: Game got suspended due to weather. It was the only
Speaker 2: game in the state that was actually outright suspended and
Speaker 2: then resumed on Monday. And boy, Lincoln had the better
Speaker 2: of it in the back half of that one. And ultimately,
Speaker 2: South Harrison gets the win 20-19, a real tight game,
Speaker 2: and made a real difference. I don't know that South
Speaker 2: Harrison's a playoff team without that win, that one-point margin
Speaker 2: over a Lincoln Cougar team who, unfortunately for South Harrison,
Speaker 2: is quite battle-tested but doesn't give them any of those
Speaker 2: bonus points you might get from up the rankings, Mike.
Speaker 2: This feels like this is a very early swing game
Speaker 2: for both of these teams, but in particular for South Harrison.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think when you have two teams in
Speaker 3: the same class, in the same county, you're going to
Speaker 3: build a rivalry. You know, these two teams did not
Speaker 3: play a ton when Lincoln was in AAA or in
Speaker 3: a higher classification and South Arizona was in single A
Speaker 3: and Lincoln was in AA. Now that they're in the
Speaker 3: same class, it has a lot of meaning. It's an
Speaker 3: easy trip for both teams, obviously, and it's a competitive
Speaker 3: trip for both teams. So it checks a lot of boxes.
Speaker 3: And yeah, i do feel like lincoln because of the
Speaker 3: strength of their schedule needs this needs the points less
Speaker 3: than south harrison does but i do feel like the
Speaker 3: hawks with that win last week are in good shape
Speaker 3: even if they lose this.
Speaker 2: Game yeah i just i got to see more from
Speaker 2: the hawks offensively i think that the defense was was
Speaker 2: pretty good granted braxton county is funny we were talking
Speaker 2: about sort of the importance of special teams with Brian
Speaker 2: Bybee when we were talking about the Philip Barber-Grafton game.
Speaker 2: And special teams was really, really, really important in this game.
Speaker 2: Braxton County twice tried to attempt a field goal. The
Speaker 2: first one was just well wide, just not even close.
Speaker 2: And then the second one, I believe, though I did
Speaker 2: not get this confirmed, live, it just looked like a
Speaker 2: bad snap. And then they had to just make do
Speaker 2: with that. I don't think it was an intentional fake. Um,
Speaker 2: but so in both those cases, both trips to the
Speaker 2: red zone for Braxton County, they come away with no
Speaker 2: points and South Harrison's able to win that game. I
Speaker 2: don't know that 14 is going to get it done
Speaker 2: against Lincoln.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I think the lack of explosive plays to
Speaker 3: longest run they had was 11 yards. That's not going
Speaker 3: to get it done in a lot of games where
Speaker 3: you're going to kind of need to hit a home run,
Speaker 3: especially when you have a lot of kids to play
Speaker 3: two way. Because, yes, you're grinding the other team with
Speaker 3: these long drives, but you're also grinding your own guys.
Speaker 3: So if you can have a guy just sprint 60
Speaker 3: yards and get you points, that's preferable than having a 12-play,
Speaker 3: 60-yard drive.
Speaker 2: Well, there were also four fumbles in this game. Although, curious,
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to go back and double-check this.
Speaker 2: I only listed three, but Max Preps has four. I'll
Speaker 2: double-check with Coach on that. But the real key was
Speaker 2: there were three fumbles in the first quarter alone, right?
Speaker 2: And as I had it on my sheet, I had
Speaker 2: one for each running back, Paul Ross and Harlow. Harlow
Speaker 2: was the one who wound up losing it. And I
Speaker 2: think that's an, that's another element of it right there.
Speaker 2: When you, when you look at the way South Harrison
Speaker 2: wants to distribute their running game, I think their preference
Speaker 2: is to run Harlow more than shepherd Paul, but in
Speaker 2: that game and with the concerns about granted, again, they
Speaker 2: had three different running backs, you know, uh, put the
Speaker 2: ball on the ground. They were fortunate only to lose
Speaker 2: at the one time. They had to run a much
Speaker 2: more evenly distributed system, but one that Paul still was
Speaker 2: the lead horse on. So for a guy that they
Speaker 2: really want to conserve defensively, he carried the ball 17
Speaker 2: times on a night when they had five different running
Speaker 2: backs carry it 51 times. So he led the way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're happy with maybe him getting a
Speaker 3: 30-year carries, but not when there's 51 carries. That's a
Speaker 3: little bit of a load on Shepard Paul.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for a guy who obviously dealt with numerous injuries
Speaker 2: last year, and I say numerous, really. I actually talked
Speaker 2: with Coach about this. He said it was pretty much
Speaker 2: the same injury all year. It just never had a chance.
Speaker 2: There were maybe two separate injuries. One was really short-lived,
Speaker 2: and then there was one that was pretty much lasting
Speaker 2: the whole year, and it just it just didn't get
Speaker 2: a good opportunity to heal and they had to pull
Speaker 2: them for a couple of weeks. And, and yeah, so
Speaker 2: I don't think that that's, that's ultimately going to be the,
Speaker 2: the method. I know that the game night crew got
Speaker 2: a kick out of cause they asked me specifically, they said, so,
Speaker 2: so South Harrison through one pass, what, what happened on
Speaker 2: that one pass? That's it. That was, that was, it
Speaker 2: was 51 carries one attempt. And there was one other
Speaker 2: called passing play on a two point conversion that Lucas
Speaker 2: not pulled down and tried to run instead. So that
Speaker 2: wouldn't even have counted as a pass attempt. So this
Speaker 2: felt pretty vintage South Harrison from, from, from, you know,
Speaker 2: my experience and your experience. I think this is pretty
Speaker 2: much Hawks football.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that's the way they want to play in
Speaker 3: terms of, in terms of being run heavy. Obviously, again,
Speaker 3: you don't want to run 51 plays and only get
Speaker 3: short of three, 53 yards on the ground. You'd love
Speaker 3: to have a couple of kids break runs, but you know,
Speaker 3: I think it also, you know, the flip side of
Speaker 3: that is you do control the ball. I think two
Speaker 3: thirds of the game, they had the ball. So, give
Speaker 3: the other team's offense out the field. That's key to.
Speaker 2: 19 minutes of possession in the second half. So, um,
Speaker 2: 24 minutes total in, in, uh, uh, in the second
Speaker 2: half and they held it for 19. So that's, that's
Speaker 2: pretty good. I guess the, the, the challenge I think
Speaker 2: this week is I feel like Lincoln is going to be,
Speaker 2: is going to be hungry. If that Lincoln and I, I, I,
Speaker 2: you know, this is, it's always going to be tough
Speaker 2: to tell until you see it in person, but if
Speaker 2: that Lincoln run defense is, can at least limit the
Speaker 2: big plays, something they could not do a year ago,
Speaker 2: seemingly against anybody. That might actually be what flips the
Speaker 2: script in this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think Lincoln, you know, they didn't win,
Speaker 3: were better against the run against Elkins than they had
Speaker 3: the last couple years. So I think that's progress. And
Speaker 3: I do feel like this is a game, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think that's true for most South Harrison games. It's
Speaker 3: going to be won or lost up front. You know,
Speaker 3: whoever's line controls this game, I think wins this game.
Speaker 2: All right, on that note, we're going to go ahead
Speaker 2: and take another break when we come back. We're going
Speaker 2: to talk with Sean McNamara about North Marion. Obviously, we
Speaker 2: got a chance to talk to him last week after
Speaker 2: the game. Now, we're in preview mode, which is exactly
Speaker 2: what we'll do on the other side of this break.
Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere. Fred Persinger still to come as well.
Speaker 2: Our final segment of the show here during the 8
Speaker 2: o'clock hour. This is the Friday Free-for-All brought to you
Speaker 2: by Dan Caviteo to Buick GMC. He's Michael Minnick. I'm
Speaker 2: Alex Wiederspiel. We're back after this. They are going for
Speaker 2: this here. Stick eye, and I got to think. This
Speaker 2: is either a bootleg or Shepard here. They're going to
Speaker 2: go Shepard.
Speaker 13: Off the left side, Shepard barreling his way in, and
Speaker 13: Shepard Paul has the first points of the new season.
Speaker 13: South Harrison takes a 6-0 lead, 7-48 to go in
Speaker 13: the second quarter.
Speaker 1: Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Speaker 1: Cava Toyota Buick GMC Friday Free-for-All.
Speaker 2: This is the Friday Free-for-All brought to you by Dan
Speaker 2: Caviteo to Buick GMC. And our penultimate segment brings us
Speaker 2: to North Marion, to Rachel, if you will. And the
Speaker 2: Huskies 1-0 on the season. Of course, we got a
Speaker 2: chance to talk with Sean after their victory over East
Speaker 2: Fairmont a week ago. And the Huskies on the road
Speaker 2: once again. Not an easy place to play as they
Speaker 2: head to Preston County. Uh, Preston of course is always
Speaker 2: kind of a weird quad a school where they're never,
Speaker 2: they're never great, but they're not exactly the easiest team
Speaker 2: to play and they're not the easiest place to play. Uh,
Speaker 2: so this is going to be an interesting challenge. Uh,
Speaker 2: Alex Wiederspiel here, Michael Minnick with you as well. And
Speaker 2: Sean McNamara joins us now. Sean, what's up, man?
Speaker 6: Hey, how we doing?
Speaker 2: Fantastic. All right, that's the end of the segment, guys.
Speaker 2: We're good. I think that's it, right? We don't need
Speaker 2: to do anything else. Hey, so seriously, what do you
Speaker 2: make of this? Preston had a, they're coming off a
Speaker 2: hard-fought loss last week. Lost by five to Hampshire, one
Speaker 2: of their arch rivals. And that's a game that's most
Speaker 2: years going to be tied, I think, three out of
Speaker 2: the last four years. Maybe even going back further than
Speaker 2: that has been a one-possession game. What do you like
Speaker 2: about This for North Marion matchup wise, what concerns you?
Speaker 8: So there's a lot going into this one tonight. Weather,
Speaker 8: weather concerns, potentially playing on natural grass is an issue.
Speaker 8: North Marion had some fumbles last week, particularly on the snaps.
Speaker 8: So trying to get that cleaned up, I think it's
Speaker 8: going to be important. Teams don't play on natural grass
Speaker 8: very often. It's a beautiful facility up there in Kingwood
Speaker 8: overlooking the mountains, but that's a big challenge. In the
Speaker 8: second consecutive week, that service will have been played on.
Speaker 8: So that raises a little bit of a challenge there.
Speaker 8: North Marion typically has done pretty well with Preston. 17-8
Speaker 8: all-time versus them. They've won 11 in a row by
Speaker 8: an average margin of victory of 29 points, 41-12. Last
Speaker 8: year's game, and this won't look quite like last year
Speaker 8: due to some of the graduations Preston had, but it
Speaker 8: was a great one last year up in Rachel. There
Speaker 8: was 80 points combined, 994 yards of offense a year
Speaker 8: ago when these two teams played. So that was a
Speaker 8: fun one. And now North Merion comes in with a
Speaker 8: different looking team than they had last year. You look
Speaker 8: at Preston and what jumps out to me is they
Speaker 8: got some size up front right there in the middle,
Speaker 8: particularly on the defensive end with Hayden Cole and Max Huggins.
Speaker 8: So I look for Brian Poindexter and the rest of
Speaker 8: the North Merion offense, try and get to the edges,
Speaker 8: try and get to the outside because the middle is
Speaker 8: going to be plugged up. And then for Preston offensively,
Speaker 8: you got those guys on offense and then um, against Hampshire,
Speaker 8: saw some good plays out of touchdown out of Rowan Kramer,
Speaker 8: Rowan Kramer back in 2024, the starting quarterback for East Fairmont.
Speaker 8: And he competed, completed seven of 18 for 134 against
Speaker 8: North Marion, uh, a couple of years ago. So a
Speaker 8: small bit of familiarity there. So both teams familiar with
Speaker 8: each other. Um, they've played quite a bit. I had
Speaker 8: that stat somewhere every year since 2002. Um, So two
Speaker 8: very familiar schools should be a fun one out there tonight.
Speaker 3: Sean, you mentioned the winning streak. North Merion scored 31
Speaker 3: or more in all of those games. In order to
Speaker 3: do that this week, what do they have to do
Speaker 3: better than they did last week?
Speaker 8: So I think we talked about it last week. I
Speaker 8: think the big play eluded them against East Fairmont. And
Speaker 8: North Merion only put up 24. And, you know, you
Speaker 8: look at that, and that's something that they– got from
Speaker 8: the newspaper, talked to Coach Hayes about, and he said, well, yeah,
Speaker 8: last year we only put up 27 against East, and
Speaker 8: we ended up, you know, going 10-2 on the season.
Speaker 8: So last year, North Marion won some lower scoring.
Speaker 3: Games that they had.
Speaker 8: I think they picked up two wins where they scored
Speaker 8: 21 points or less. So getting that big playback and
Speaker 8: getting back to what's making them what they've been over
Speaker 8: the last few years is crucial, and I do think
Speaker 8: it all starts right there. And this slow start in
Speaker 8: game one offensively leading to better things. Um, the road
Speaker 8: is kind of a common theme that they've had.
Speaker 2: I think everyone would be happy if we could avoid
Speaker 2: another round of thunderstorms and lightning delays, but no promises
Speaker 2: based on the weather forecast for Friday night in West Virginia.
Speaker 2: It looks like it's certainly a possibility there could be
Speaker 2: more delays. I would actually imagine, in one respect, as
Speaker 2: frustrating as it would be, North Marion might be a
Speaker 2: little better prepared than everybody else in the state to
Speaker 2: handle that right now, having gone through it a week ago.
Speaker 8: Yeah, having that Thursday game, because there was only a
Speaker 8: handful of them, yeah, due to the familiarity, I think
Speaker 8: that it raises such a different challenge when you have
Speaker 8: those delays, then you factor in your playing on grass.
Speaker 8: It really does change everything. So I know Coach Hayes
Speaker 8: and those guys up there are hoping that, they could
Speaker 8: avoid that for the second straight week.
Speaker 3: Where do you feel like this team has room to
Speaker 3: grow defensively? Obviously had a shutout last week, but where
Speaker 3: do you see that they can improve on that side
Speaker 3: of the ball? You know, it's really tough to say
Speaker 3: right now. I think that, you know, you look at
Speaker 3: that East Fairmont game and statistically, they only gave up
Speaker 3: 96 yards and 52 of them came on a busted
Speaker 3: play on a boxed punt where Logan Echol for East
Speaker 3: Fairmont kind of threw it up in the air. and
Speaker 3: found one of his guys under it. So if you
Speaker 3: take that away, which you can't because they got it,
Speaker 3: but you take that away, and they were holding East
Speaker 3: Fairmont to like a yard of play. And they forced
Speaker 3: four turnovers, four interceptions. So really tough to say right now.
Speaker 8: I think it's going to continue to see guys get
Speaker 8: into new roles, especially with some injuries and stuff going on. So, yeah,
Speaker 8: I think seeing continued growth right now, but nothing stuck
Speaker 8: out that they can really improve upon. after that East
Speaker 8: Fairmont game.
Speaker 2: By the way, I did pull up the numbers while
Speaker 2: we were talking, and you had mentioned, so they've won, what,
Speaker 2: 11 straight? I think I have them at now against
Speaker 2: Preston County and the all-time series, which outside of the
Speaker 2: one game in 1991, all 24 games have been played
Speaker 2: in the last, you know, 20, 24 years. 17-8 all-time
Speaker 2: North Merion. Preston had the better of it early in this,
Speaker 2: and then, yeah, as you pointed out, since that North
Speaker 2: Merion Never less than 31 points in that stretch. So
Speaker 2: this has been North Marion's to lose, essentially.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and they've done a good job with taking care
Speaker 8: of business in those games. And it's a 4A team,
Speaker 8: so that's obviously important for playoff standings and getting those
Speaker 8: bonus points there. A couple other oddities from this game.
Speaker 8: This is the third time in school history North Marion
Speaker 8: will be opening with three games on the road. which
Speaker 8: is very, very strange. They did it in 2024, so recently,
Speaker 8: then not again until 1981. So three consecutive, and this
Speaker 8: game is a big one. They want to get the
Speaker 8: win here because then you go to Phillip Barber next week,
Speaker 8: a team that's given them a hard time in the past.
Speaker 8: After that, Fairmont Senior, Lincoln, Elkins. Lincoln a big rival.
Speaker 8: Elkins a really good team. So it gets tough for
Speaker 8: North Marion, and this game very important tonight.
Speaker 3: 81 and 24 are two pretty good years for North Merion,
Speaker 3: so it didn't seem like it affected those teams.
Speaker 14: No, no.
Speaker 8: And you're right. Those were good teams. I tried to
Speaker 8: piece together a good stat from that. In 24, they
Speaker 8: lost on the road at Princeton in the playoffs. And
Speaker 8: you look back at 81, they won the title over
Speaker 8: Fairmont Senior 21-6 down at Wadley Field. So you are
Speaker 8: correct in that.
Speaker 2: Looking ahead a little bit, obviously the test after this
Speaker 2: is going to get, we think, significantly more difficult. A
Speaker 2: lot of us are kind of pegging that Philip Arbor-Grafton
Speaker 2: game as.
Speaker 2: Phillip Barber, obviously coming off of one of their best
Speaker 2: season in program history, beat a much improved Grafton team,
Speaker 2: even though it was narrow. But I think that says
Speaker 2: more about Grafton than maybe it does about Phillip Barber.
Speaker 2: How important is it for North Merion not to get
Speaker 2: caught looking ahead with that one coming up?
Speaker 8: I think very important. Fortunately for North Merion, I don't
Speaker 8: think they're particularly happy with how they played against East Fairmont.
Speaker 8: So I don't think they're in a position where they're
Speaker 8: doing that. You know, they played good enough to win,
Speaker 8: and that's not the style of football that they want
Speaker 8: to play there. So I don't think that that would
Speaker 8: be a concern. Now, if they had gone out and
Speaker 8: put up a 50-point win in week one, then, yeah,
Speaker 8: maybe I could see that. But for right now, I
Speaker 8: don't think that'll be an issue.
Speaker 3: What do you think is the thing that North Mary
Speaker 3: needs to get better at as the season goes on
Speaker 3: to be a second-round semifinal playoff team?
Speaker 8: Getting their players in space. Didn't see it at all
Speaker 8: against East Fairmont. Didn't get anyone. broken away only a
Speaker 8: couple double-digit plays. So getting their ball handlers and their
Speaker 8: skill guys, the ball in space, whether it's Blake Johnson,
Speaker 8: Jacob Kucic, Brian Poindexter, they got guys that can really
Speaker 8: make things happen and have that breakaway speed. They're an
Speaker 8: extremely dynamic team. It's going to be all about getting
Speaker 8: the guys in the position to make plays.
Speaker 2: Sean, remind folks where they can catch tonight's broadcast if
Speaker 2: they're interested.
Speaker 8: Huddle TV, search North Marion. You can find the pay-per-view there.
Speaker 8: And then my broadcast partner, Stephen Harbert, has a YouTube channel.
Speaker 8: You search his name, Stephen Harbert, and you can find
Speaker 8: the audio of the broadcast on YouTube.
Speaker 6: Very good.
Speaker 2: We're going to leave you all with a thick six.
Speaker 2: They got called North Marion, a pick six late in
Speaker 2: the game. to seal the deal 24-0. Fred Persinger will
Speaker 2: join us on the other side of this next break.
Speaker 8: Colby VanGilder fires off the side as Echo looks to pass.
Speaker 11: That's a hold.
Speaker 3: Throwback screen.
Speaker 8: This one is intercepted. And returning it down the sidelines,
Speaker 8: Zach J.D. Baker steps out of a tackle.
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 11: And going into the end zone.
Speaker 6: Go get it, big man. It is.
Speaker 11: It is.
Speaker 7: J.D.
Speaker 6: Baker.
Speaker 8: Give him 60 yards on the IND return.
Speaker 1: Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Speaker 1: Cava Toyota Buick GMC Friday Free-for-All.
Speaker 2: As always, we reach our final segment on the Friday Free-for-All,
Speaker 2: and Fred Persinger is here to join us, the long-running
Speaker 2: host of High School Game Night. Not as long as
Speaker 2: I had guessed last week, but hopefully Fred won't hold
Speaker 2: that against me.
Speaker 14: No, no, no.
Speaker 6: You were close.
Speaker 1: You were close.
Speaker 2: I was close. I was close. As they say, though,
Speaker 2: that only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. So what
Speaker 2: good is close? How did it feel to be back
Speaker 2: behind the mic for year 25? It was good.
Speaker 14: I mean, we had a great show. And, you know, again,
Speaker 14: I'll say it until there is no show no more,
Speaker 14: at least not for me, is the fact that it's
Speaker 14: not me, it's not Dave. It's what we do, and
Speaker 14: that's high school football and the four– Young men and
Speaker 14: women that get our scores for us across town and
Speaker 14: make sure I have them, those are really the winners
Speaker 14: in game night. So it was a good show, went well, and,
Speaker 14: you know, won behind us. And we've got, how many
Speaker 14: more we got? 13 more this year. Not that I'm
Speaker 14: counting right now. That's why we have them.
Speaker 2: Fred wants to know when he's got his Friday nights
Speaker 2: free again. Uh, uh, we have, so for the first time,
Speaker 2: by the way, this is a really nice, obviously, um,
Speaker 2: you know, Michael Minnick is here with us, my, my
Speaker 2: new co-host for the Friday free for all. So I
Speaker 2: know you guys weren't able to connect last week on
Speaker 2: this segment, but, uh, here now. So, uh, this is
Speaker 2: the first time the three of us get to do
Speaker 2: this together and we'll get to go through pretty much
Speaker 2: the whole state and, and I'll start us off and
Speaker 2: then we can kind of just go class by class,
Speaker 2: but why don't we start in quad a, as we
Speaker 2: kind of traditionally do Fred and, uh, Obviously, game of
Speaker 2: the week is Spring Mills and Wheeling Park. There are
Speaker 2: some other intriguing games in Quad A, but I see
Speaker 2: why that would obviously be near the top of the list.
Speaker 14: Yeah, we could have gone... University of Parkersburg South, I think,
Speaker 14: can be a really good one. Not sure about Hurricane.
Speaker 14: I know they lost a lot. They didn't open up
Speaker 14: last week. This will be their first game of the season.
Speaker 14: So GW is awfully strong, awfully good. Anytime you can get...
Speaker 14: two Eastern Panhandle teams going against each other, Washington and Hedgesville.
Speaker 14: I know both are going to struggle this year a
Speaker 14: little bit, but sometimes that's where you get your better games. But, again,
Speaker 14: went with Spring Mills and Wheeling Park. You know, both
Speaker 14: of them had impressive wins, I thought, last week. So
Speaker 14: Spring Mills on the road to the Northern Panhandle, and
Speaker 14: we'll see what happens tomorrow night.
Speaker 3: Only four, again, that has two teams that are 1-0
Speaker 3: as well. So that certainly helps with the decision. Is
Speaker 3: there a team that lost last week that you think
Speaker 3: is going to have a good year?
Speaker 14: In Quad A?
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 12: Wow.
Speaker 14: Good question. You know, it is tough to tell. It
Speaker 14: is so early. I thought Parkersburg South is supposed to
Speaker 14: have a really, really good season. And then, you know,
Speaker 14: they get beat, but they get beat, you know, by
Speaker 14: Wheeling Park. And it was a close ball game. So
Speaker 14: they could still have a good year. Other than that,
Speaker 14: I think just way too early to tell in Class
Speaker 14: Quad A. You know, there's only a few, a handful
Speaker 14: of teams, so it's tough to say. But I think
Speaker 14: Parkersburg South losing last week, even though, you know, they
Speaker 14: played a good Wheeling Park team. Well, we'll see what
Speaker 14: happens with them the rest of the year.
Speaker 2: Bridgeport and Martinsburg winds up being the Class AAA game
Speaker 2: of the week. And, of course, it's an, what is it,
Speaker 2: intra or inter game? classification i never i never remember
Speaker 2: which one's the correct one but they're not in the
Speaker 2: same classification as the is the simple way of putting
Speaker 2: it but it is the class triple a game of
Speaker 2: the weekend and we've talked about it obviously a lot
Speaker 2: we had travis jones we had chris george on the
Speaker 2: show today and i think the the thing that i
Speaker 2: i still love about this is that it is this
Speaker 2: does feel kind of perfect for the fans as long
Speaker 2: as nobody gets as long as there are no like
Speaker 2: season defining in in a game like this, this is
Speaker 2: the type of game you actually really live for as
Speaker 2: a neutral fan, because there's not really like a ton
Speaker 2: at stake. And yet there also is a ton at
Speaker 2: stake at the same time, because these are teams in
Speaker 2: particular Bridgeport. This is a, they are trying to test themselves.
Speaker 2: They're trying to battle ready themselves in a game that
Speaker 2: ultimately won't have, a ton of impact long-term on sort
Speaker 2: of the playoff ratings. It'll help them on strength of schedule.
Speaker 2: But this is helpful for them when they get to
Speaker 2: playoff time.
Speaker 14: I think it's going to be helpful for both teams. Honestly,
Speaker 14: I talked with Dave Walker this past Wednesday night and
Speaker 14: Tyler Ferris on High School Sportsline, and both agree, this
Speaker 14: early in the season, if you can play a quality opponent...
Speaker 14: That's going to test you, and I think Bridgeport will
Speaker 14: test Martinsburg. Certainly Martinsburg will test Bridgeport. But find out
Speaker 14: what you have early so you can work on it
Speaker 14: and get it taken care of before you get to
Speaker 14: the playoffs when the games really count. Bridgeport has to
Speaker 14: hope for some long, sustained drives, in my opinion. I
Speaker 14: think that will be the key for them because Martinsburg
Speaker 14: is such a quick-strike offense. And they have so many weapons.
Speaker 14: Tyler Ferris was saying he thought they were a lot
Speaker 14: like them. I'm not sure I agree with Tyler on that.
Speaker 14: I just think for Bridgeport to make this a game,
Speaker 14: a close game. They've had close games before. They've played
Speaker 14: five times. This is only the second time they've played
Speaker 14: in the regular season. This will be the fifth time
Speaker 14: they've played. And certainly Martinsburg has the edge. They only...
Speaker 14: Bridgeport's only won one time, and that was 25-12 back
Speaker 14: in 1952 or something like that, something way long ago.
Speaker 14: But anyway, I think both teams will be tested. I
Speaker 14: think Bridgeport has to control the ball as long as
Speaker 14: they can with those sustained drives they're so famous for.
Speaker 14: And like I said, Martinsburg, they've got so many outside
Speaker 14: weapons that they can get the ball to, and when
Speaker 14: they do that, they usually score quickly. So see how
Speaker 14: it goes. I think it's going to be really, though,
Speaker 14: a great, great football game.
Speaker 3: Fred, I was surprised looking into this series that the
Speaker 3: winning team, the most points they've ever scored is 31.
Speaker 3: So that sounds like the kind of game Bridgeport wants
Speaker 3: to play where it's going to be a little bit
Speaker 3: more low scoring. Do you think that will happen again,
Speaker 3: that the winning team will have less than 31?
Speaker 14: I think it's a good chance, Michael. Again, if Bridgeport
Speaker 14: can control the ball and get some sustained drives, then yeah,
Speaker 14: what they cannot do is they can't go three and
Speaker 14: outs four or five times martin's word will score on
Speaker 14: you i mean there's no doubt about that and i
Speaker 14: think right now and talking with dave walker on wednesday
Speaker 14: night he feels so good about that defense secondary that
Speaker 14: he's probably going to play eight nine maybe even ten
Speaker 14: on the box and just keeping stop that bruising run
Speaker 14: attack that bridgeport so famous for if martin's birds defense
Speaker 14: can come to play like we've seen them play in
Speaker 14: the past then it may not be as close a
Speaker 14: ball game as I'm hoping for. But I still think
Speaker 14: both teams are total quality teams. Both of them are.
Speaker 14: And this may be, whoever loses this game, let's be fair,
Speaker 14: whoever loses this game, let's say it's Bridgeport. Say Bridgeport
Speaker 14: gets beat. That may be the only loss they have
Speaker 14: this regular season. Martinsburg, boy, they've got a tough schedule.
Speaker 14: They've got a schedule. They've got some teams coming up.
Speaker 14: They've got a team from Canisius, New York, coming up.
Speaker 14: They play a team from Ontario, Canada, coming up. So,
Speaker 14: I mean, they play a heck of a schedule just
Speaker 14: because they can't get anyone else in West Virginia to
Speaker 14: play them. Kudos to Tyler Ferris. He was the one
Speaker 14: that made the call to Martinsburg saying, hey, we need
Speaker 14: a game. Let's play. And Dave Walker said, yes, let's play.
Speaker 14: He was ready for it.
Speaker 2: I'm, uh, I'm kind of, I'm kind of curious, you know,
Speaker 2: Mike mentioning the, the, the points is funny. Cause you know,
Speaker 2: once upon a time we'd be talking about 31 and
Speaker 2: we'd be considering that, you know, a high scoring, high
Speaker 2: scoring game. And, and I wonder how much sticker shock
Speaker 2: there were. There were a couple of scores like this,
Speaker 2: but the, the 67, where's it?
Speaker 12: 68.
Speaker 2: No, I think it was 67. Nothing lost for nitro
Speaker 2: last week. You know, the score itself is one thing,
Speaker 2: but how lopsided, how much sticker shock for you around
Speaker 2: a team that obviously went on a deep run a
Speaker 2: year ago?
Speaker 14: Well, what you have to remind yourself, though, they lost everyone.
Speaker 14: I mean, they had a bunch of transfers that came
Speaker 14: in that were all seniors. They all left at one time.
Speaker 14: They lost 15 seniors. Boone McKinney did. Not only did
Speaker 14: they lose that, they lost Boone McKinney as he retired.
Speaker 14: So they've got a brand-new coach. They've got a brand-new team.
Speaker 14: I did not know how strong Donnie Mays at South
Speaker 14: Charleston would be. Obviously, he's got a pretty solid ball club.
Speaker 14: I mean, any time you put 67 points on, and
Speaker 14: they did have a running clock in the second half.
Speaker 14: And it was eight-minute quarters, by the way, in addition
Speaker 14: to being a running clock. So any time you can
Speaker 14: do that in that shortened amount of time, that's very,
Speaker 14: very impressive. I think, though, Nitro is just going to
Speaker 14: be very, very weak this year just because of what
Speaker 14: they lost and what they went through. But, hey, remember
Speaker 14: last Friday night, Martinsburg outscored Hedgesville 74-0. We had some
Speaker 14: runaways last week. Bridgeport won 68-0. So there were a
Speaker 14: few blowouts last week.
Speaker 3: We talked just now about South Charleston. Really intriguing game,
Speaker 3: I think, for them this week going to Chapmanville. What
Speaker 3: do you make of that one?
Speaker 14: Yeah, I agree with you, Mike. We talked with Zach
Speaker 14: Belcher on Wednesday night as well, and he's very, very
Speaker 14: much aware of what South Charleston can do. But I'll
Speaker 14: tell you, Chapmanville is a good ball club. Make no mistake.
Speaker 14: I think Chapmanville... can be very good again this year.
Speaker 14: They'd love to take it one step further than they
Speaker 14: did last year, but Chapmanville is solid. They've got a
Speaker 14: program all of a sudden, and I think South Charleston,
Speaker 14: we'll find out more about South Charleston tonight against Chapmanville
Speaker 14: than we did last week, that's for certain.
Speaker 2: Princeton and Bluefield is the Metro News Class AA game
Speaker 2: of the week, and I feel like, honestly, that may
Speaker 2: have been sort of the choice choice running away at
Speaker 2: this point, and Bluefield only lost last week by a
Speaker 2: touchdown to the G-men of Graham, Virginia. Now, it's another
Speaker 2: one of these non- or intra-classification games. I've got to
Speaker 2: make sure I'm saying that correctly.
Speaker 14: You're going to figure that out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to look this up while you answer.
Speaker 2: But Bluefield-Princeton, give me some of your thoughts on this one.
Speaker 14: Well, let's take Princeton, for example. There's Nathan Tanner, came
Speaker 14: over from Parkersburg South, head coach now. He's not lost
Speaker 14: since he's been at Princeton. Went 14-0 last year, won
Speaker 14: a state championship, and he's 1-0 this season. Going to
Speaker 14: get tested. Going to get tested at Mitchell Stadium tonight
Speaker 14: against the Bluefield Beavers. No doubt about it. Bluefield, that
Speaker 14: rival game against Graham, you have no idea which way
Speaker 14: it's going to go. I did not expect it to
Speaker 14: be as high-scoring a fair as it was, and I
Speaker 14: thought Bluefield would win. But as you mentioned, they got
Speaker 14: beat barely by the G-men. Bluefield, to me, is as
Speaker 14: good a team as we're going to see tonight. in
Speaker 14: Class AA this year. I promise you that. Just because
Speaker 14: of the fact they were in the championship game last year,
Speaker 14: they lost in the last few seconds to Frankfurt on
Speaker 14: that trick play that Kevin Whiteman ran to perfection with
Speaker 14: the halfback pass. Bluefield, though, had a lot coming back.
Speaker 14: I said for the first time in a long time,
Speaker 14: I saw a pregame interview with with Freddie Simon at Bluefield.
Speaker 14: He looked giddy to me. He was so happy about
Speaker 14: the kids he had back and the talent he's got back.
Speaker 14: They've got a couple of new assistant coaches on the
Speaker 14: staff now. So I thought they were ready to go,
Speaker 14: and I'm sure they are. They just ran into a
Speaker 14: very good, obviously very good, Graham G-man team. I think
Speaker 14: that's going to be a really, really good ball game
Speaker 14: coming up down at Mitchell Stadium tonight between Princeton and Bluefield.
Speaker 14: I'm not sure that Nathan Tanner doesn't get his first
Speaker 14: loss as a head coach at Princeton.
Speaker 3: Independence, I think, is going to be tough to get
Speaker 3: a read on this year because of the out-of-state games
Speaker 3: they play to begin the year. What do you make
Speaker 3: of that team so far, a team that's been near
Speaker 3: the top in that classification for several years?
Speaker 14: John H. Lilly, he's done a great job. He really has.
Speaker 14: He's got a program going now. Kids want to play.
Speaker 14: They've got a very good theater school in the middle
Speaker 14: school that they have there in Cole City. Going to Charlotte,
Speaker 14: North Carolina tonight to play a team that, by the way,
Speaker 14: had a really away game last week. This Ambassador Christian Academy,
Speaker 14: they played in Dublin, Ireland last week. Dublin, Ireland. I mean,
Speaker 14: you talk about jet lag, and John, I sure hope
Speaker 14: they still have some of that jet lag because they've
Speaker 14: got three guys that are already signed to Division I schools.
Speaker 14: They're legit. It's a private academy team. They're good, no
Speaker 14: doubt about it. And they beat a team from Texas
Speaker 14: last week in Dublin, Ireland in one of those games.
Speaker 14: you know, showcase types of things they do over there. So,
Speaker 14: but I think John Lilley is going to be good,
Speaker 14: but is he going to be, is he going to
Speaker 14: get beat up? And I think that's the one thing
Speaker 14: you got to be concerned about. They played the team
Speaker 14: from Armstrong, Pennsylvania last week. One, they trailed 21 to
Speaker 14: seven in the fourth quarter and scored 21 points in
Speaker 14: the fourth quarter to come back and win that game.
Speaker 14: Now that says something about that ball club, but out
Speaker 14: of the frying pan into the fire and you got
Speaker 14: to travel all the way to Charlotte, North Carolina. and
Speaker 14: play a very, very good team tonight. So it'll be
Speaker 14: interesting to see how they hold up against this Ambassador
Speaker 14: Christian team, and we'll go from there. They've still got
Speaker 14: a couple. How about this? Nine games is all he has.
Speaker 14: Seven of them are on the road. They play their
Speaker 14: last home game of the season October 2nd. They'll have
Speaker 14: homecoming and senior night the same night.
Speaker 4: Crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's unfortunate. Hey, uh pendleton county east hardy it's
Speaker 2: our metro news class single a game of the week
Speaker 2: both these teams won a week ago pendleton county really
Speaker 2: nice win uh over petersburg east hardy blew out madonna
Speaker 2: um these are two really good teams uh and uh
Speaker 2: i i think you're in for a good one potentially
Speaker 2: with this no no doubt.
Speaker 14: They always play well when they meet each other it's
Speaker 14: two quality programs in single a and That's why we
Speaker 14: chose it as our single-A game of the week. Early
Speaker 14: in the season again, I like to see these types
Speaker 14: of games played early in the season, find out what
Speaker 14: you've got, and I think both teams will be better
Speaker 14: after the game tonight, regardless of who wins or loses.
Speaker 14: They'll be better because quality opponents make you better.
Speaker 3: Oconis County getting an impressive win over Tuckery last week.
Speaker 3: They'll play a Meadow Bridge team that also won last week.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting kind of under-the-radar single-A game to me.
Speaker 14: Yeah, that kind of surprised me too with Tucker, you know,
Speaker 14: getting beat last week by Pocahontas County. That doesn't happen
Speaker 14: that often. I mean, they got beat by 15, 31-16,
Speaker 14: and it was at Tucker County. So Tucker's got to
Speaker 14: prove are they going to be a team that, you know, always,
Speaker 14: always close into the playoffs. They don't go too far,
Speaker 14: but they're usually right around there. But Tigers Valley should
Speaker 14: be a win for them. We'll see. It's going to
Speaker 14: be interesting. You know, Tigers Valley is a ball club
Speaker 14: that has struggled hard heavily over the last few years,
Speaker 14: and we'll see if Tucker can bounce back, and they
Speaker 14: have to because we've got East Hardy coming up next week,
Speaker 14: so this is a win they really need to get
Speaker 14: over Tigers.
Speaker 2: Fred, go ahead and remind folks where they can catch
Speaker 2: high school game night tonight.
Speaker 14: All over the state, and the radio station just down
Speaker 14: the street from you, I promise, especially you. We're very fortunate.
Speaker 14: We've got 51 radio stations around the state to carry
Speaker 14: the show, plus we're live on YouTube and on our
Speaker 14: Facebook page and on Metro News Television. So if you
Speaker 14: want to find us, we're there.
Speaker 2: Including this station right here. There you go. When the
Speaker 2: Bridgeport-Martinsburg game ends, folks, don't go anywhere. You'll hear Fred
Speaker 2: and Dave. Fred, always appreciate it, man.
Speaker 14: Thank you, guys. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Well, that'll just about wrap it up for the Friday Free-for-All. Now,
Speaker 2: I will say, if you're looking for some bonus content,
Speaker 2: I have good news for you. We'll have a little
Speaker 2: bit of that coming your way. Chris George, going to
Speaker 2: hang around, talk a little extra football content during the
Speaker 2: nine o'clock hour. And you can also catch that in
Speaker 2: the podcast form. And I have to apologize. I may
Speaker 2: have accidentally loaded that in the morning spiel last week
Speaker 2: instead of in the correct spot. So the extra content
Speaker 2: about Tucker and Elkins and some of those Mountain County schools,
Speaker 2: I might've put it in the wrong spot last week.
Speaker 2: That's on me. That won't happen again. Mike, it's exciting.
Speaker 2: I just hope We stay dry tonight. Actually, I don't
Speaker 2: even care about staying dry. Let's avoid the lightning. That's
Speaker 2: my preference.
Speaker 6: That's right.
Speaker 3: Don't get struck by lightning. Always a good suggestion and
Speaker 3: maxim to live by, but hopefully we can stay out
Speaker 3: of there today. And again, I think with a lot
Speaker 3: of kind of intra-regional games going on tonight, we really
Speaker 3: want to make sure that weather's good because it can
Speaker 3: be harder to finish these on a Saturday or make
Speaker 3: them up later.
Speaker 2: Most important thing Bridgeport can accomplish tonight in your mind?
Speaker 3: I do feel like ball control is big, but at
Speaker 3: the same time, Gavin Williams is someone who can break
Speaker 3: some runs. So if you can get a 30, 40-yard
Speaker 3: touchdown run from Gavin Williams and get a lead, I
Speaker 3: think that's important. And again, I think Bridgeport has been
Speaker 3: close with Martinsburg, but they've also had to chase them.
Speaker 3: So if they can get the lead early and make
Speaker 3: Martinsburg kind of come to them, I think that's a
Speaker 3: good thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to see them stay healthy. It's pretty
Speaker 2: much the only thing that I think matters. Don't get
Speaker 2: blown out and stay healthy. And I'm sure they have
Speaker 2: higher expectations than that. I'm just thinking about it. I'm
Speaker 2: a media guy, so I get to have the easy takes.
Speaker 2: All right, folks. We'll see you all next week for
Speaker 2: more of the main show. Again, if you want to
Speaker 2: stick around for the bonus content, that'll come up during
Speaker 2: the 9 o'clock hour. But the primary show is over.
Speaker 2: Friday Free For All is brought to you by Dan Cava,
Speaker 2: Toyota Buick, GMC.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Dan Cava Toyota Buick GMC
Speaker 1: Friday Free-for-All. Be sure to tune in every Friday as
Speaker 1: we review and preview local high school sports. This has
Speaker 1: been a special presentation of WVRC Media and 103.3 WKMZ. Now,
Speaker 1: back to the morning spiel. Brought to you by Royal
Speaker 1: Water on WKMZ.
Speaker 2: This is the Morning Spiel presented by Royal Water Treatment, 103.3 WKMZ.
Speaker 2: But this is also our Friday Free-for-All bonus segment. Michael
Speaker 2: Minnick is still with us from the Friday Free-for-All. Chris
Speaker 2: George is back with us from, of course, all many
Speaker 2: WKMZ contributions, including Bridgeport football and this show. Let's talk, guys.
Speaker 2: First of all, and Mike, maybe I'll start you off
Speaker 2: with this. Is there anything else we want to get
Speaker 2: out on Bridgeport before we kind of open up to
Speaker 2: the rest of where we wanted to hit with Chris?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we talked about it a little bit
Speaker 3: with Fred Persinger, but these two teams are explosive offenses
Speaker 3: over the years, but their matchups have been low-scoring games.
Speaker 3: And I think we're going to– if it's a low-scoring game,
Speaker 3: I think that favors Bridgeport. I don't think they're going
Speaker 3: to win a 42-35 shootout. They could win a 21-14 game.
Speaker 3: I think that's much more the pace and score that
Speaker 3: they want in this game.
Speaker 4: Very good points, and I'm afraid that they might be
Speaker 4: a little bit in between both. I really do. As
Speaker 4: crazy as that sounds, I think if this game was
Speaker 4: played week eight or week nine, it might be an
Speaker 4: offensive shootout. I really do, because I think both offenses
Speaker 4: will be so much better by year's end. But Bridgeport's defense,
Speaker 4: I will say this, and this is something we haven't
Speaker 4: talked a ton about, but it's been mentioned before. Bridgeport
Speaker 4: plays in a lot of 7-on-7 tournaments during the summer. Well,
Speaker 4: they went to Columbus and finished in the top five
Speaker 4: up there. They went to WVU, and they won the
Speaker 4: 7-on-7 tournament there. And they get in these 7-on-7 tournaments
Speaker 4: not because– They're going to throw the ball 30 or
Speaker 4: 40 times a year. That may give everybody a heart attack,
Speaker 4: but it's for their defense, and it's how they want
Speaker 4: to cover spread teams because they know being in AAA
Speaker 4: and playing some quad A schools, you're going to play
Speaker 4: a ton of spread offenses every single year, and they do.
Speaker 4: So this gets them a little bit of an advantage
Speaker 4: by playing these 707 terms against some of the best
Speaker 4: skill in the state and some of the states surrounding
Speaker 4: West Virginia as well. They play these. to give their
Speaker 4: corners and safeties and you just give them the ball
Speaker 4: skills they need to be able to cover the pass.
Speaker 4: So they've done a good job. And the last time
Speaker 4: they were really good in the seven on seven tournaments
Speaker 4: was the year they won the state championship a couple
Speaker 4: of years ago when they had Alex Moses and Jack
Speaker 4: Spada for in the corners. Now this year, you know,
Speaker 4: you got Carson Bastien, very inexperienced, but he's getting his
Speaker 4: feet wet and he's very athletic. Then on the other side,
Speaker 4: you got Graham Benson who's improved a ton. And then
Speaker 4: of course your safeties, as we know, Gavin Williams and
Speaker 4: Aiden Gorby. So yeah, I think those 7-on-7 tournaments, I
Speaker 4: think the talent they saw in the summer is going
Speaker 4: to benefit them extremely well tonight. However, what's it going
Speaker 4: to be up front? Are they going to be able
Speaker 4: to get some pressure on Brian Dick to force him
Speaker 4: to be just a little bit uncomfortable? I think if
Speaker 4: Bridgeport wins this game tonight, they have to win the
Speaker 4: turnover battle. They've got to find a way to create
Speaker 4: maybe an extra possession or two. They cannot lose the
Speaker 4: turnover battle. If Bridgeport loses the turnover battle tonight, bad
Speaker 4: things can happen. The last time they did was when
Speaker 4: they played Chapmanville, so huge game tonight i think it'll
Speaker 4: be fun i think both teams will benefit greatly from
Speaker 4: this game i think both teams will be a much
Speaker 4: better team next week after this game i will say
Speaker 4: this whoever wins this game it's going to help them
Speaker 4: there's no doubt but whoever loses this game is going
Speaker 4: to help them as well this is not going to
Speaker 4: be a bad loss no matter who loses tonight.
Speaker 2: Uh let's jump around a little bit and we'll hit
Speaker 2: some of the power rankings as well but i i
Speaker 2: still want to hit uh as many teams as we
Speaker 2: can and uh you know typically we would start in
Speaker 2: the mountain counties let's start a little bit further west
Speaker 2: this time. I think Mike and I both agreed we
Speaker 2: were a little surprised at how Dodgeridge County was handled
Speaker 2: by Roan County. That was never going to be an
Speaker 2: easy trip, but Dodgeridge County, we talked about how they
Speaker 2: are a program. It's a team that we regularly have
Speaker 2: high expectations for, and they got quite the test in
Speaker 2: week one, and they obviously are going to have some
Speaker 2: work to do.
Speaker 11: They're going to have.
Speaker 4: Some work to do, and it's a program. There's no doubt.
Speaker 4: I think there's definitely a lot of talent they lost
Speaker 4: a year ago, some via the transfer portal. We know
Speaker 4: BYU One of their players went to Morgantown. We've discussed that.
Speaker 4: And I was tipped off back in the summer from
Speaker 4: Jeff Thompson, who is the assistant coach for Parkersburg Post 15.
Speaker 4: He's a Rome County native, and he still lives in
Speaker 4: Rome County. He told me that they have a pretty
Speaker 4: good football team coming up this year, and he's right.
Speaker 4: I mean, so far, so good. This program at Rome
Speaker 4: County has really been developing the last four to five years, guys,
Speaker 4: and it's been really something to see. It's really been
Speaker 4: ever since the young man died. you know, at Rowan
Speaker 4: County about five or six years ago, that program has
Speaker 4: just gotten better and better. They're getting good athletes out
Speaker 4: and they're developing them in the weight room. So I
Speaker 4: think in years in, I think Dobridge County will look
Speaker 4: at this loss and be like, well, you know what?
Speaker 4: That was a good loss. That doesn't hurt us. But
Speaker 4: then again, they're going to have to go out here
Speaker 4: this week and in the week after and figure out
Speaker 4: how to win some games going forward. I think they will.
Speaker 4: I think both those teams are playoff teams. And I
Speaker 4: wasn't surprised. I actually picked Rowan County to win. But
Speaker 4: then again, I was surprised Because it did happen. So
Speaker 4: I think this Dodgers County team will eventually be okay
Speaker 4: when they get some experience and get everybody going on
Speaker 4: the same page.
Speaker 3: First time in a decade they've been held to single
Speaker 3: digits offensively in back-to-back games. This tells you how long
Speaker 3: ago it was. The two teams that did it were
Speaker 3: Gilmore County and Ravenswood. It's been a while since Ravenswood's
Speaker 3: been good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, think about that. That's how far this
Speaker 4: Doddridge County's program has come. So we mentioned Roan County
Speaker 4: and how well their program's been. Well, let's look at
Speaker 4: Doddridge County. Ever since the oil and gas became big
Speaker 4: in that part of the state, the team's gotten good.
Speaker 4: The population has increased. The school's gotten bigger. They're a
Speaker 4: double-A size school, but they have a program. You know,
Speaker 4: Bobby Burnside, And all the great coaches there have done
Speaker 4: a great job over the past 10 to 15 years,
Speaker 4: developing this, you know, football program into a power. And
Speaker 4: I think they're here to stay. In fact, you know,
Speaker 4: I won't be a bit surprised. You know, we've talked
Speaker 4: about it. Preston could possibly leave the big 10. It's
Speaker 4: it's on the docket. It's it's potential there. And if
Speaker 4: they would leave the big 10 and join the Potomac
Speaker 4: Valley conference, I think Dobridge County would be a natural
Speaker 4: for the big 10 conference in the future, just because
Speaker 4: the school's growing and they're being so successful in a
Speaker 4: bunch of sports. Now, I'm throwing stuff out there that
Speaker 4: is not any rumors behind it. It's just me saying that.
Speaker 4: I have nothing to base it on. It's just something
Speaker 4: that I think going forward, I think this program at
Speaker 4: Doddbridge is going to elevate itself to that point where
Speaker 4: it could be either in a Big Ten or a
Speaker 4: solid AA program year.
Speaker 2: In and year out. Chris, no one's ever gone wrong
Speaker 2: with a little speculation. I like I like a little speculation.
Speaker 2: I like I call this this is informed speculation. I
Speaker 2: you're you're not you're not pulling this out of thin air.
Speaker 2: You're you're connecting dots. And I think that's completely, completely fair.
Speaker 2: And so just so folks are clear, we have no
Speaker 2: idea if that's going to happen. But I do think
Speaker 2: Chris is Chris is, I would say, an expert. expert
Speaker 2: level on the subject, and it's worth listening to him
Speaker 2: when he says stuff like this.
Speaker 4: I will tell you this. It is factual that Preston
Speaker 4: is considering leaving the Big Ten Conference and going to
Speaker 4: the Eastern Panhandle and joining the Potomac Valley Conference. That
Speaker 4: is very, very possible, and it could happen sooner rather
Speaker 4: than later. In fact, they're doing some discussions about it.
Speaker 4: They're sending out surveys within the athletic program, and don't
Speaker 4: be surprised if that doesn't happen next year or maybe
Speaker 4: the year after or Maybe there's a chance it won't happen,
Speaker 4: but I think Preston leaving the Big Ten could be
Speaker 4: more of a reality than what some people think.
Speaker 3: We'll have to talk more about this at a later date,
Speaker 3: but if people think the OVC is a loosely affiliated conference,
Speaker 3: they haven't seen the PBC.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Man, I think that would be a mistake for Preston.
Speaker 4: I do, too, because you and I both know how
Speaker 4: good that conference is. Even the small schools in that
Speaker 4: league are very good. East Hardy, good every year. Warfield,
Speaker 4: very competitive. We'll talk about them and Elkins in a
Speaker 4: little bit, I'm sure. Frankfurt, well, all they do is win,
Speaker 4: and they win at everything. They've even figured out basketball
Speaker 4: at Frankfurt last year. So, yeah, we know Kaiser, what
Speaker 4: they've done in the past. So, yeah, I'm not sure
Speaker 4: that's a good idea either. I agree with you. I
Speaker 4: think the travel will increase, and I think the win
Speaker 4: column might decrease. So we'll see.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about– let's go to single A. We're going
Speaker 2: to bounce around a fair bit here, but I want
Speaker 2: to talk about Tucker County. I know when we talked
Speaker 2: with Fred, he was a little surprised by the way
Speaker 2: that went down. And if we had had more time,
Speaker 2: I would have mentioned to him, you know, our guy
Speaker 2: Chris George said that they could have some trouble, particularly
Speaker 2: early in the season. They've got a lot that they've
Speaker 2: got to kind of replace from last year. And lo
Speaker 2: and behold, they fell by, what was it, a 15-point
Speaker 2: margin in their first loss of the season. So some
Speaker 2: work to do for A.J. Rapp, who is an excellent coach,
Speaker 2: but he does have some work ahead of him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he just slacks numbers this year, guys. I mean,
Speaker 4: 25 kids and two of his best players at receiver one.
Speaker 4: did not come out this year. He decided to play
Speaker 4: golf in Caden Arnold, and then the Barb kid, Lucas Barb,
Speaker 4: decided not to play. He came out for the first
Speaker 4: few days and decided not to play. So even if
Speaker 4: those two kids had played, it was going to be
Speaker 4: a struggle because they just lacked so much up front
Speaker 4: because they lost so much talent to last, not just
Speaker 4: last year, but the year before, and kind of saw
Speaker 4: this coming, guys, you know, and this is life of
Speaker 4: a single-A program, right? There's very few single-A programs out
Speaker 4: there that win 10, 11, 15 years in a row.
Speaker 4: Tucker County's done an unbelievable job winning as much as
Speaker 4: they can, but they sometimes have peaks and valleys, and
Speaker 4: unfortunately this is a valley, and this might be a
Speaker 4: little bit below sea level valley this year. I think
Speaker 4: they got a golden opportunity to get a win tonight
Speaker 4: against Tigards Valley. I think they can pull this out,
Speaker 4: but after tonight, wins might be fewer and far between.
Speaker 4: They'll take anything away from A.J.
Speaker 5: Rapp.
Speaker 4: What he has done there has been tremendous. He's a
Speaker 4: heck of a ball coach. I know him personally. I
Speaker 4: consider him a good friend. And I know darn well
Speaker 4: he'll get that program going in the right direction again soon.
Speaker 4: I guarantee you the other thing, this Tucker Kane team,
Speaker 4: Branson and I are a good quarterback. I like him.
Speaker 4: I think that's something to build on there. They've got
Speaker 4: some freshmen that skill positions. Coach Rapp's son is a senior.
Speaker 4: He's a heavy, strong running back that runs a power.
Speaker 4: So I think this team's going to get better as
Speaker 4: the year goes on. But here's the problem. They can't
Speaker 4: afford any injuries, guys. You know what it's like to
Speaker 4: have 25 football players. You've got kids going both ways.
Speaker 4: You start losing three or four kids, and it really
Speaker 4: becomes tough. So, yeah, it's going to be a tough year.
Speaker 4: It didn't surprise me. I think Pocahontas County is going
Speaker 4: to be a better team. They've shown they've got some athletes.
Speaker 4: I heard that they've got some decent young kids coming. And, boy,
Speaker 4: it showed. It's been a good win for Pocahontas last week.
Speaker 4: And Tucker County, Tigers Valley tonight, don't know who's going
Speaker 4: to win, but Tucker's got a chance to battle back
Speaker 4: here and get their first win of the year.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Danny, back to last year, Pocahontas won three in a
Speaker 3: row and that hasn't happened in a long time. So
Speaker 3: there's gotta be some enthusiasm in their program. 2017 was
Speaker 3: the last time they won three.
Speaker 7: In a row.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And that's back when they made some playoff appearances and,
Speaker 4: you know, they got a beverage and anytime there's a
Speaker 4: beverage playing for Pocahontas, good things happen. That name over
Speaker 4: in Pocahontas County and all sports has been notorious to
Speaker 4: have good athletes.
Speaker 9: Yes.
Speaker 4: He's related to all the great beverage players from the past. And, uh,
Speaker 4: That's just one of a few good athletes they got there.
Speaker 4: So maybe Pocahontas can find a way to scratch across
Speaker 4: some four or five wins this year. Maybe they can
Speaker 4: move into the playoff picture. We'll see.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Elkins. Obviously, last week, I think between
Speaker 2: the Jaden Hatfield injury and Lincoln, I think most of
Speaker 2: us agree Lincoln is going to be better. And even
Speaker 2: if they're not better, they're going to be pesky. which
Speaker 2: they clearly were last week. But so on the one hand,
Speaker 2: I'm like a little concerned if I'm Elkins and you're
Speaker 2: at home and Lincoln plays it as close as they did.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, you're minus a player. Lincoln's always pesky. They,
Speaker 2: they pester everybody in the big 10, except for Bridgeport. I, I,
Speaker 2: I don't hate that performance for Lincoln, but I kind
Speaker 2: of want to know your take on it from the
Speaker 2: Elkins perspective.
Speaker 4: Elkins is, For the first time in a situation they're
Speaker 4: not used to, and that's playing with a target on
Speaker 4: their back and playing with heavy expectations. And I noticed
Speaker 4: Chad Ware, you know, the wonderful coach at Elkins, another
Speaker 4: personal friend of mine. I've known Chad all my life.
Speaker 4: Great family, good coach, good person. He knows that they've
Speaker 4: got a target on their back. He knows that expectations
Speaker 4: are high, and he thinks they're too high for the community.
Speaker 4: You know, and that was a 14-14 game at the half.
Speaker 4: That was a close game going into the fourth quarter. And,
Speaker 4: you know, he feels like from some of the, you know,
Speaker 4: viewers in the area that that was a disappointing win.
Speaker 4: And he's trying to explain to people that, look, it's
Speaker 4: a week one win. Nothing is disappointing in football when
Speaker 4: you win a game. Lincoln is capable and they showed that. However,
Speaker 4: Elkins has got that target on their back. So that's
Speaker 4: something they're going to have to play with this year.
Speaker 4: It's going to be the pressure is there. I didn't
Speaker 4: think they handled it well, especially in the first half.
Speaker 4: And when I was told last week, it was a
Speaker 4: sloppy first half. you know, something that they can't play
Speaker 4: with because they have to have, for Elkins to be
Speaker 4: successful offensively, they've got to be executing on all cylinders.
Speaker 4: I think they'll get better from this. But they're going
Speaker 4: to have a tough time tonight at Moorfield. A lot
Speaker 4: of people may laugh at that comment, but Moorfield is
Speaker 4: an improved football team. They gave Frankfurt some fits last week.
Speaker 4: This is a physical Moorfield team, probably more so than
Speaker 4: what they played in Lincoln last week. However, Lincoln throws
Speaker 4: the football much better than what this Moorfield team does,
Speaker 4: and that's where Lincoln was able to Really attacked us.
Speaker 4: Elkins' defense was in the air. But Elkins did give
Speaker 4: up some running yards last week. So this game at Moorfield,
Speaker 4: their backup quarterback, Cyrus Kump, who transferred to Elkins, returns.
Speaker 4: I'm sure they're looking forward to that. Keep an eye
Speaker 4: on this game on the scoreboard tonight. Moorfield-Elkins. This might
Speaker 4: be similar to last week's game. Elkins may win this
Speaker 4: in the second half going away late. But we'll keep
Speaker 4: an eye on this one. This could be closer than
Speaker 4: what the experts think.
Speaker 3: Grass field, if it rains, too, that could really be
Speaker 3: an equalizer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that could hurt the speed. I know last week
Speaker 4: Elkins suffered some injuries at the running back position, Tony Sylvester,
Speaker 4: who was backing up Jaden Hatfield, who was hurt, and
Speaker 4: Sylvester got shaken up last week. Not sure of his
Speaker 4: status tonight. Seth Robinson, though, well, if it is a
Speaker 4: muddy field, he's the guy to hand it to. He's
Speaker 4: a power back. He ran for over 300 yards last week,
Speaker 4: but this is a different Moorfield team. They're physical. This
Speaker 4: Moorfield team last year was young and they struggled, but
Speaker 4: they held Elkins to 10 first half points last year
Speaker 4: at Elkins. Keep an eye on this one. Would not
Speaker 4: be surprised if we see an upset here. It would
Speaker 4: not be surprised to see a score similar to last
Speaker 4: week where Elkins pulls away late. But this should be
Speaker 4: a fun one to watch.
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about the power rankings. You're
Speaker 2: obviously a voter. I'm kind of curious, how did the
Speaker 2: Grafton-Philip Barber game affect your opinion of Philip Barber?
Speaker 4: It didn't affect it at all. I got to see
Speaker 4: some Philip Barber film in the preseason. I think Landon
Speaker 4: Carpenter is a really good running back. There's no doubt
Speaker 4: about that. He's a great athlete, good kid, good family.
Speaker 4: You won't find a better person or a better family.
Speaker 4: But Phillip Barber up front is not what they were
Speaker 4: a year ago. And also the wide receiver position. While
Speaker 4: Tristan Price isn't bad, he's a good receiver. I think
Speaker 4: he'll get better. But they don't have the talent at
Speaker 4: wide receiver like they had a year ago. And up front,
Speaker 4: they're a little bit young than what they were a
Speaker 4: year ago. So I think that showed a little bit
Speaker 4: last week in the Grafton game. Grafton had that thing won.
Speaker 4: All they had to do is hand the football off
Speaker 4: and they win the game. But it didn't happen. But
Speaker 4: let's give Phillip Barber some credit, man. The way they
Speaker 4: drove down the field and kicked the winning field goal,
Speaker 4: Robbie Jones completed some very tough passes in that drive.
Speaker 4: He also scrambled his way to get some first downs
Speaker 4: as well. This Phillip Barber offense is going to get
Speaker 4: better and better. And I think they might have to
Speaker 4: outscore some teams this year to get some victories. But
Speaker 4: this Phillip Barber team, it didn't change my opinion on them.
Speaker 4: But Grafton, it changed my opinion on them a little bit.
Speaker 4: I think Grafton's going to be much better. Bobby Beltner,
Speaker 4: I know he's all about discipline, and they're going to
Speaker 4: get back to more of that Grafton hard-nosed football. Boy,
Speaker 4: did we see that on display last week. I like
Speaker 4: Chase Kinsey. I saw him this summer play baseball for Bridgeport.
Speaker 4: He's a Flemington kid. I joked around with him in
Speaker 4: the dugout. I said, you know, you could easily transfer
Speaker 4: to Bridgeport. You live closer to Bridgeport than you do Grafton.
Speaker 4: I was only joking. I wasn't being serious. But good kid,
Speaker 4: good quarterback that can run. He's tough. He completed some
Speaker 4: very tough passes in that game. One where he was
Speaker 4: scrambling to his left and just kind of threw a
Speaker 4: little pop pass in the end zone and was caught
Speaker 4: for a touchdown. So I think this Grafton team, boys,
Speaker 4: is going to be much better than what people thought
Speaker 4: this year. I like the Bearcats. I like where the
Speaker 4: program's going.
Speaker 3: And I think, too, the schedule. So with Grafton playing
Speaker 3: like they did last week, they're going to win probably
Speaker 3: two or three of these first five games.
Speaker 4: Totally agree. Totally agree. And that young Grafton team last
Speaker 4: year has gotten a year older. And there's some good
Speaker 4: athletes there. We mentioned Chase Kinsey. There's others. And again,
Speaker 4: Bobby Beltner, he knows old school Grafton football. He understands
Speaker 4: old school Grafton football under Mike Skinner. He's trying to
Speaker 4: bring that back to the program. He understands you can't
Speaker 4: do it all in one year, but this is a
Speaker 4: much better Grafton team than 365 days ago.
Speaker 2: For sure. There's no question about it. I think they
Speaker 2: proved that pretty clearly in that in that performance. Looking
Speaker 2: at some of the other some of the other rankings,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure where my hold on my tab. There
Speaker 2: we go. I was trying to figure out my power
Speaker 2: rankings tab disappeared, too. I want to go over to
Speaker 2: Class AAA. And right now, Bridgeport, Princeton, Herbert Hoover, your
Speaker 2: three first place to your three teams receiving first place
Speaker 2: votes in AAA. First things first. Do you think, and
Speaker 2: I know, again, the power rankings, it's all semantics, doesn't
Speaker 2: really matter in the grand scheme of things. Does Bridgeport
Speaker 2: with a loss, if it's a, I'm going to put
Speaker 2: this in air quotes, a good loss, do they have
Speaker 2: a shot at maintaining that top spot?
Speaker 4: In the SSAC poll, once it comes out after week three,
Speaker 4: I think there's an opportunity. As far as the Metro poll,
Speaker 4: I don't know. It's a good question. I think there's
Speaker 4: a good chance. We've got a lot of good people
Speaker 4: voting this poll, and they understand that losing to Martinsburg
Speaker 4: is a good loss. However, it's how you lose the game.
Speaker 4: If Bridgeport goes out there and loses by three or
Speaker 4: four touchdowns, yes, it will affect the poll. If they
Speaker 4: go out there and lose by a touchdown or two touchdowns,
Speaker 4: I don't think it will affect it all whatsoever. I
Speaker 4: think they'll look at that and say, okay, for those voting,
Speaker 4: I'm still number one team. But I hate voting in
Speaker 4: the poll this early.
Speaker 6: I do.
Speaker 4: I don't like it because you just don't know who
Speaker 4: the top teams are.
Speaker 6: I do know this.
Speaker 4: Princeton is good again. Herbert Hoover is improved. I think
Speaker 4: they're good. How good? I don't know. Hoover's got a
Speaker 4: big game with Winfield coming up. Princeton, we all know
Speaker 4: what they've got coming up with South Charleston. Not South Charleston,
Speaker 4: that's Chapmanville because I think Chapmanville is a pretty good
Speaker 4: team too. Princeton, we know what they've got coming up
Speaker 4: with their schedule. All in all, I think it's going
Speaker 4: to be interesting, but I will say this. If Bridgeport
Speaker 4: does end up losing this game tonight, They can't afford
Speaker 4: to lose very many more games because there's going to
Speaker 4: be a lot of teams. I think AAA could be
Speaker 4: top-heavy this year, guys, which means I think when this
Speaker 4: is all said and done, you're going to see a
Speaker 4: lot of 10-0, 9-1, 8-2 type teams, and it's going
Speaker 4: to come down to strength of schedule and bonus points
Speaker 4: and all that to filter things out. So I think
Speaker 4: if you're in that group of teams you mentioned, plus
Speaker 4: a Chapmanville, plus a South Charleston, plus whomever, I think
Speaker 4: you better win as many games as you can and
Speaker 4: see where the chips fall.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Princeton plays Bluefield this week. So we could have
Speaker 3: an 0-2 Bluefield. We have an 0-2 Fairmont Senior. And
Speaker 3: we're going to have either a 1-1 Bridgeboro or a
Speaker 3: 1-1 Martinsburg.
Speaker 4: And how about Bluefield, man? I mean, we know they're
Speaker 4: going to be good this year. They lost a rival
Speaker 4: game to Grand Virginia late in that contest. It wouldn't
Speaker 4: surprise me if Bluefield doesn't shock Princeton tonight. I think
Speaker 4: Princeton wins the game, but it wouldn't surprise me. You're right.
Speaker 4: I mean, that Bluefield team, similar to Fairmont Senior being 0-2,
Speaker 4: who would have thought that? You know, I didn't. I
Speaker 4: wouldn't have thought Fairmont Senior would have been 0-2 after
Speaker 4: losing to Bird there at the buzzer pretty much last
Speaker 4: night and then Bluefield. But then again, when you're Bluefield
Speaker 4: and you play Graham and Princeton back-to-back, whoever's doing that
Speaker 4: schedule needs to change some things around because I don't
Speaker 4: think the coaching staff at Bluefield really likes that schedule.
Speaker 4: In games week one and week two.
Speaker 2: Let's talk for a second about Fairmont Senior, by the way,
Speaker 2: just because we... I'm like, yeah, last night, it's not
Speaker 2: a bad loss to RCB, especially under the conditions, everything
Speaker 2: that happened. But what was more shocking for you? The
Speaker 2: fact that Fairmont Senior lost as badly as they did
Speaker 2: to Herbert Hoover or Herbert Hoover winning by the way
Speaker 2: that they did?
Speaker 4: Probably Herbert Hoover winning the way they did. I thought
Speaker 4: Herbert Hoover was the better team last week. I didn't
Speaker 4: see 49-3. Just didn't see that because I know Anthony
Speaker 4: Smith's a very good quarterback. I know Fairmont Senior has
Speaker 4: enough players back. That 48-3 probably shouldn't have happened, but
Speaker 4: it did. I thought Fairmont Senior had a golden opportunity
Speaker 4: to bounce back last night and get the win. They
Speaker 4: had it all but one. But let's credit Robert C.
Speaker 8: Bird.
Speaker 4: They made the play at the end when Junior Smith
Speaker 4: found a way to– it had fun for a game
Speaker 4: winning touchdown pass on trick play on fourth and five
Speaker 4: at the 35 yard line. So bird gets the credit too.
Speaker 4: I think, um, that program is doing better early in
Speaker 4: the year than what many thought. I thought bird had
Speaker 4: a chance to, to end up being to a notice
Speaker 4: because of the type of skill they have. Fair. My
Speaker 4: senior though, at Owen too, I am surprised guys. I
Speaker 4: will admit, I am a little surprised. I thought they
Speaker 4: would be one at one at this point, but, uh,
Speaker 4: It doesn't seem like things are clicking right now in Fairmont.
Speaker 4: I think they'll figure it out. There's a lot of
Speaker 4: talented players there at Fairmont Senior, but I will say this.
Speaker 4: Guys are playing roles that they've never played before, starters
Speaker 4: at the varsity level, and there's some new guys that's
Speaker 4: mixed in. They also lost a couple transfers this year
Speaker 4: that would have helped them. All in all, Fairmont Senior
Speaker 4: might just be a team that needs to figure out
Speaker 4: their chemistry and just get the thing going in motion
Speaker 4: before they can make a run here, but it's going
Speaker 4: to be tough. It will be tough.
Speaker 3: Not saying that they can do that this year, but
Speaker 3: I mean, they want to see title 16 seed. So get,
Speaker 3: get in and anything can happen.
Speaker 14: It's funny.
Speaker 3: They actually played blue field in mid October. So that,
Speaker 3: that could be a game where one of those teams
Speaker 3: is trying to stay away from a third or fourth loss.
Speaker 4: If that would happen this year, that means the top
Speaker 4: heavy triple a would be a total disaster, but Hey,
Speaker 4: you just never know how these football seasons are going
Speaker 4: to go. You know, and I know one thing, we
Speaker 4: talked about the teams we think are sitting at the
Speaker 4: top of AAA right now. These coaches know that, Hey,
Speaker 4: we can't worry about that. We need to worry about
Speaker 4: this week's game. We got to worry about week three,
Speaker 4: week four, week five, because they know that the pressure's
Speaker 4: on for them to go out there and succeed and
Speaker 4: fulfill expectations. So this is going to be interesting to
Speaker 4: see how this goes. I think we're starting to get
Speaker 4: some questions answered as we move into week two tonight
Speaker 4: and then week three next week. But, uh, I will
Speaker 4: say this, you know, it comes down to the weather
Speaker 4: here tonight. So hopefully the weather is good throughout the
Speaker 4: state because I have a feeling as a player and
Speaker 4: as a coach, you know, last night at Fairmont senior
Speaker 4: bird game, the two hour rain delay late in the
Speaker 4: fourth quarter, no coach, no player, no administrator, no anybody
Speaker 4: wants to see that happen. And, and, and, but unfortunately you're,
Speaker 4: you're dealt with that. You got to go out there
Speaker 4: and play the game. So that's exactly what happened. Credit bird.
Speaker 4: And they found a way to get to win.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Very good. We'll leave it there. Chris, much appreciated for
Speaker 2: hanging out and coming back for a bonus segment. We
Speaker 2: we love having you and we love talking to you
Speaker 2: and picking your brain on all things high school football folks.
Speaker 2: That'll do it for the Friday free for all today
Speaker 2: for real this time. So the the main show, of course,
Speaker 2: runs seven oh six to nine. We typically like to
Speaker 2: run a bonus segment during the morning spiel during the
Speaker 2: nine o'clock hour. So basically three hours of high school football,
Speaker 2: give or take. You know, we I like to throw
Speaker 2: the news and weather headlines in there as well. Chris,
Speaker 2: we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 7: All right.
Speaker 4: Take care, guys.
Speaker 2: Mike, we'll see you as well next week and we'll
Speaker 2: take a break.