Parkersburg South’s Eli Bartley (11) runs the ball during a high school football game against Princeton last week at Erickson All-Sports Facility.
(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
PARKERSBURG — Despite the vast distance between the two schools, Parkersburg South and Martinsburg have a history of facing off in the playoffs. In two out of the last four years, the Bulldogs have knocked the Patriots out of the playoffs in resounding fashion en route to claiming the class AAA title. This year, the #14 Patriots have the chance to play spoiler against a third-seeded Martinsburg squad that sits at 9-0. They’ll meet at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The last matchup between these two teams was in the first round of the playoffs in 2021. Martinsburg won that game by a final of 83-20. In 2019, the Bulldogs beat South 77-20 in the state semifinals. Patriots head coach Nathan Tanner said of the frequency with which the two teams have played each other, “It’s been a common opponent, but the last few times it’s been a tough out. They’re always an exceptional team.”
It has been an up-and-down season for the Patriots through ten games. After a 3-0 start, South lost to their cross-city rivals, the Big Reds, 43-35. Since that matchup, the Patriots have gone an even 3-3, finishing at 6-4 overall.
Parkersburg South ended the regular season with a loss to 9-1 Princeton by a final of 48-27. Running back Gage Wright scored all four touchdowns for the Patriots.
Tanner commented on the loss to the Tigers, “It was a tough loss. We had some frustrating moments that bit us in the butt in the end. We had two very untimely fumbles, on the first drive in the red zone and the second one going into the endzone when we were about to score, so those were tough. We had four moments on defense where we had blown coverages. Some of it was eye discipline, and some was missed assignments. Those things really hurt us… When you play a good team like Princeton, it’s hard to overcome mistakes like that.”
In the midst of their undefeated run, the Martinsburg Bulldogs have shut out three of their last four opponents, blanking Musselman (42-0), Washington (62-0) and Hedgesville (36-0). Martinsburg’s closest victory of the season came against H.D. Woodson of D.C. by a score of 26-12. Spring Mills put up the best fight of any West Virginia opponent, falling to the Bulldogs 23-6. All other victories for Martinsburg have been by over 25 points.
Tanner described the strengths of Martinsburg and what the Patriots will have to do to overcome them, “With Martinsburg, their strong suit is their interior guys up front. Their d-line and o-line are really good. We will have to match their intensity and level of play there. Defensively, we will have to be stingy and not give up big plays.”
Parkersburg South is looking to use their position as the underdog to its advantage, “We don’t have anything to lose right now, we are in the underdog seat. I told our kids ‘not many expect us to win or be successful except for us and the people in the locker room.’ We are going to stack as many good days of practice as we can and give it our all.”
Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com
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