The Beckley-Bluefield rivalry is loaded with classics.
The 2022 matchup was won on a last-second field goal by Beckley while the Flying Eagles also nabbed the 2023 contest 28-27 after trailing 14-0 at halftime.
Overall the Flying Eagles have owned the series, boasting a 45-30-2 record against their foes from Bluefield.
But in the highest stakes contest between the two, played 40 years ago at Mitchell Stadium, the Beavers emerged victorious.
Coming into the 1984 postseason Beckley had owned the series in recent history. Dating back to 1980, the Flying Eagles were 5-0 against Bluefield, including a 20-13 victory in the 1984 regular season matchup between the two schools.
In that regular season game Bluefield turned the ball over four times at Van Meter Stadium and completed just 1 of 11 pass attempts, suffering its second loss in three weeks. Beckley suffered a 21-0 loss at Parkersburg the following week but both Beckley and Bluefield qualified for the eight-team postseason, Bluefield with an 8-2 record and Beckley with a 7-2 mark.
Despite winning the head-to-head in the regular season, the lack of a 10th game cost the Flying Eagles in seeding as they earned the No. 6 seed while Bluefield drew the No. 3 seed setting up a first-round playoff between the two schools at Mitchell Stadium.
“We didn’t think the regular season win meant much,” former Beckley head coach Pete Culicerto said. “Anytime you played Bluefield, I don’t care if you played them in Beckley or you played them in Bluefield, you were going to be in for a fight. And that’s the way it was. And they had some dynamic players. They had that one back, I think his name was Hugh Smalls. You can’t tackle that guy, it’d be hard to tackle him. We barely beat them in regular season, but that was in Beckley.”
No matter the site, the 1984 playoff matchup, played on Nov. 16, seemed to be more of a continuation of the regular season matchup between the two teams.
After forcing a Beckley punt on the game’s opening drive, Bluefield’s Teddy Coppola ripped a 14-yard run on the Beavers’ first play but was stripped in the secondary, giving the Flying Eagles an early edge. A 48-yard run that saw Beckley’s Brian “Bull” Parker break six tackles set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Marvin Lawson.
It was the last time Bluefield trailed for the rest of the postseason, but the Beavers had yet to capture momentum.
That came courtesy of the Flying Eagles’ self-inflicted wounds
On Bluefield’s third drive, a would be third-and-10 turned into a first down after Beckley was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, granting the run-heavy Beaver offense a fresh set of downs. The trend continued later in drive after Smalls was tackled during a second-and-10 play that picked up just three yards. A late hit from Beckley drew another flag that gave the Beavers another free 15, avoiding a third-and-long situation.
Three plays later Smalls found edge and end zone from 11 yards out to tie the game, igniting the Bluefield offense.
Cortez Martin made it explode on the following Beaver drive, racing down the left sideline for a 74-yard scoring run with 7:59 to go in the half to make it a 14-7 game, a score that held into the break.
Shortly after the intermission came the decisive score and one of the reasons Culicerto can name Smalls 40 years later.
After holding Bluefield QB Keith Ruble to one completion in their regular season matchup, he hit on the biggest completion of his career.
On third-and-2 and less than two minutes into the second half, Ruble play-faked the run and a launched a shot deep to Smalls, playing a wing position, who hauled the pass in for a 63-yard score and 21-7 lead.
But the Flying Eagles didn’t go quietly.
Following an ankle injury to Coppola, a first team all-state linebacker that year, Beckley’s offense picked up steam, scoring on a 39-yard run from Lawson with 8:27 to play in the game. A successful conversion attempt made it a 21-15 game and Bluefield’s offense wasn’t opposed to helping the Beckley comeback with three fourth-quarter fumbles.
But penalties continuously derailed the Beckley cause.
A pair of 15-yarders in the third ended a potential scoring drive. In total the Flying Eagles committed 12 on the night, costing them 145 yards.
“I thought we stopped ourselves,” Culicerto said. “We’d run 15 yards then come back 10. We hurt ourselves like on that one drive we’d have first down, then we’d have calls and come back. And I just thought, you know, we just killed ourselves more than they killed us. We weren’t a heavily penalized team. We’d run 15 and comeback 10. I’ll leave it there. I thought that was the story of the game.”
Despite the penalties, Beckley had its chances. The Bluefield defense just found answers despite the defensive injuries.
The first came 7:33 to play. On fourth down at the Bluefield 14, Beckley rolled the dice in an attempt to keep its drive alive and score the tying touchdown. On an option play, senior QB Pat Collier race right but was stopped by Tommy Buzzo to end the Beckley drive.
Current Bluefield head coach Fred Simon, who was an assistant coach at that time, remembers the final defensive stands well.
“We stunted our line a little bit and they couldn’t pick it up,” Simon said. “That was the difference, because (Buzzo) stunted it out, and he made a nice stunt, and then didn’t get blocked and went down at the angle to get it. We ended up stunting both ends because that’s only way we could stunt, because Teddy was gone, and it worked out for us.”
Buzzo’s stop, as important as it was, nearly became just a footnote.
The Flying Eagles forced and recovered a fumble on the very next play from scrimmage, getting a fresh set of downs at the Bluefield 19. The defense held again, forcing an incomplete pass on fourth-and-15 with 4:30 to play. Needing another stop, Beckley secured one but not before the Beavers whittled the clock down to 2:40. Punting from their own end zone, the hosts got a fortunate bounce on a kick that rolled to the Beckley 46.
With Flying Eagles down to their last gasp, a blizzard resulted in an avalanche.
A first down sack of Collier by Bluefield’s Jimmy Blizzard stunted the drive. Three straight incompletions took care of the rest, sending the Beavers to the semifinals.
“It could have gone either way in that game,” Simon said. “And I mean, we beat a heck of a football team. I knew once we beat them, we had a shot, because they were a good triple-A team. You don’t get a Bull and the other guys they had often. That was an exciting last few minutes of that game. And when we when we lost Teddy, everybody’s thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, how we gonna stop them?’ So we stunted our butts off, and we ended up, you know, Buzzo gets through and comes right behind and ends that drive. They probably see us stunting, but the angle he took, he made a heck of a play. And if they get the option play there, it’s over. What a game and what a game it was up there (in the regular season). It was frustrating to lose the first one but it was a heck of game.”
Bluefield went on to beat No. 2 Brooke 17-0 on the road the following week, earning a spot in the Class AAA title game. There the Beavers handed Barboursville its only loss of the year, a 13-7 decision at Laidley Field.
It was the last Class AAA title for Bluefield which dropped to double-A in 1994. It also marked the second and final state championship won by legendary Bluefield head coach John Chmara.
The loss kicked off a 10-year playoff drought for the Flying Eagles who returned to the postseason in 1994. The ’84 playoff run was the last for Bluefield until 1991.
In the 40 years since that playoff meeting, much has changed. Bluefield has won five state championships in Class AA while Beckley has won just three playoff games in Class AAA.
The ’84 title was the first for Simon, who took over as the head coach in 1986 and has since guided the Beavers to the five titles they’ve secured in double-A with 11 title game appearances overall.
“Growing up here, we knew what everybody expected,” Simon said. “Growing up the ’59 team, I’m not old enough to appreciate it, but in ’67 I’m in the sixth grade and I see Pete Wood singing in the choir. The choir came and sang at my old elementary school. Pete Wood was in the choir. It was a ’67 state championship. And then I go in the seventh grade to Fairview, and they go 9-0. So I was already acclimated into the mindset we win. The ’67 state championship game was on television, first one ever broadcasted, and I watched it at my house, and it was kind of neat because it was up at Parkersburg, and it was exciting. I always knew what was expected of us. I never dreamed that coach Chmara would leave and when he left, I asked (assistant coach) Tom Ferrell, I said, ‘Tom, you deserve it. Now, if you apply, I’m done, but if you don’t apply, I’m going to apply for it.’ He said he wasn’t going to apply. So that helped me. And I don’t know if I was ready at 30, but in the back of my mind I thought if I don’t take it, I may never get it. So it was an opportunity that was luck. I got it, suffered through some tough times, and I think it’s probably made me better, because if you start out winning, then you’re thinking it’s easy. Well, life isn’t easy and you got to have some kicks in the butt and some knock-you-down stuff to help you to become the man you need to be.”
After the a fourth class was added to football in December, Bluefield remained in the new Class AA while Beckley was elevated to the new Class AAAA, putting the future of the rivalry in doubt. Logistically the ratings points or lack thereof, make the series somewhat fruitless for Beckley which has more to lose.
Friday, the two long-time rivals will meet for the 77th time, both with aspirations of making it back to Laidley Field, the venue they both vied 40 years ago.
Email: Tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
