Photo courtesy Ben White

Chapmanville football’s Devin Wiley hands the ball to the official at last week’s game at James Monroe. The Tigers host rival Man on Friday night in the annual CRHS homecoming game.

slideshow

CHAPMANVILLE — A homecoming game is always important to a high school football team.

It is often the “hinge,” if you will, to success later in the season if you can win it.

The Chapmanville Regional High School football team needs a win on Friday as the Tigers (3-3) are scheduled to host Class A county rival Man (2-4) in the annual CRHS homecoming game at Tiger Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Chapmanville evened its record with last week’s 19-6 win at James Monroe. Man won its own homecoming game last week with a 48-13 victory over Fayetteville.

“When you are 3-3 they are all important,” Chapmanville coach George Barker said. “We don’t have a lot of room for error as far as the post-season is concerned. In order for us to move on we need a win this week. We just need to play. I think our kids need to understand that we need to play the best that we can play. If they are better than us they are better than us. We need to strive for excellence on the field and we’ll take what we can get.”

Man is led by running backs Braden Griffin and Tracy Jones. Both eclipsed the 100-yard rushing plateau last week against the Pirates. Man’s quarterback is freshman John Thomas Keffer.

“They like to run it but I’ve been impressed with their young quarterback with his ability to throw the ball,” Barker said of Keffer and the Billies. “We just have to play a complete game just like we did last week. I watched them on tape and Man and James Monroe are very similar to what they do on offense and on defense. We’ll just get ready to play. We feel good about having the opportunity to play a county rival.”

Chapmanville was led by senior running back DaShawn Alexander last week. Alexander had 108 yards rushing on 11 carries and scored on a 63-yard touchdown. Brandon White was 4-for-6 passing for 52 yards and a touchdown. Max Spradlin was 2-for-3 passing for 74 yards. Dustin Smith added 23 rushes for 70 yards. Wide receiver Brady Cox had three catches for 77 yards.

“It was a real strange trip. We had some bus problems,” Barker said of last week’s game against the Mavericks at Lindside. “It seemed like we had to fight everything except our team. For the first time all year we played as a team completely. I’m real pleased with their performance. Outside of the initial part of the game our defense played super. We rallied to the ball and gangtackled real well. Offensively, we did what we had to do. We didn’t make mistakes. If you look at our three wins and the three loses there’s a huge difference in the turnovers. We managed to keep our turnovers to a minimum. I think that’s the difference to the game.”

Chapmanville has played a long-standing series with county foe Man dating back decades.

The series resumed in 2000 and both the Tigers and Billies are 6-6 against each other during the time period. Chapmanville has won the last six meetings after Man won the first six.

“If you look back at the history we beat Man High in the late 1950s and then it was 20-plus years before we beat them again,” Barker said. “We beat them in the 80s and it was another 20 years before we beat them again. In the recent past, we’ve had some success but Man High has a tradition of being a great football school and community and we have the utmost respect for them. They were pretty dominant with Coach (Tootie) Carter. When I played Coach Carter was coaching. They were good for decades. They are down to Single-A now and it’s a little bit different game with them being a smaller school but they are still Man High and Man High football is a great football community. They like to play football and they are going to be ready to play. We have to be ready to play, too.”

Barker also had praise for his punter Dustin Conley, who booted the ball three times last week for an average of better than 40 yards a kick.

“Our punt game was also super,” Barker said. “He’s the best that I’ve seen. He flipped the field for us last week and gave us a short field. He does a great job for us.”

Cardinal Conference

Football Standings

TEAM W-L CONF

Scott…………………….. 6-0 4-0

Wayne…………………. 5-0 3-0

Mingo Central………….. 3-2 0-1

Chapmanville………… 3-3 2-2

Tolsia…………………… 3-3 2-2

Sissonville……………… 2-3 1-3

Poca……………………. 2-4 0-3

Herbert Hoover………… 1-5 1-3

Friday, Oct. 5 games:

Man at Chapmanville (Homecoming), 7:30 p.m.

Tolsia at Mingo Central, 7:30 p.m.

Wayne at Scott, 7:30 p.m.

Sissonville at Herbert Hoover, 7:30 p.m.

Poca at Webster County, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 28 results:

Chapmanville 19, James Monroe 6

Scott 37, Westside 12

Wayne 53, Mingo Central 14

Tolsia 14, Sissonville 7

Herbert Hoover 19, Poca 16