By Bill Nestor
At the start of training camp, when the heat is unbearable and conditioning the main concern, the one thing that gets players through is the thought of winning an championship. Everyone wants to be number one, after all. That is why there is the sacrifice of blood, sweat, and tears during all of those practices.
On the high school level, the regular season has concluded with a pair of Harrison County teams surviving and advancing to the playoffs. Ironically, they did battle last week in the finale in Shinnston, here Lincoln hosted Bridgeport. The Indians earned the win, but both squads garnered playoff spots.
The Tribe, in typical fashion, stayed on the ground and five different players found pay dirt. Zach Rohrig led all rushers in the affair with 133 yards and three touchdowns. Josh Love picked up 122 yards with a pair of scoring runs. Alex Moses chipped in with 38 yards and two scores. John Knight and Tim Jeffries each had a rushing score a piece to round out Bridgeport’s point production.
The Cougars utilized their passing attack to provide points in their battle with the Tribe. Quarterback A. J. bart threw for 162 yards and a pair of touchdowns while finding five different receivers. Brayden Edgell caught a game high four passes for 54 yards. Aiden Rice hauled in three balls for 45 yards. Noah Sears pulled in a pair of passes, including a 25 yard score, Maddox Perine had a 37 yard scoring reception in the intra county battle.
Bridgeport (9-1) enters the playoffs as the eighth seed in class AAA and will play host to George Washington. The Tribe is red hot heading into postseason play with an eight game winning streak. Their only loss of the campaign coming in week two to Morgantown.
W. heads to Wayne Jamison Field on a two-game win streak with victories over Woodrow Wilson (last week) and Capital. They outscored those opponents by a combined 127 to 14. The Patriots have won five of their last six games and are two and two on the road this season.
Lincoln enters the class AA scene at number 16 and travels to Rachel to play familiar foe North Marion. The Cougars look to exact revenge following a setback to North Marion on Set 22 in Shinnston.
West Virginia University’s football team is only nine games into its season and it has already qualified for the second season. Last week’s 37 to 7 drubbing of Brigham Young University in front of a prime time audience and 50, 266 fans made the Mountaineers bowl eligible with a six and three record.
WVU utilized a balanced attack to dominate the Cougars, much to the liking of the sizable crowd on hand at Milan Puskar Stadium. Quarterback Garrett Greene continues to improve and his 205 passing yards and two touchdowns kept BYU’s defense from stacking the line of scrimmage to try to stop the run. The end result was a season high 336 yards on the ground, which is the most since 2016 against Oklahoma.
Jaheim White rushed for a season high 146 yards and C. J. Donaldson Jr added 102 yards on the ground.
The Mountaineers are starting to get very offensive. In their last four games, they have scored no less than 34 points in any outing and they have averaged a staggering 37.8 points per game.
Next up is a trip to Norman to lock up with the above-mentioned team. The Mountaineers are four and two in the Big 12 Conference and are just one game out of its lead. This week’s clash with Oklahoma has been moved to 7 PM. Back to back prime time affairs mean that WVU football is relevant again. No offense to the Autozone Liberty Bowl (West Virginia’s most recent bowl appearance, but this year’s edition has its sights set on a bigger prize.