By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
Herbert Hoover has waited a long time to host its first football playoff game in program history.
The original school opened along the banks of the Elk River in Kanawha County in 1963, but the Huskies never had a home facility capable of hosting postseason games. Even just a few years ago when Hoover went unbeaten through the regular season and was the No. 1 seed in the Class AA state playoffs, it played its postseason game at University of Charleston Stadium.
Do the math. Sixty-one years is a long time to wait, then add another extra week thanks to the legal drama that postponed the West Virginia high school football postseason, but on Saturday the Class AAA No. 4 Huskies will host No. 13 Elkins at one-year old Husky Stadium on the Hoover campus in Elkview.
“Our community is excited about it,” Hoover head coach Joey Fields said. “Any time you play football in our community our fans, parents and alumni are going to show up and support our kids. It’s an exciting time, and I think our kids understand that and are ready to go.”
The Huskies (10-0) were the dominant team in the new-look Cardinal Conference this season. Senior quarterback Dane Hatfield was the league’s player of the year and was one of 10 All-Cardinal Conference first team selections along with running back Blake Fisher, receiver Sam Kee, linemen Mighty Lopez, Connor Facemire and Ethan Patrick, linebackers Talon Harrison, Hayden Payne and Devin Silvas and defensive back Gabe Blackwell.
Saturday’s game will be a rematch from the regular season when Hoover walloped the Tigers 56-7 behind a six-touchdown performance with 434 yards of total offense from Hatfield.
“‘You hate to play a team twice,’ or ‘You don’t want to play a team a second time in the playoffs’ – I don’t believe any of that,” Fields said. “Each game takes on a life of its own. We’re familiar with them, they’re familiar with us. That could go good for us, or that could go bad for us. We talked about our opponents being faceless and us getting better. Of course you have to scheme and get ready for everyone, but if we take care of the football, play with great effort and maybe tackle a little bit better than the first time around, control the line of scrimmage a little better, then we’ll be OK.
Elkins (5-5) has been a team of streaks in 2024. The Tigers opened with a loss at Liberty (Harrison) before rolling off consecutive wins against Lincoln, Lewis County, Buckhannon-Upshur, Philip Barbour and Grafton. Since then, however, Elkins hasn’t won a game against a very difficult schedule with losses to North Marion, Fairmont Senior, Hoover and Robert C. Byrd – all of them playoff teams this season.
The Tigers are led in the run game by Big 10 Conference Player of the Year Nick Bowers, who ran for 2,227 yards and 29 touchdowns this season and accounted for more than 2,800 all-purpose yards for the Tigers. Against Hoover in the regular season, Bowers found room to run for 132 yards – including a 66-yard touchdown run on the game’s first possession.
“[Elkins] is going to play hard,” Fields said. “They’ve got a lot of seniors that are fighting to play another game.”
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Nitro is back in the postseason for the second consecutive season, and for the first time since 2007 the Class AAA No. 6 Wildcats (9-1) will host a playoff game at Underwood Field when No. 11 Shady Spring (7-3) comes to town on Saturday.
Last season was the first time back in the postseason in a long time for Nitro, but the occasion was met with a speedy exit in the first round after a loss at Scott. That team featured an offense that could put up some points, but a leaky defense.
The Wildcats seem to have shored up their defense in 2024, and have become one of the most balanced teams in the state. Nitro scored more than 50 points five times this season and topped 60 three times in its last four games. The defense held opponents to single digits or scoreless five times – allowing an average of just 12.8 points per game while scoring 45.4 points per game.
Nitro senior quarterback Josh Moody finished the regular season as the state’s top passer according to MaxPreps with 3,134 yards through the air to go with 35 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. Moody’s favorite target has been junior Malachi Thompson, who had a state-best 1,258 receiving yards during the regular season in addition to 16 touchdowns. Senior running back Eli Littlejohn was a workhorse for the Wildcats, carrying the ball 154 times for 1,133 yards and 19 touchdowns.
“It helps [having Moody, Thompson and Littlejohn] – it makes you look good for sure,” Nitro head coach Boom McKinney said. “That’s an excellent group, and those are the guys who stand out to everybody, but it all starts up front and you have to give the credit to the offensive line for making that happen – but when you’ve got a weapon like Malachi Thompson, a 6-4, 200 pound freak that can jump out of a gym, you’re pretty lucky. Eli is well over 1,000 yards in rushing and has more than 1,500 total yards. Josh is breaking records.
“What really helps them out is we have other weapons. Luke Shafer has made some crucial catches this year at really important times. You have Takye Porter, a freshman, and Bryson Sowards on the other side from Malachi – when you’ve got one guy to worry about that’s one thing but when you have four guys to worry about, or five counting Eli, it’s hard to defend all those guys.
Shady comes into Saturday’s contest coming off a 48-7 loss at home to Wheeling Central on Nov. 8 to close the regular season, but prior to that the Tigers were playing good football down the stretch with consecutive wins against Liberty (Raleigh), Wyoming East, Nicholas County and WestSide prior to the loss against the Maroon Knights.
“They are a really well-rounded team,” McKinney said. “No. 1 [Jalon Bailey] really stands out and they have a pretty good quarterback [Cal Culicerto] as well. You can’t sleep on that guy. He’s tall, lanky and can sling it. They’ve got a really good running game. They don’t do anything too fancy, and it doesn’t seem like they have a whole lot of plays in the playbook, but they’ve just gotten really good at what they do.”
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The Kanawha Valley’s two Class AAAA programs will square off in the first round of the big school playoffs on Friday when No. 11 George Washington (7-3) visits No. 6 Hurricane (7-3).
It will be a rematch of the Nov. 1 game also played in Putnam County, with the Redskins beating the Patriots 37-21.
Hurricane senior quarterback Noah Vellaithambi completed 18 of 26 pass attempts for 270 yards and three touchdowns that night while also running for 75 yards and two scores, while receiver Ja’lei Burnette caught even passes for 121 yards and three touchdowns.
Both teams ended the regular season with losses as GW went on to lose 14-12 at Woodrow Wilson in Week 11, while Hurricane saw a 17-0 lead turn into a 44-17 loss to visiting Martinsburg in the final week of the regular season.
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Scott finished the regular season as one of the hottest teams in Class AA and will ride a seven-game win streak into the state playoffs.
The Skyhawks (8-2) are the No. 7 seed in the Class AA bracket and have an opportunity to avenge one of their two losses from the regular season with a matchup against No. 10 Wayne (6-4) set for Saturday afternoon in Boone County.
The Pioneers beat Scott 26-6 in Week 2 but the Skyhawks have since found their stride with standouts Nate Easterling and David Fennessey helping lead the way.
Scott was perhaps at its best in the final week of the regular season when the Skyhakws knocked off a very good Williamstown team – one that finished 8-2 and ranked No. 4 in Class AA – 17-7 in Madison.
Wayne, meanwhile, stumbled a bit in the back half of its schedule as some injuries began to pile up, with consecutive losses to Hoover, Chapmanville and Ripley before closing the regular season with back-to-back wins against Logan and Sissonville.
