Week Three: Adjust Your Priors

0:00[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Sports fans, it's time for the Friday free fall! Over the next two hours, we'll bring you all the latest from across the region in high school and college sports. Here are your hosts, Michael Middick and Alex Wheaterspil. Welcome, welcome in! Good morning, everybody! It is the Friday free fall brought to you by Dan Cavitt, a Buick GMC, another great week of high school football coming your way, a bunch of great games coming your way this week, and of course some big, important games already done in the books and over in weeks one and week two. I'm Alex Wheaterspil. He's Michael Middick and we're here with just a schmorgasbord of guests who are going to join us today. We'll get to them in just a moment here.

1:02Mike, I'm loving this man. It's week three and already I can feel like there's pressure on teams to start winning football games who either lost last week or haven't won at all. Yeah, and I think you're already starting to see some movement in teams that like you said that are used to being 7 and 3, 8 and 2, not in one 10 and 0. There are one and one are 0 and 2 even in the case of Fairmont seniors. So that's one of the things I like about football versus a lot of the other sports is not everybody gets in the playoffs. You have to earn your way in. And so for these teams there's a little bit of heat now where they have to finally start turning the wagon around or they're going to be watching November from home this year. We have some brilliant games coming up this week and as a result, so we've got a just a laundry list of guests today. Of course, Fred Persinger is going to close out the 8 a.m. hour as he has done as far as I'm aware for every episode of this show during football season. I'm fairly confident of that. And I don't don't don't at me if I'm wrong. We're just going to go

2:09with that. We're also going to talk with Craig Dutton. Lincoln has a really big week this week against Grafton. So we'll also talk with play by play voice John Bord was also the strength and conditioning coach at Grafton again putting the rest of us to shame weekend and week out. We are going to chat about South Harrison. Mike and I obviously I am the play by play voice of South Harrison. So that makes it and Mike covered them for many years. So that makes it very easy for us to just sit down and chat about the Hawks. We will do that. We're going to talk with Travis Jones Chris George and I have a new guest joining us this week for the first time the east Fairmont play by play. I got to make sure I get this right. I should have written this down earlier. Well, I got to find his name. It's Brad Heltsel the play by play voice of east Fairmont football is going to join us as the Bridgeport Indians are taking on East Fair mont this week. Of course, this is the flagship station for Bridgeport football. We'll also

3:09talk with Bill Nester about Robert C. Bird. Very excited to hear about very excited to hear Bill not completely exhausted and and groggy and and you know voice just just you know cut to pieces after you know four plus hour broadcast. They have a big game coming up against Kaiser. We'll get into that. And that of course North Marion Phillip Barber. So we'll talk with Sean McNamara from North Marion and we will talk with Brian Bibi from Phillip Barber. It is a big big week. But I tell you what you know Mike that RCB Kaiser game is really intriguing because a lot of times this has been the opener for RCB and it usually when it has been it's been kind of a a temperature taking game for the Eagles. But I feel like we already have a pretty good idea of what their temperature is now. So this is a little different dynamic. This go around happening in week three. Yeah, and I think this is one of this series where the home team tends to do really well. The team that has to travel two and a half hours and a bus enough surprisingly doesn't do as well. And I think back to the game two years ago where we're we're burdened like the best team of the state

4:13for for for 60 minutes. Didn't quite translate to the rest of the season but they were very good in that game. Kaiser got a quality win over them last year that helped them you know get a higher speed in the playoffs and you know kind of you're on that top 10 area. So really intriguing game. Kaiser's got a lot of guys back and obviously Bird is flying high and had an extra day to prepare which makes a difference too. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a break here. Got lots to get to and we are going to start with North Marion and Philip Barber. That's coming up on the other side of this first break. Let's pay some bills. This is the Friday free for all. Brought to you by Dan Cavittay at a World. He's Michael Menick. I'm Alex Wheeder Spiel. We're back right after this. Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan Cavittay out of UIC GMC Friday free for all. Friday free for all brings us to Philip Barber and North Marion. We're going to talk with Sean MacDamerica coming up in just a few minutes. The play by play voice of North Marion Huskies. This is a great, great local game. I know it's double a triple A but Philip Barber coming off a

5:14pretty good win against Buck Cannon up. Sure they're feeling good 2 and 0. I think North Marion might be feeling a little bit better after they're we'll call it offensively slow showing against East Faramont. A game that they ultimately didn't need much offense to win but they got the job done nonetheless. Now these two big 10 foes will meet and ultimately it is funny in some ways. It's double a triple A so this feels more like a measuring stick game. This feels more like a barometer game for both teams in some ways. It feels more important for Philip Barber but we're going to break all that down with Brian. By be right now the play by play voice of the colds. Brian you guys are 2 and 0 win last week over Quade Buck Cannon up. Sure chance to throw another giant on the pile for Philip Barber this week. For sure Alex and it's you know you keep punching up and weight class you know you're trying to get as many points as you can with a win. I've

6:15certainly strength the schedule continues to get better and better for Philip Barber but you know again going back to this match up between these two schools. If I'm not mistaken Philip Barber is never beaten North Marion and last year they came probably as close as they had been for years lost I think it was 20 to 13 and had their opportunities and let them slip away so certainly Philip Barber is looking forward to this opportunity having the huskies on their home field at George Byerfield at Freedom Bike Park. Brian that's where I was going to go next is the closest game before last year was a 21 point game. So we've talked a lot in preseason the early part of the season about what challenges this Philip Barber have left what what you know new nations do they have to conquer. Never be North Marion is one of the list they can beat North Marion that's another thing the program has never done before. It's another step Mike you know and you keep talking about building a porn program and the foundation blocks certainly have been laid and now they're starting to build the frame and the the roof of this this program and I think this would be a huge step continuing

7:23this process of maturation of a of a of a program that that you know considers themselves and they should rightfully so you know a powerhouse in in WA now. What did you think about the win over Buckhanded up sure last week I think any like I would just say from my perspective I think any time you win not just up a classification but I have two classifications I don't really care I don't really care about the quality of the team at that point because we're talking about massive size differences we're talking about all sorts of things that that are or reason why we have classifications in the first place so what's your perspective walking out of a four touchdown win on Friday night. Well it was a very competitive game up till half time and then some adjustments were made by the Phillip Barber Coates coaching staff they came out after half and you know from from a from a secondary perspective that was going to be our biggest test because they are a lot of the new faces back there and boy did they ever answer the bell Alex six interceptions on Friday night

8:29and you know I was very impressed with the maturation process of that that secondary I was to those new faces there and what they were able to accomplish and and you know they put a lot of pressure on the Buckhanded up sure quarterback leverage was a big key for us I talked to coach Maley there last night and leverage was a big key up front both on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball that that allowed them to to win that battle Lane and Carpenter I mean he ran for 256 yards three touchdowns on Friday night the offensive line starting to gel defensive lines playing really well that linebacker core solid they will have their hands full now with North Marion Huskies you know certainly that point Dexter he's the heck of a running back and I remember seeing him as a freshman and he opened my eyes really wide first time I saw him run he so shift he so fast they will have their hands full with him and that quarterbacks of a ball player too so they've got big men on the line again leverage will be the key for Philip Barber for this Friday night to have an opportunity to win that ball game after this week they're going to see a

9:33lot less passing with Bridgeport and Elkins but down the road playoff so much that helped to see a couple teams that can pass the ball early in the year well I think it's huge because we saw down there at Bluefield last year in the in the semifinal game that you know that some of those teams down south they can really spread you out and know that it's throwing all over the place so having that opportunity to do that now shows that you can do it yeah you know you got to get past this North Marion game and like you said Mike you got you've got Bridgeport and you've got an Elkins team that's upset and fired up after they're lost at more field and yeah you've got a tough three game stretch right here so why don't you remind folks where they can catch the broadcast tonight and we'll let you go yeah so we'll be doing the pregame at 6.40 pm kickoff is at 7 pm we're on locally we're on 12.40 am at 99.9 FM WD&E but you can also catch us on the WRC media app and you can also stream us worldwide at www.wd&efm.com Sean McNamara is now with us as we're

10:40going to talk a little North Marion football and Sean I'm kind of curious about a couple of things with regards to North but I do want to I want to know if you could compare weeks one and weeks two do you feel like the team a took a step forward in their win 3719 over Preston and more importantly did they take a step forward and Darren Hays's eyes they I do believe in co-chases eyes yes I would say a little bit we talked last week when I was on with you guys and thanks again for having me about how North Marion kind of missed the big play in week one and that was you know what was missing from their game where they otherwise had really good defense against East once again against Preston they had stellar defense however they did find that big play a few times they hit a 51 yard touchdown pass in the opening quarter they had a 33 yard touchdown run from point dexter in the second quarter an 80 yard touchdown run from point dexter in the third quarter and then they hit on a 40 19 and 42 yard passing touchdowns as well so what was missing from the big

11:42play they did find against Preston um defensively more the same the starting defense in North Marion has still only given up six points on the year Preston went for about they went for 290 yards total in that game however a hundred only 166 came against the North Marion starting defensive unit so a lot of those came late in the or those are all fourth quarter yards when North had started subbing so defense once again stellar for North Marion and in the fog up there Preston could not see the field it was never seen anything like it I had to whatty tailers the offensive coordinator and was walking over to the play by play booth telling me who we called the play for so I knew who had the ball and then I watched for the official spotted it we would we could not see anything hardly at all in the second half so that was fun but uh yes I do think I stepped forward because exactly that the big play two wins on the road as well in the conference how important is that to kind of

12:44start the year off with that kind of confidence that you you can weave Rachel and get victories yeah absolutely this is the fourth straight season the North Marion has started 2 and 0 and they've gone 3 and 0 and all three of those seasons as well now you do it on the road as you said and you know picking up a four a win over Preston good bonus points there doing it in the fog on natural grass you know we've had two crazy weather events in two games and neither of them involved rain lightning week one insane fog week two so curious what's going to happen in Philippe in the same thing but yeah I think you're exactly right it's a good boost for the team. I a real quick question for you Mike do you remember you may have already been at the paper in Kaiser at this point do you remember going back to the big east days WVU and Rutgers played a men's soccer game I was on the call that game for back those were those were the old uh uh MSN sports net I think back then that was even pre WVU sports.com um and obviously well pre dating ESPN plus but so the relevance here

13:47Sean is that I called that match as a I'd maybe a junior in college and I will tell you that um from about the 35 yard line to the 35 yard line so I could see what was going on in the 18 but anything that happened in like either like middle fourth of the field I could not have told you what was going on it was a total fog bowl so I have been there and I get that it was the red blurs versus the gold blurs uh and I imagined something similar like that was occurring for you. Kind of North marion was wearing white so they just me and my broadcast partners Steve Harbard it's all we were talking about and I got to the point of my Steve goaches this is all we're talking about. I thought was if I was a listener or a viewer I would be getting annoyed with all the fog talk right now he's like what else are we gonna talk about we can't we can't see anything else that's happening and it was really remarkable. The fog is moving I see a ball somebody's carrying it. Yeah in the PA guy Preston was even like running play to the right somebody's got it. He was having fun with it too it was quite quite

14:53the scene. Yeah good win good win for North marion and a big one this big one tonight. All right hopefully less fog coming up and and yeah this is obviously a huge game you know we had a chance to talk with Brian Bible play by play voice for Philip Barber and he is I think very aware of how big of a game this is for Philip Barber certainly because this is a win that they did not get a year ago and and we know that win against a triple A opponent especially one who's probably going to rack up some bonus points has the potential to do some real work for Philip Barber in the rating so they should come out very motivated in this one and as I recall there was a little controversy in last year's game as well was there not on a late call there was a going into the end zone a fumble call my remembering that one specifically but I do know it was a sloppy game in that one North marion through three interceptions in in that one last year they ended up coming away with the win so it was a hard fought game and it was it was a good one last year North marion had eight stacks a

15:54year ago up in rake so like I said they threw three interceptions and Philip Barber's Malachi polling was awesome that game for Philip Barber Aden Dorn had two field goals in that one so it was very good this will be the fourth time North marion goes down to philippy they've won two games and a shut out there and then two years ago 47 to 24 never lost to philipp barbers seven to know all time with last year's 20 to 13 victory being the only one decided by less than three touchdowns so it's been it's been a kind of a lopsided series but last year was a really good one for two teams did you know each made a good run to the playoffs. Well Barber's table throw in the ball ball and carper has been fantastic for them how do you feel like he matches up with the defense that is playing so well for North marion North marion's run defense has been outstanding this year so you mentioned carpenters average and eight yards of carry six touchdowns on 53 attempts yada prime for sending the stats over and he's really good so I think with North marion they have

16:54good beef in the middle of Gavin Floyd Evan Miller back now and y'all rotating some other guys through and then been really really impressed with the linebackers Aden poster and Parker Bigelow for North marion so if the philipp barber line men are able to get past that big front for North marion who really do a great job occupying space letting the linebackers blow downhill if they're able to get past and get a hat on the linebacker then they should be able to spring some runs I would yeah that would be their best opportunity to do that but I think North marion matches up really well with with just what I said because Gavin Floyd's a big kid and Evan Miller isn't even bigger so with those guys they Floyd three sacks last week by the way with them just able to kind of occupy the defensive line I think it backs us up well for North marion I was I was talking with you know Mike and I were talking with John board on on Thursday night getting some information on graft and any sentus down a rabbit hole here I'm not going to ask you this question outright just because it would be a lot of fun if the scenario could occur but should North marion

17:56win this game and should fairmont senior lose this week which is I think unlikely but even if they win I would ask myself this question when is the last time that North marion walked into a game undefeated against a fairmont senior team under 500 how late in the season would it have to be that's a fair question because they I mean fairmont senior was under 500 the year that they went on that run is the 16 seat I assume for a big part of that season my guess would be 97 when North won the title I don't know the answer I'm just throwing it out I don't know the answer guys I'm just I'm just I know it couldn't be 97 because I played week one so okay I'm not sure and senior was one or no so yeah they've been I'm looking back when North marion had undefeated starts and yeah I don't know that it ever would have happened because they played early season almost every year yeah so and I mean either way that's basically a lock that North marion will be

18:56over 500 fairmont senior will be under 500 so I'm assuming that's never happened either so anyway Mike I'll turn it over to you for the final question on North marion I love that so offensively what's one thing the North marion has to do to win this game they got to I think they got hit some big past plays we saw last week against Preston that when Colson Brown is decisive the quarterback for North marion and is able to get the ball out on time the North marion wide receivers Colton Campbell Jacob Kusik and Blake Johnson they can fly and they can create separation really early however if that is you know if that ball is not out on time they're not able to take advantage of those situations so I think that getting getting the ball out on time getting those big plays is going to be going to be massive I think that's the biggest thing tonight very good remind folks where they can catch the broadcast will let you get out of here well the huddle TV huddle fan Keck's a Keck's the video there and then coach Steven harbored on the husky corner search Steven harbored on YouTube and you get a free audio broadcast there very good thanks Sean and we'll

20:00go ahead and step aside glad we got to take a deep dive one of these days we're going to have to get you guys on at the same time when we have these matchups between especially big 10 schools but when we have a both play by plays and they're going to be going head to head we got to get you guys on for a little roundtable discussion in the future I like that idea yeah and I think we're workshopping things as we go here on the friday free for all brought to you by Dan Cavatoyota world we'll take a break come back we've got so much more to get into including Robert C bird and their quest to go three and oh that is next time for more high school sports on the 10 Cavatoyota Bueh GMC friday free for all Alex we just bill here with you michael minick also here with you and we're now joined by bill nester the play by play voice of rcb who I can only assume is better rested than the last time we talked bill I know you've got a busy busy you're in the middle of a busy week outside of just high school football but still I can't imagine

21:04anything compares to the marathon from last week so I think we've got you under better circumstances today much better for you are so rcb and kaiser this week and I was talking with mike about this in the opening segment and we we kind of noted that this is usually historically this has been an opener for these two teams and it's been kind of a you know a bell weather game in some ways rcb wins they're going to be good rcb doesn't win you have some concerns but the thing is i don't know that rcb needs a bell weather right now it seems like they might just be pretty good well you know what they've been playing in this some really good football in both these first two games and this kaiser game is one of those games that that usually is indicative of what the rest of the season is going to play out to be and under austin scott the home team in the three games since he's been the head coach has come out victorious and of course last year didn't things

22:06didn't go as well as they wanted five turnovers they had to take the back way to kaiser around 50 and I mean it was like a roller coaster ride why didn't i do that there there was an issue mike on the on the interstate and so they they went around it and oh my I took the road that way myself I was car sick when I got there I can imagine what the players felt like so you know that was a big issue there and from start to finish a game that they wanted to forget and it just didn't didn't play out well coach said when I talked to him that you they took very little out of that but they do know that you know kaiser is going to bring back a lot of players from last year and they're very talented offensively they're hard-hitting and of course that motion and misdirection you know I like them to the Harlem Globe trotters of high school football so we expect a lot of different things from them so you got to you've got to play aggressively and not get caught watching

23:06them I know the game at bird two years ago was maybe the best I saw junior smith play ever he was playing quarterback of course at that point but how much confidence do you think he has going into this game what kind of confidence especially after that touchdown pass last week that won the ball game for robert sebert and the way he's pulling in passes now making big plays he's been a go-to guy for this team for a long time he's played really well against the golden tornado so you expect him to be up for this one he battled some cramps early on against farewell senior last week but he looks to be okay and ready to go so I expect him to be able to step up and put his best foot forward but guys he's also a standout defensive player as well he's going to have to really come up and do a good job against this run for this team to be successful so for junior smith a big game on both sides the ball is needed kaiser comes into this one two and oh as well this has been a really strong start and I think in some respects that's part of the reason why you get excited about this

24:07football game because you know normally in the past we don't have a good idea of who these teams are but you know kaiser comes out they they blow out a burglary springs team who I think you know we would all agree that was expected and then they took care of Lewis County but and there were some oddities in that game as well because of the power outage at at Lewis County but that's still that's a really good road win when you take all things into a consideration there and I don't know that there's a lot that we can we can take at this moment rcb and and kaiser both beat Lewis in very similar ways so I don't know that there's a lot that we can really take from just the box scores of those games either so I'm kind of curious like what where does this as far as the toughness factor or level of difficulty on the schedule where does he think this falls for for rcb this particular game when I looked at the schedule before the season I'm thinking this game could be potentially the second or third toughest game you know you're looking obviously with bridge board and fairmont

25:08senior and then kaiser kaiser's always big strong and physical up front they pose a problem especially defensively they love to be aggressive up front typically a five man front they want to get in and penetrate and make things happen so you expect to see that same thing so with them sometimes it's better to to be able to set up the run with the pass which ironically is what's been successful for operative bris this year izee heathlin's been fantastic throwing the football he also ran for a hundred yards in the game against the polar bears in the day so when you look at this this team you say okay how are you going to be able to beat them now coach got told me he wants to be able to establish the run early and often this could be the game that we say izee calvert break out you know he talked about calvert in a preseason as being that heavy load type of back they could get you know a ton of carries in a game but he hasn't been that guy yet this could be the game

26:09that we see as they a calvert get that that game where he gets a lot of carries a lot of reps and really tries to put some pressure on kaiser because you you you look at this game it's the second of a three game homestand for obnoxie bird it's pivotal because when you look at the amount of wins you can get garnered from here on this is one of those games and if you get the w you can really get some bonus points which can help you down a stretch in the playoffs so you think well how pivotal is it it's pretty substantial for obnoxie bird because as you get in the playoffs you don't just want to get in you want to be able to play at home if you can one possibly two games and to be able to do that you've got to be able to get wins like this so this is a very very important game for obnoxie bird in a week number three how do you think the extra day off maybe helps them i think helps a lot Michael the reason for that is you had a couple guys dinged up i see a halfland of the standout quarterback and defensive back dinged up in the first half of the game

27:11against the polar bears came back played really well in the second half but i think a lot of that was because of adrenaline i think he's going to be sore at an extra day to rest also looking for dice the four-year starter on the line on both lines offensively and defensively had some issues he's going to be able to go but he's sore as well so having the extra day of rest pivotal for a couple key players for obnoxie bird and also an emotional game like that but also it took so long to play the game and i thought to coach and i had one of the questions i asked him was coach that two hour break that two hour delay had to seem like an attorney and he said at first it was just terrible just wondering if we're going to get a chance to play it he said but then when the official said it looks like there's going to be an opening just hang tight he said it felt like things kind of you know settled down in the locker room and the guys wore this anxious because they they felt like they were going to get a chance to play it the big concern guys was it with only 8

28:1417 left on a clock if they left the field they were concerned that they might not get a chance to finish the game so once they got that scare and worry out of the way then they were able to move on but because it was so late at night and then you move into friday you have that hangover effect so game plan wise you really didn't get a whole lot done but i think the biggest advantage was getting to get the extra day of arrest after that hard fought physical game with fair mod senior yeah i i it's such a it is so unique and it is something that we we haven't really we don't get a large enough sample size team to team to really know how teams react to it so i'll be fascinated to see if there is any you know any hangover effect this week but as mic pointed out still an extra day in theory it's an extra day of rest so bill go ahead and tell folks where they can catch tonight's broadcast sure guys by the way i'm going to be working with film fedigan I'm looking forward to that film steps in and you can catch a broadcast on 101.3 the bear or 101

29:193 the bear calm 635 for the pre game and seven o'clock for the kick very good uh wait wait you already chased off you already chased off nutter well nutters got he's in sand the auger oh man yes sandy auger so he's uh he's off and he's got one of the game he's all going to be able to make so film feddy has been gracious enough to step back in and take care of business so you know if we got to have a pinch hitter who better than mr feddy just when i just when he thought he was out just when he thought he was out he's back i can't do pichino so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna i'm not gonna try i don't i don't know that i can get my voice i would have to call a four-hour game with a lightning delay in order to get my voice gravely enough to do pichino i think i think you could do it i know i could have done it there's no doubt about it yeah last week i do think i bill i think after the game and the next morning i think you could have done it there's no doubt 100% all right folks we got to take a break the show brought to you by dan cavatio to world we got

30:21so much more coming your way and we're gonna dive into bridge port east fairmont next including we also have a special guest we have the play by play voice of east fairmont brad heltser he'll join us on the other side of this break now back to the dan cavatio wick gmc friday free for all on 103 three w k mc friday free for all brings us to bridge port and east fairmont this of course is the flag ship station of bridge port football and dravis jones is the voice of the flag ship program of this station travis is with us now what's up man rhodic how are you i'm good i've this has been a crazy busy sports week and i feel like in a in a weird way like this is this is probably a good come down for bridge port after the the the battle with martin's berg there are no gimmies in in any sport there's no gimmies in football but compared to what they dealt with last week this is a probably a better opportunity to to get guys out there do what they need to do and then

31:26get them out early yeah i mean obviously he's fairmont struggling and uh you know the the numbers are down this year for the b's as well so uh you you know not to as you said you can't take anything for granted i i think more so tyler's approach and the coaching staffs approach this week is just getting back out there and try to fix some of the some of the issues that they ran into on friday night and uh you know quite honestly had a very good chance to win that game you know two turnovers on the red zone when you're down by seven with a chance to potentially tie the game um you know the the touchdown scored by martin's berg in the late stages to make it look like a 14 point uh win which you know it ultimately ended up being was a cosmetic score so the game was a lot closer than the score indicated uh so a lot of positives you know as i as tyler and i talked about on his show back on Tuesday night this program's you know certainly well-past moral victories uh certainly well-past

32:27needing respect uh to garner anyone's respect but i think that they accomplished both of those things uh friday and you know martin's berg is uh uh they're going to be hard to beat in in quade after seeing them i mean they've got skill all over the place i think their lines going to continue to get better their defense will continue to get better and they'll get some of the things fixed the bridge board exploited as well but um you know certainly wouldn't be surprised if we see either or both of those teams in charleston playing in in different championship games coming up in in December one quick note before i turn it over to mike uh just wanted to say Shane echo is uh we were big fans of his on the show uh it's tough to tough to deal when when you don't have the numbers it's a struggle especially as you keep climbing the ladder from double a into triple a it's not an easy thing to do i will also note for our listeners we will have uh the the play by play voice of east firm out football joining us uh momentarily here in this very packed segment with along with uh chris george so little editors note their mike i turned it over to you chavis i think the thing

33:32that stuck out to me about this game was how well birch will play offensively but also i don't think i've seen brisport give away that many mistakes in terms of turnovers and penalties and in a game with that magnitude i think that's the first thing is if they play the normal game i think they win yeah yeah uh and and you have to credit martin's berg i mean they they they picked off the pass and they they applied the hit to create a defumble so you know it was self inflicted to a to an extent on the turnovers and penalties i completely agree with you and you know we knew that coming in we talked last Friday you know five yard penalty uh you can overcome most weeks uh five yard penalty against martin's berg is a drive killer you know when you're picking up um you know odd various runs three yards of carry four yards of carry or you know really for the game rich port averages nearly seven yards of carry which uh i don't think any of us expected going in but uh yeah just too many mistakes there in the penalty department those are the type of things that i think they're going to clean up and and honestly i think Tyler uh you know a lot of that he thought

34:33had to do with fatigue in the second half uh you know this team that's the first time that uh and not many times during the season does berg port starters have to strain for four quarters and uh you know that's something they're going to have to get used to and get into game shape and you know again when they uh when they get later in the season uh you know and get some get some pushback whether it be at filibarber in two weeks or uh you know certainly over at Ford Hill in a few weeks you know there they'll be more prepared um just from a uh you know mental standpoint and also from a physical standpoint to have to play deep into a fourth quarter and play clean football we've talked a lot about Gavin Williams impact on offense and even on special teams i thought his defense performance really stuck out in this game and i thought like he was everywhere he was rushing to the ball he was defending the pass oh i thought he had a great game in all three phases yeah he um i think i think he showed you know martin's berg's got some great players and some of the best players in the state and and Brian dick and boston taudan i think Gavin Williams just

35:35showed that he's he's right there with them uh is some of the the the finest all around football players in the state we know we do us on offense you know special teams he was again uh you know perfect on his uh on his touchbacks aside from one and that was a beautifully executed onside kick that he kicked and recovered himself so um yeah no question about it i think if if anybody across the state at this point has been uh you know uneducated on how good Gavin Williams is i think friday night on you know a statewide level on metronautous television was a chance for people to really see him and and see that you know he is a legitimate candidate for the Kennedy award we talked a lot going into this year about first-best line i thought they played very well in this game open up a lot of holes for those backs to run through yeah that was good to see my too because you know you know didn't really get a good real good look at them against bachanan obviously everybody looked good against bachanan the holes were gaping uh this was going to be the first real

36:35test for them uh against a real stack box you know martin's burk put 11 in there and bridgeport had to communicate so the offensive line had to do some communication i thought Ralph Rootonstein the center uh was excellent and that department uh for bridgeport and uh you know that that was you know we've talked about it a lot that was the question on this team coming in was how quickly could that offensive line gel we knew that bridgeboard had the backs and you certainly had to be encouraged you know coming out third meeting with martin's burg and you know bridgeport rush for more yards in this game than they did in the previous two combined so uh a lot of right spots on the offensive side of things still some things to clean up in the secondary uh obviously but you know let's face that you're probably not going to face that type of athlete that you saw at wide receiver and it's slot receiver that that you saw on and even running back that you saw from martin's burg until you know you get probably deeper into the playoffs at least as a collective group i'm not saying

37:37that you may not see a good receiver a good running back from here on out but you know as a collective group they had five guys at at any one time they touched the ball they can take it from anywhere to the end zone obviously by by necessarily in the last game a lot of wins a lot of martin i'm interested in Travis to see this week called the other backs do i think we'll see more of knight and some of those guys against these fairies yeah goreby too i think goreby at the wings another guy that uh needs to get more carries you're going to be dependent on him and then you know Zach Hickman is a kid that uh his really to me been impressive uh he had an incredible run on a jump cut against the bacana and that i didn't fully appreciate until i went back and watched the drone film uh because of the angle you know i saw a whole new angle of it and that was that that was a heck of a run so you know yeah you're right that's that's the next group and this jv group has really been has been impressive and i think is even surprised the coaches a little bit from the line to the backs and and uh you know right on down on the offensive side of the ball

38:37um you know bridge port uh that kind of the feeling and and the thought was that you know this program might you know slip down a little bit after this year with this senior class graduating but after you know seeing some of these young kids and how good they how well they have progressed to this point they still got a lot you know a lot to go but uh they're on scheduled to really keep this thing rolling uh next year i think the nice thing about bridge port success is that you can legitimately you know dangled the carriage at the jv is of hey you're you're probably going to play a quarter or a half and just about every game of varsity level yeah and i mean you can't underscore how uh you know that domino effect has has worked a bridge port's favor over the years because really when you know when you go into next season and you're going to be extremely young for the most part uh you know instead of getting kids that are completely green in terms of varsity experience now you've got guys that you know if you if you stack all the quarters together you know they they played half of our city season uh the year before so certainly can

39:39underscore that and i think the importance of that has been monumental uh going forward it's especially considering this is the first year and i'm not sure we've noted this this is the first year in my memory uh the bridge port has not had a freshman football team uh due to the numbers their numbers are they started with enough but unfortunately due to injuries and and uh and some other extenuating circumstances with the roster they've not been able to have freshman team this year so the the the value of those jv games and i know they're trying to put a jv b team together uh to get some games but that you know that that's challenging you know heck it's challenging to get jv games as it is uh much less you know try to get a second jv game every week but uh they're certainly trying to get that accomplished one quick note i wanted to ask and this is sort of a backdoor fairmont senior question uh Travis sits there they're obviously on the schedule much later but with the way some of the things have shaken out with the schedule particularly with the start of the season fairmont seniors had the concern that maybe they're a little bit down

40:43compared to where they've been did that make the the the game against martin's berg even more important to get uh bridge ports would have battled tested ahead i know it's really early in the season but that that did that have more meaning as a result of that well you know i i i do think that the yes um i mean this game was was going to be important anyway you looked at it but i i i think more so looking you know i can look big picture the coaches would never do this but we you know we as broadcasters can look at the the big picture you know the worry is playing martin's berg if you lose the game i know the the playoff points are set up now that you know you're still going to benefit from that but certainly not as much as if you'd won the game um you know every team's goals to finish one or two to get home field advantage throughout the playoffs i i think what's going to be interesting to watch now is to see if a nine and one bridge board team can can land in that one or two spot at the end of the season and of course that's all going to be predicated on on the opponents and their success so i think bridge board now has to a you have to

41:49hope the martin's berg runs the table and i don't see any reason why that that can happen b you you know you need teams like forthill to have a good year you need you need teams like filibarver to win some games which i think they will um you know bird being two and o's a plus so you'd like to see them you know have a good season if you can beat them and uh you know spring valleys and other team that that you were counting on last year to give you a lot of points and they they had a you know kind of an off year last year so you want them to be good and then fair amounts another one i mean you'd always counted on fair amount to give you some points if you you know there are points available in that game uh i should say for either club and uh you know fair amounts schedule is tough and i know they they're pressing on friday they've got to win that game because you know if you look at some of their other uh you know uh the competition down the road i mean there's a good very good chance uh if things don't break well for them and they don't get this thing turned around they you know they could be uh very easily five and five four and six wow uh worth uh worth keeping an eye on and that's part of the reason why i wanted to ask about it

42:54because the the points the points spread is always so narrow when we get to the end of the season we're talking about fractions of of of of a full point usually and um well i'll give you the case and point last year just to that point as you said you know bridgeboard it came down to uh heritage verginia beating a team from verginia to give the indians the extra bonus point they needed to uh you know to move up a spot and get home field advantage so that's you're exactly right it you know it comes down to bonus points and tiebreakers a lot of the times uh the uh the countdown or the count up begins uh next week uh when we'll have our first playoff ratings to look at which uh won't mean a lot but they'll mean a little and we'll at least have something more to talk about uh Travis much appreciated man okay thanks guys appreciate it yeah and folks uh a reminder of course the game can be heard on one oh three three wkm z and where else Travis uh also on the bridgeboards sports app or at bridgeboard indians dot com and now we've got Brad heltsall with us who is the play by play

43:55voice of east fairmont and listen i think we all know this is this is going to be a tough week um this is a this is a battle you can't overlook anybody if you're bridgeboard um but i i didn't bring you here Brad because i wanted to talk about this game specifically just a convenient excuse that bridgeboard is playing east fairmont this week i just want to talk about east fairmont football because we haven't had a chance to really talk with you guys um this season so far and we're big fans on this program of of Shane echo think he's done a great job ever since he came over from uh Tucker County and i know it's been a tough start to the year and the schedule doesn't seem to get any easier uh with bridgeboard this week but you know there is a light theoretically coming after this week so let's talk a little bit about what east fairmont can still accomplish this season and and how you think they've looked yeah i mean i you mentioned coach echo obviously he's set a new standard when he came in here and you really saw that with the three straight postseason up until uh that street got snapped last year um when they went three and seven and they

44:57used to come on coaching staff the players they were very critical in the preseason the goal was to get back uh to the playoffs obviously at o and two they're already in a bit of a hole but as you mentioned maybe some reprieve coming in the later schedule so i think right now though it's kind of taking a step back from those postseason goals and just seeing um how can we get better week to week what are some things that happened in the first two weeks that maybe we can clean up moving forward well and echo even though they lost the graft in last week through for two touchdowns ranted a little bit for 43 yards how has he looked through two weeks a quarter back well i think the last week especially um throwing those two touchdowns it was at least a nice boost for him confidence wise you figure after you know pretty rough outing in week one against uh north marion i mean he got some playing experience last year i think he's starting to get a grip of the east fernon offense how they like to do a lot of the run pass option stuff

46:02you know he's noble enough to be effective in the ground game and you know he's capable of making a lot of the throws that east fernon asked in that offense so i think he's starting to gain a better understanding of things um and really the biggest thing for east fernon is just helping him out as a team by having this offense be enabled to stay on schedule i mean this is a team when they start to get behind the sticks in terms of down and distance it really limits their optionality and what they want to do on offense i know that most coaches will say you know a lot of your improvements really going to happen you know in the weight room it's going to happen during the off season uh it can happen in camp certainly and i know it's tougher to improve during the season do you see any avenues for east fernon to get better as the year goes along i again i know numbers are more of an issue this year than they have been in in the past and that creates a challenge in triple a certainly we just saw grafting go through that for a couple of

47:04years um but obviously they came out on the other side of it and i think that's where improving game to game becomes so important for this team because they're they're not always going to have numbers like this right i mean absolutely i mean you really don't have any choice but to try to improve in the season and obviously you know at this point in the season you're probably not getting a lot stronger a lot faster you that off season stuff so really it's about probably execution um going back and watching the film are we reading our keys uh defensively are we keeping you know containment when we need to be doing that offensively are we getting a hat on a hat with our blocking assignments i mean um at this point it's really about cleaning up what you want to do execution wise on both sides of the ball you're not going to become necessarily a better athlete or um become you know this super inlay more talented player it's really just about understanding how do we want to try to be effective and and win week to week

48:08and going out and executing that to the best of your ability as a player what would these have to do well tonight to keep this game competitive i mean the biggest thing obviously with bridge 40 is just being disciplined knowing defensively what is your assignment on a given play when bridge sports you know in a specific formation or you get a call as to accept as to what the call might be what is your job individually on the defensive side of the ball because i mean you guys know very well if you try to just follow the ball against bridge four or if you try to play it you know outside of yourself to make a big play in the back to other whatever you're going to end up regretting that decision probably with how much they have in terms of the post-nap movement and all the fakes so really it's about being disciplined containing the edge knowing what your job is

49:09down to down um to best contain that run game and i think if you're east you got to be realistic like make bridge four put together some sustained drives try you you got to limit the drives that are only one two three play i mean that was a big issue when he's played him last year i think bridge four scored on like three of their first four plays from scrimmage or something like that so that's always the issue against bridge four is just knowing your assignments and what you're supposed to do and i i think if you're east you got to be realistic like make bridge four sustained drives um if they're going to score right can you go ahead and do me a favor tell the folks uh listening at home and i i suspect uh our our bridge port listeners are probably not going to switch over to the east fairmont broadcast but for the rest of this season if folks are interested in listening to east fairmont football where might they find it on the radio um so the best way to listen and and really watch east fairmont football is on our youtube feed um efsn east fairmont

50:14sports network is what it stands for um i mean we have a lot of uh students helping us out we got great production team we got a couple of different play by play crews um obviously James Beckman our athletic director has really grown that with with sponsorships and we've gotten a lot of great community support on the east fairmont sports network and we've really kind of taken pride to to make that a quality product uh week to week so that's the best place to tune in so watch and see um east fairmont football very good i did not realize that it was exclusively on youtube but that is becoming more and more common um and yeah you are your spot on back uh coach Beckman athletic director Beckman he's done a great job with that um and i'm where one of our colleagues we we spoke to as well today uh Sean McNamara is uh also helped out with some east fairmont stuff in the past so um Brad we really appreciate your time hopefully we'll get you back on the show here uh later on in the season especially as as this schedule lightens up a little bit for east

51:18fairmont um with some i think there are some pretty winnable games in the uh really after week three that could make east fairmont kind of an interesting second half team so look forward to talking to you then absolutely thank you guys you do a great job all right thanks Brad really appreciate man all right awesome thank you guys appreciate it yeah i'll be in touch with you about next time we want to get you on for sure okay sounds good all right thanks man yep bye bye all right in three two one real quick mic just before we uh go to break here i just want to make a quick comment on on east fairmont because it is tough like i think we're all aware that when your numbers are down that's a problem but it's one thing to have like you know low-ish numbers in double a man when your numbers are low in triple a that really limits your options and this was an east fairmont team that went to three consecutive playoff uh appearances and no one has gotten this team closer to winning a playoff game in 20 almost 20 years then Shane echo when they lost by four

52:22to scot a couple of years ago so i you know i i get that they're in a little bit of a rut here and the dynamics of marion county football are all over the place in terms of who goes where and transfer portal and and all of that but at at the end of the day i think they they have clearly shown proof of concept in the past they just got to get those numbers back up yeah and i think the biggest thing that they've had the last couple years is just stability they went through a couple years there where they were changing not only coaches but changing systems they were going spread they're going back to traditional traditional setup which ain't an echo they'd be able to stabilize things and i think that also filters through right if you know at the high school level how you're going to play you're going to play that way at the middle school you're going to play that system out of at a youth age and then that just makes your high school team better so they had that great group of couple years ago the crook shanks as good as they've been as you said the last couple years and i think the thing with them is going to is going to be they're going to be competitive unit they're not a team that's going to win seven rate games they're going to be competitive in every game and and give a good accounting to their school and and they've done that

53:27even even last week to graphing they lose the game but get a couple passing TVs have a hundred yard rusher in bar like they didn't do badly against a graphing team that's searching this year yeah and i i think that that loss i there's again we know that coaches will say there's no there's no moral victory in losing but i do think that loss will look better when all is said and done because i think you and i are both kind of a very clearly and obviously trending grafting up now one final note on on Brad and if as s n the last soccer game i called for them is the last of these girls soccer team lost so i think i've been banned and put a root again because that was the only game they last two years ago is the trusty catholic at home i called that game and i've not called any sense because i think i'd be a jinx at this point michael minick blacklisted from the east for sports network because wow that's wild hey what other quick note i was just going to throw out there that obviously also you know shea necklace experience with tucker county comes into into play here as well because that is a program that has understood in the past the ebbs and flows

54:31of numbers and how to combat that so knowing that there is if you keep the fundamentals sound that there is sort of a light at the end of that tunnel so i know it's frustrating to be o and staring down the barrel of the likely best team in triple a who's also i i think we would both agree not thrilled with with last week and they they're ready to hit somebody and unfortunately for for east paramount that somebody is going to be them but there is this schedule does lighten up some pretty significantly actually and i'm not saying you win every every winable game or you win every fifty fifty game but uh there is going to be an opportunity for east paramount if they're playing good football to actually make a little bit of a run here when you think about the Lewis counties the Prestons the Buchanan upshures of the world um those are games where it's sort of a coin flip i don't really know anything about Lincoln county to be honest with you but uh so i don't know if that's a winable game or not but uh point still stands that i don't think the

55:35east paramount season uh is uh is quite over uh if that makes sense so um we'll take a break this has been our longest and will be our longest segment of the whole show um sure Fred will take up a fair bit of time as well but um glad we got to chat with uh with travis and uh and Brad and that was a uh a good opportunity to get east paramount on the show for the first time in this football season we'll step aside this is the friday free for all right to you by dan cavittayota world time for more high school sports talk on the dan cavittayota buick gmc friday free for all all right so grafting is now on the docket here and the bear cats i guess they kind of did what what they promised to do and they showed the promise of week one and playing a good game against a a competitive game against a good filiparber team and they come out and they get the win in week number two and john board is here with us now the play by play voice and the strength and

56:36conditioning coach i think that's your official side like okay i wanted to make sure i didn't know if it was like weight room guru or something like that okay strength and conditioning coach uh but so john um i think this is kind of we we were all asking ourselves the question you know how real is grafting and i think not just going out and winning but winning the way they did last friday is i think a pretty good sign that this team does appear to have taken a pretty big step they took a real big step in fact they they came out friday night and they totally dominated i mean they dominated from defensively offensively uh they took the ball right down the field and scored and it's been a while since we've been able to do that and they controlled the ball game totally controlled the ball game and it was it was running back basically by committee it just wasn't one running back he it they mixed it up that's where i was going to go next is six guys with 20 rxc

57:37yards or more that's that's a dream for a coach it is and the thing about it is you know when you look at it there's there were only two that are seniors i mean he's got some kids coming back that are that are pretty quick when you look at this link in team and i i got a chance to see them firsthand last week there's a lot that they do well and i think they were expecting to take a big step this year particularly defensively how do you like the matchup between grafting and Lincoln you know i offensively Lincoln likes to throw the ball they throw the ball extremely well i've watched them i watched them to get two games on film they they the elkins game the south-earth game they throw the ball extremely well uh not sure they run the ball that well the one thing that grafting does is they run the ball well um and they ran it well the second half against

58:37felt barber and the whole game against East Faremont it could be that ability that ability to run the ball for chase kenzie has they opened up his passing game when when then the diva doesn't know that if he's rolling out whether he's going to talk at her throw it and the thing about it he's so deceptive with it i mean he can pump and take off he can throw on the run and that's what makes him extremely dangerous when he takes off to the outside they better have somebody awning because i mean he can he can throw on the run and he can pump make a defender jump and take off so i feel like this question is going to sound like i'm asking about a Disney movie but i still feel like it has to be asked because grafting has i think taken a pretty big step as we discussed but i guess are they do you feel like the the athletes the student athletes the kids are they sort of in

59:41that mindset now where they actually believe that they're capable of doing this now having seen proof of concept yes and i'll tell you i'll tell you where how far they've gone the the the filibarber game was a gamer respect they felt they had to earn their respect they they'd lost to filibarber five times or yeah four times in a row number five coming in even though they lost they were ahead by nine points going into the fourth quarter two mistakes cost them the game they earned their respect they started feeling good about themselves they went down they used fair amount they went down to win and i you know you could see it in their faces they they were going to win this week they have practiced hard you know i think they they went from respect to wanting to hunt for a win and they got the win and it was a good taste you know it's first time we beat knees firm on i think in five tries so now you're playing a link now you're playing the

1:00:46link in program the that reference i'll six in a row two nine out of ten last two games have been close though what do they need to do a little bit better this year versus last year the year before where they were in the game it couldn't quite pull it out their secondary has to play well that's going to be the key secondary has to play well what coach belton or did this week and i can tell you guys what coach belton or did this week he brought in mike johnson who was the offensive line coach with my brother when my brother was head coach and he has changed some things he they've they've done things a little bit differently against east firm on the brownie men the week of the east firm on game he's continuing that you the offensive line has improved immensely so people don't know that but that's what happened it's so important at this level like i mean i i know we talk about this in in almost every respect with football at every level but i feel like even at the at the high school level might be the most important is being able to win

1:01:47that battle in the trenches because you never know what kind of quarterback play uh you're going to get weekend and week out uh hey john remind folks where they can catch tonight's broadcast wgi e92.7 john uh we'll talk with you next week this is going to be one of the most intriguing games of the week looking forward to recapping it with you then thank you just finished talking with john board play by play voice of the graft in bearcats off of the strength and conditioning coach kreg why don't they hiring you as the strength and conditioning coach at linkin no time soon uh night time soon i will give you that much credit i i i i i i've told i've told john he's putting the rest of us to shame i don't think uh at south hares and they have any intention of hiring me as the strength and conditioning coach and they they are correct not to want to do that uh that'd be the same for me too i don't know how much you can get away with you know eating fast food and watching football i i think i i think that i'll get you to the state championship in Charleston in front soon uh so we do have kreg dotten here with us play by play voice of the linkin cougars i know i got to do my job and actually introduce him um good win for linkin last week and and obviously

1:02:50one that i got to see uh first hand i thought the cougars were not just the better team in that game but they took advantage on special teams in a way that really made a huge impact in that game and i know the the final scores only a touchdown but i i also think sometimes one of the things that occurs when when south harerson place folks is look they're going to play everybody close uh because they play a ball possession game and i think if you walk out with a one touchdown victory i don't think that that necessarily um that that needs to look like a a one possession victor like i think for linkin that was a solid really solid win it was a solid win compared to where they were a year ago and taking on the south harerson hawks i would agree with that coach hathaway did such an outstanding job and always will be like you said you got to keep games close to the chest in terms of how you're going to perform and how you're going to finish so linkin just needed enough possessions and they won the toss or i actually know uh basically the took took the ball to

1:03:53start the game for linkin and scored on the opening drive versus south harerson that kind of set the pace for them we really didn't know what to expect from bear sob who came out starting quarterback for linkin he did an impressive job balancing the run in the past were the cougars and you know not one receiver really stuck out there you know cult medwards had a big catch light in a second half but honestly all together he was doing really good job about balancing the run and pass for the cougars around the game i would agree every time you have to play south harerson's got to be a very close game and i think they just prove they did enough in terms of the game plan to get by that evening special teams like you mentioned it was important to get that kickoff return for a score caught on rice really put on the jets on that return last week for 82 yards in a score and it is nice that you have a consistent kicker even though it's from the girl soccer team bristol toath went for three for three fourth attempt you know fumbled away on the snap but either way a lacrette to her who's been she's been working last three weeks diligently on the extra point game

1:04:59we talked a lot about kind of that change at quarterback per se with with sob at qb bar moving to receiver he has two catches in 42 yards it seems like they got what they wanted out of him with that move too they did and bear did a really good job about ball placement i mean he only put it in spots where the receivers had a chance even when he was flushed out of the pocket once and we really thought oh he's going to try to throw against you know the south harerson defense he put it in a spot that only colt net words could come down with it if anything so we feel that he has the intelligence uh you know between all of us in the radio crew we feel that he has the the ball smarts you know to replace a j bar really well in that qb spot and i think jacobart is proving himself to be a good backup so they really have two guys they can depend upon the season they still don't feel they're clicking offensively the way they want to they really want to be flowing where one play after the other they're ready to go that's where coach hawkins and coach coby carpenter wants to improve defensively i think that like they did enough they were aventatious in that second half uh and working against you know a very young sophomore

1:06:06quarterback they try to get ball pressure and i think that made the difference just a few big plays at the right time for Lincoln do you feel like the kugers were more balanced than they've been like i feel like they were i think they did a really good job on those couple of third and longs where they attacked downfield and certainly uh some of you know later in the in the game helped that south harerson was missing uh starting safety land in ross and and and Lincoln took advantage of that but i also felt like the running game looked much improved their uh run defense was not great but better um this felt like a more complete performance for Lincoln compared to where they've been the last year or two where they've been kind of relying on on one element of their game to get the job done oh they are they're they're putting a lion's fascist on guys in the middle we talked about Levi griever brison more as long as they could try to plug up most of what's going on the middle and they struggled a bit with a shepherd paw at times he's an outstanding tailback but i think you're really going to have to true want to force teams to the outside that's what they want

1:07:06to do they want to force graft in this week to the outside that's what they wanted out south harerson last week as well uh they're going to continue try to improve upon that they got one big shot in the arm this week Eli ice was approved to go back quickly he'll come back in as a starter cornerback for the kugers opposite of brody anderson they really expect him to do a really good job about shoring up the run game so that's one more element that link and we'll have back to really help them in terms of stopping the run uh you're you're right they're just going to have to take advantage of situations when they're given to them that puts a lot of pressure on the defensive ends you know to pull when to help conor ice at the outside linebacker spot and for brady and minor guys like him gavin jankens and jaden tomson you're just going to have to be called at the right time to put the pressure on who whichever qb in this week happens to be cha chance kinsy kreg we've talked a lot about how link and schedule sets them up to make the playoffs so they win a couple of games this is a big piece of that though playing a triple in team and grappling they've had success with the last couple of years it is it's one of those one games uh we talked

1:08:10about with coach hawkins a little bit and i even mentioned it in terms of uh two years ago they went down to elkins and the kids were just in their mindset thinking oh this is the same elkins it's not chadware got that program turned around nick mailey turned around philip barber this is a similar situation with graft and that's been the emphasis this week it's like this is not the same graft in team folks they're a lot more prepared or a lot more uh they are a lot more in terms of conditioning going to be ready to go along the line uh they've done outstanding job in the off season and encourage kids to come out in the weight room so they need to be fully focused on that just be ready to go back and forth they they feel they have some success potentially along the line play considering the senior laden offensive line and defensive line that link and will have they're wanting to try to be a little bit more av and you know dictate how the game will be uh paste you know part of the challenge here too as well I mean you mentioned it a little bit got to remind guys hey this is not the same old this is not

1:09:11the same old team this is not the same old team you got to you had to drill that message home as often as possible and then there's the fact that you actually have to play the game as well and and graft and does look right now like I think Mike and I agree that we were graft and curious when when the season started and now after what they did against Philip Barber obviously didn't get the win but played a really good game and now we know take not just winning but taking care of business against East Fairmont you know that's good teams are supposed to win games like that right the old joke of course which doesn't apply to high school football because as far as I'm aware there are no betting lines on high school football and if there are there better not be but you know good teams win great teams cover well I think that was a pretty that was a pretty great win for graft in last week so the thing that that stands out to me about this is that like for graft and they have to be kind of coming in very motivated looking at this game as one

1:10:12that for them could potentially propel them back into the playoffs at season 10 if they get the win so I feel like that's also the challenge when you're dealing with young players is you only get 10 chances at these and now we're down to eight and it may not feel like the playoffs are close but these games are going to make a huge difference for both these teams when it's all said and done and they're trying to make a run into the playoffs I would agree with that for graft and it's going to be a little bit more dire on air and they need at least get the 500 on the season have a chance and they're they're double a schedule and they have a number of dub I mean triple 18 and they're triple a schedule and they have a number of double a teams on it for graft and Lincoln has been pretty blessed with this last couple years based on their schedule play it can hurt and you see all these losses they take sometimes but it has motivated and got them to be a much more battle tested team in terms you know they only have three double a teams on schedule six triple a and one quad 18 that they'll face out of the big 10 conference makes a big difference for them from

1:11:15one week to the next and it's tough but we were talking to with the coaches looked at this schedule there's not one game you could say is a gimmie win but you can't say that not one game is also a gimmie loss in terms of that so each week Lincoln's got to come ready and battle prepared because there is a lot more parity this year in the big 10 conference Craig the start of the game is always important but I feel like it's especially important for Lincoln this week because they have a shoulder week following week how important is to get the weight and kind of control this game with Nicholas coming on a Thursday well that that's the funny thing with Nicholas County coming coming into this next week's matchup that's also going to be their homecoming they decide to go early this year on homecoming and that ought to be very interesting for the kugers trying to host that so early in the season and then you don't want to focus too early on that Nicholas County game that was a game last year you felt like there's a couple big plays if you had back you really could have changed the outcome and that one down at Somersville especially on the defensive side of the ball anytime they felt like they were ready to stop the run they couldn't stop the passing

1:12:16time they felt they were ready to stop the pass they couldn't stop the run that's how felt last year they can't get in that with graft in this week they'll probably pass the ball a handful times they want to continue to try to run the ball there are you know talking to John Bord there's about four five six different guys they get a carry from one time to the next so they're ready to go they got a bunch of healthy guys ready to make a name for themselves for the bear cats Craig go ahead and remind folks where they can catch the broadcast of this one if they are a fan of Lincoln and we'll be on the air on 93 five FM wfby.com slash Lincoln sports or on the wvrc media app at 630 tonight between Michael of Josh Montgomery and myself will go on and kick off set seven for McKinney field and grafting folks we're going to go ahead and take one final break pay some bills Fred Persinger is going to join us on the other side that's all coming up next here on the Friday free for all brought to you by Dan Cavattayota world i'm Alex Wheatersville he's Michael Minick and that's been Craig Dutton we're back after this time for more high school sports talk

1:13:18on the Dan Cavattayota buec gmc Friday free for all Friday free for all rolling on brought to you by our friends over at Dan Cavattayota world Alex Wheatersville and Michael Minick here and we're going to wrap the show at least the the terrestrial part of the show we're going to wrap the the the historic timeslot of the show with Fred Persinger we might have we might sneak a little bonus content in for you a little bit later uh for you podcast listeners but but Fred historically is the man who wraps up the eight o'clock hour and we have him with us now Fred what's up man all hard to believe getting ready to go into week number three i mean after this week next Tuesday we'll get the official ssa c rankings and 30% of the regular season will be history yeah i was thinking about that as well after like when when the clock struck zero which uh i didn't even mention this on your show there were some clock issues during the south harrowson Lincoln game but in my head i was like 20% of the season's over

1:14:20seem like it took forever to get here and now it's rapidly on its way out yeah yeah i mean it's like that because and it makes you realize though and of course this is always the the big conversation and and that's why i think it's totally fair even if coaches don't want to do it i think it's fair for us to do it and obviously you mentioned the playoff ratings coming out um you know next week but i was thinking about like even just that south harrowson Lincoln game that i think that's a game that had huge double a playoff implications for both of those teams probably also was a really important game for south harrowson that they that they didn't get and it's funny to think about that now but when you you know you will kind of look across the scope of high school football there are going to be games in week one and week two that will probably ultimately have an enormous impact on on what these final playoff ratings wind up looking like eight weeks from now yeah i think things like this that happen you know the twenty seven twenty lost by south harrowson to Lincoln what makes this happen is what coaches always say well it's all about the next game well for south harrowson it's definitely going to be about the next game because they need to

1:15:21win and they need to win they can't afford to stub their toe again so it's it's every game now really really is important yeah uh and so let's uh let's uh let's bounce around a little bit uh let's start with a team who i think in in one respect the complete opposite is true for them for last week bridge port falls thirty five twenty one to martin's berg and ultimately that's a game that probably won't be as important uh as some of the others we've talked about but it was it was fun for us and i think it gave both teams a nice test of where they are agree and both coaches uh Dave Walker and Tyler Ferris both agreed that however the game ended up both teams are going to be better for it and i don't think there's any question about that martin's berg came out winning by fourteen but it's actually closer than that that was a late score that made it fourteen so martin's berg came on the road got a nice win over Dave Walker saying very very very tough team and bridge

1:16:22port and bridge port okay fine we went up against you know the mountain leader the the top of the mountain and uh we had our chances to win that game i think they come out out of feeling pretty good about themselves isn't like the loss but they know hey we can play with the big boys we just can't make dumb mistakes penalties and so on so forth and again i think that's how both teams get better you mentioned the top the mountain i think the consensus is that martin's berg and organ time in some order are at the top of that mountain for a is it as simple as the gw cabin midwin winner is is number three right now whoever wins this week well i i i you know i'm good good question i you know i i i think it figuring number three we're always going to have to look at a honeyton being in their honeyton was idle last week they get back to action again this week so uh we'll see how they do after dropping their first game of the season to Georgia or southern Kentucky i i think gw certainly without question is going to be in the mix i mean steve edward junior has a

1:17:25fine fine football team i think the jury is going to definitely be out on cabal middling for a while only because of what they did last year i mean you don't get all that back and i don't make a season i think cabal middling that they're thrilled to death to be two and o right now and uh they want to welcome gw in this Friday night or place and we'll see what happens but i just i think right now cabal middling is one of those teams where yeah but you know i just don't think he can turn it around i think you can go from last to first in the car and high school football like you do maybe in some other sports i'm curious you know i'm looking at quade and i'm looking at triple a and there are some oh and two teams who i think most of us would agree are a surprise obviously and in triple a fairmont senior i think we're all a little a little shocked um obviously the way they lost their first game was shocking but the fact that they're oh and two in general i think most would not have probably picked um you know parkersburg south is another one they're oh and two and and had that of course uh track meat of a game with university last week thinking of

1:18:29our our mutual friend of the show Eric little right now uh who probably needed some lozenges after that one um you know east fairmont had a couple of tough seasons they're oh and two now as well who's got the most pressure on them of the oh and two teams you think right now no doubt fairmont senior first time in twenty five years they started the season oh and two uh i think they get some reprieve but they go to Preston on Friday night Preston is oh and two and and that's a winnable game but you don't go to Preston thinking hey we're going we're going to win this one you know you you got to figure out that we got a chance to win this one i think if fairmont senior can get this win that will really boost them to get back on the track that we're familiar with parkersburg south they've got a tough game they have to go all the way to beckley to play the flying eagles and beckleys two and oh they want a big game against greenbrayer east last week on the road this will be beckleys home opener so a lot going against the patriots and uh east fairmont i think he's fairmont will be around i really do i think they'll be around kind of the

1:19:29end of the season uh they're not i don't think i'll host a playoff game but i think they'll be in the mix thank the scurry thank you for fairmont senior she's soft to play north marion and university and bluefield and britch board but we've also seen them get it in the 16th when i say jp jift two yeah you're right michael i but again i think that's why this game coming up friday night is so important i i think they really really need to go on the road but everything else behind them forget their own two and just play polar bear football if they can do that coming up to like then okay fine uh then there'll be back on track but like you said think of that schedule i think north marion is as good a team as there is right now i i think there and he's got his kids playing extremely well so we'll see how they did we know about bridge four we know about bluefield yet yes i know bluefield's o and two however i i would suggest that anybody probably and anybody in double eight game teams have played those two teams they've been able to as well so i think freddy time is going to be fine he may end the year eight and two who knows but uh fairmont senior very

1:20:33very important game on the road of press and come out of this week you know one team that we talked a lot about on the show last week who we didn't spend like a ton of time talking to you about was grafting and i i think really exciting for grafting right now this is a program that has really had a tough go over the last couple of years and you know this program that um you know it is not that far removed i know it's crazy to say it's not quite 20 years and i don't want to admit that it's even been that long but they're not that far removed from from winning a state title and it just hasn't been right for the last five six seven years for them but you know bobby beltner nearly upset filiparber i granted i know that's a double eight school but um nearly upset filiparber in week one that game of course is on metronoose tv and then in week two they come out and they kind of took it to uh east faremont and and this is probably the the easiest part of their schedule right now where they could bank wins together i'm kind of curious when you look at a program that's had a long time uh not very good what are some like clear indications to you that the turn

1:21:36around is real i think well we'll have to wait i think that question is being asked too early because we don't know yet uh nice one over east faremont again that that that was good uh they got a chance to win again this week i think uh you know you go back to that time you were talking about with grafton and you know coach joho who's now on the staff at bridge port all of a sudden you they're whoa okay fine this guy i can this guy can coach what he can coach then i think grafton is a ball club they still know how to win i don't think there's any question about that but again they lost to a good filiparber team and a team they should have beaten they do get the win over east faremont now they get a Lincoln team that's feeling pretty good after their win last week but they get them at home i like that they don't have what they still have a hamster team left to get berkley springs uh they get an elken's team they're well they lost a heart breaker last week that surprised me a little bit they get a kool rcb team and they still have bridge port and north merian and louis cally to rep up the season so if they're going to win like you said out like

1:22:38something this is the time to win they can get to bank those wins because it does not get easier when you get into that seven eight nine ten thing game of the season i would circle this game anyway because of where i'm from and where i live now but robert c bird and kaiser is intriguing him to me two teams that are two and two teams that have started this season well yeah i think rcb man they got to be feeling good about themselves you know they last year they they upset faremont senior and faremont senior about to be going to breathe through that first round of the playoff that didn't happen then right out of the shoot to shoot they get rcb again they beat out of the get faremont senior again they beat him again so i think i think the flying aeol is feeling good about where they are i greet you 100 percent i think this is going to be heck of a game we all know about kaiser kaiser is always going to be good i mean i think kaiser i want to take it kaiser i i think of teams in the top ten at least every year in high school football in their class let's let's talk a little bit about double lane let's go outside the region a little bit uh i want to talk about james munro and and bluefield bluefields had a pre-tough schedule to

1:23:39start and they're oh and two and and so as a result i don't think you look at them and go there's a lot of pressure on this bluefield team but man it it stinks you know they've lost these two games by combine nine points and they got nothing to show for it yeah and i don't think they could have a better opponent coming to Mitchell stadium this week than james munro because the style of the play is like totally totally different bluefield will run past the maverick now i think john must aim of james munro is one of the better coaches in the state but he has to coach what he has and what he has are kids that like to line up make the play clock go off way down and smack you in the mouth and then smack you again if they can't but you know you got to hit somebody you got to be old hit somebody and right now i i just think i think james munro could be in for a a tough one right now full of barber north marion i think is another one that it's kind of going across classes that i think we'll test both of those teams yeah i agree i agree 100 percent i i think it'll be

1:24:42interesting to watch uh... bluefield has to win i mean they're owned to uh... again against gramber jenny which is very very good and against a Princeton team that Nathan Tanner is not lost since he's been there so at Princeton so again i i think those are just two tough opponents from bluefield open up with but i like their chances i know they play a tough schedule i get that but pretty solid is higher on this team than he's been on any team in a long time so you'll get them ready i wanted to throw uh... well wanted to throw one out there that i just don't know how closely we should be paying attention to this story yet but it's been it's been a lean few years for calhoun county and they've started to know and now they've worked their way to the class singley power ranking stop ten i i honestly i'd love to know the last time calhoun county was ranked in in these power rankings i i don't know if that's something you know off hand or if that's something we could get joker cato on but uh... i i was i mean i think it's a very cool story for them i think it is i you know again and and i think the jury still out on calhoun county i mean they

1:25:44beat gilmer uh... relatively easy in the in the first game of the season then they'd be the rich wood team that is down once again this season they they'll get a work county team this week at work county i think that will be interesting i i think they're going to be favored against ban but dot will give them enough to make up and pay attention and then they got willama coming to town and willama's really going to straighten you up if you're single eighteen you find out what you've got when you play james tofist ball club so uh... again i think the jury's out but it's good to see them too and oh it's good to see them being recognized around the state and uh... you just you got it got hope it keeps going for them for the last one for me uh... just kind of an overall picture of the state we've got two teams now in the power reckons that have a loss do you like scene teams rewarded for their scheduling by still staying high in the rankings well uh... uh... i like it a lot better than going to the end of the year in thing teams get in the playoff for the

1:26:46losing record uh... schedule wise or whatever to be i don't i don't go to schedule if you go to be the final sixteen teams in the state and i know quite a little has twenty teams but again you'll be in that top sixteen you should have a winning season i mean are you good enough to be there you just showing up that's the part to get to me about it to right now i don't worry about it it's second week of the season is in the books if you're one and one or oh and two i doesn't bother me one bit doesn't bother me a bit and i and i speak fair guys all of these rankings that we're seeing now based on really history i mean come on history is what it is we know for a long long time that martin's burger team to beat uh... they've got all these championships who can beat them who can put them in number one you know if they could come out and lose three games which they probably won't they won't be number one it's all really based on history right now uh... you know we get to the next week when we start getting the sAC ranking is based on points and things like that then we'll see but those are still kind of flawed in the first three four weeks because i guarantee you

1:27:49next week with teams like bridge port being one and one they probably won't be the top team in cluster play probably won't be and you'll say oh i know bridge sports better than where they are and that's what ratings are all about you know let's talk about i just it just bothers me when you get to the playoffs and you've got teams that are not you know they're not going to be uh... you know at least five hundred yeah which we we've seen a couple of the blue field a couple of years go actually want to play off game under five hundred uh... linkin was under five hundred last year when they went lost in the first round one quick note i wanted to remind folks you can check out the power rankings we spent a lot of time talking about them today at wv metronoos dot com they're in the high school sports section and uh... just as a quick note i did not realize this the first time i looked at them side i usually focus on triple a and double a when i when i am working on my news or prepping for the show i did not realize that the martinsburg morgan town split was so close that they split first place votes and it was a one point difference in the power rankings mic wasn't kidding when he said that uh... that it feels

1:28:52like right now you know one and two and then figuring out who's third there uh... that is is narrow literally as narrow a split among the the experts so to speak as you can have yeah you're right i'm well again it's just a respect that they they get in the respect they deserve i mean over the years uh... pretty good and so far the season they know only two games and they've been pretty good go ahead and uh... friend tell folks where they can hear high school game night tonight uh... will let you get out of here very fortunate to be on fifty plus radio stations around the state of course you can catch us and metronoos television live as well as you tube in a facebook page so uh... we're there check it out all the scores of all the games again coming up tonight hopefully i'll be talking to you later after a south harris and wind but one way or another i will talk to you later so appreciate it alright so that's Fred personer and uh... as always uh... a lot to say it is still very early in the season but uh... there's no question of my mind mike there are games that occurred in the last two weeks where we're going to be looking and going at the end of the season we're going to go wow that that made a huge difference and in whether somebody had a home playoff game or road

1:29:53playoff game whether they had to travel three hours or thirty minutes or whether they made the playoffs or missed the playoffs entirely well yeah i think seating seating is going to be big and even maybe looking past the first week to that second week i mean if birchport beats martensburg then they're looking at probably being a you know at top one or two seed with that loss you know there is a little bit of a door open now for the the Herbert Hoover's and the south charlestons and the Princeton's to make you finish above them now all right on that note folks we will have some additional bonus content coming your way during the nine o'clock hour to make sure you stick around gotta go this is the friday free for all brought to you by dan kava Toyota world he's michael minick i'm Alex weederspiel don't forget to check out the show in podcast form at your preferred podcasting platform if you like what you heard but maybe you missed you know this is a two-hour program these days uh... maybe you missed part of the show well i got good news for you can go get it in podcast form and other or you know listen they don't want me to say this outline but there are fewer commercials that way there are fewer commercials that way and the show's a little bit shorter so uh... if you're

1:30:56if you're you know you're if you're a traditionalist we love having you here but if you're uh... looking for convenience we'll see at the podcast gotta go folks see it next week you you've been listening to the dan kava Toyota vue at gmc friday free for all be sure to tune in every friday as we review and preview local high school sports this has been a special presentation of wbrc media and one o three three w k m z improving the start to your day with a morning spiel weekdays on one o three three w k m z you know i don't know what is more shocking guys is it that the bridge port indians lost last week and maintain their number one power ranking in fact i think actually increased

1:31:57in first place votes or that the Pittsburgh pirates are above five hundred again christjorge is with us here what's up christ well you know my answer to that's going to be the bucko's yeah i know i set you up for it yeah getting their uh what seven or six i think a six six straight series win um and one game above five hundred now four and a half out of the well card which realistically is out of reach right now i know that they're mathematically alive but if they were in the american league they would more than likely be in the well card position is because you know that american league uh central division is not good so if they were in that division who knows what their win lost record be but but better off where would they be if they didn't blow twenty one saves during the early to the middle part of the season you know where would they be if they would have made a move prior to the day of the deadline or would they be if don't kill you didn't mismanaged and overcoached multiple times throughout the year of

1:32:58his bullpen management lineup construction we would probably be in the wild card race right now so actually in wild card probably the third wild card spot so it is what it is i'm just glad to see him finish the season strong and hopefully they can finish out these next a couple weeks strong as well to your point if they were in the air they'd be tied for the last spot right now with glee wood yeah and if you would switch the schedules around we play everybody in the in that division 13 times and look out you know what i mean so oh well it is what it is so we move on yeah well the unanswered real questions of what happens if the pirates wouldn't have blown twenty one saves is a is a good one um yep uh let's let's talk a little bridge port i to go on with you i the you know the setup there was a pirates joke i i actually am not surprised that bridge port remained top spot in triple a in the power rankings the only part that was maybe a little surprise that they actually increased i think in their first place share of votes um that might say a little bit more about triple a right now that it does about bridge port though but i do think i'm not surprised that voters were impressed by the way bridge port played against what is either the

1:34:02first or likely second best team in in all of west virginia and high school football yeah martin's first good there's no doubt i think you know right now they're definitely like you said one or two a probably they'd be number one in my poll in kawaii i say that because i didn't get chance to vote this past weekend is simply uh lost track of time didn't get chance to vote but i would have voted number one in for a and just the talent level they have on both sides of the football wasn't surprised really if anything last weekend i kind of thought we would be able to move the football on there than we have in the past which we did um i was worried about the second game of the season being martin's berg so much so exactly kind of what played out kind of went as expected i was hoping to get a little bit more uh mistakes from martin's berg side didn't happen they played really good discipline football uh the only turn of all over once so we needed another one didn't get it just terrible mistakes so in bridge port i and i know the coaching staff is sick

1:35:05i was sick after it because i you know i think all along i thought that was going to be a seven or fourteen point game but the way it transpired of all the mistakes via the pennilies in the first half were rare for bridge port to have two back to back fifteen yard pennilies in a drive that set up that uh first touchdown for martin's berg basically then a two turnovers one going into the end zone fumbled by Gabe martin was poked out and then the interception air late in the game and again bridge port not a team is known for throwing the football a ton but it was just just uh this situation where they were forced into it there because of a bad step on second down to put them behind the chain so all in all yeah as a as a neutral fan or an observer watching the game you got to see a very good high school football game you got to see two of the best teams in the state go at it and you saw two of the best programs uh in the state go at it and martin's berg deserve the win got the win and we move on but you know bridge port can

1:36:06hang your heads and they won't this is a proud program and and the coaching staff will have them ready they know they have a ton of work on but they said this prior to this martin's berg game that they know they had a bunch to work on and they went to this team peaking in november this year and like a year ago we're kind of peaked after the four hill game and they think they have what they want here in a team that will get better weekend and week out it starts coming up tonight with east fair month Chris I think the two things I wanted to to see in this game was how it the berg force line play and how are their secondary play without the line played very one I thought the secondary did better than I expected to against maybe the best passing attack in the state yeah I think the coaching staff was a little upset with the line in the second half little too tall not getting lower pad level some of that is you know they're not quite or they wanted to be game shape wise especially you know coming off the week before when they only played pretty much a half against Buchanan and really only one you know solid scrimmage look there of spring mill so you know they weren't exactly where they wanted to be right game shape and I

1:37:11think some of that contribute to that the second half plus you know let's face it you got a you got a bunch of new guys up front some that played a year ago but different positions like a Tristan Noble just to mention him and then others playing for the first time and you know they're going to make mistakes early on and I thought they did a really good job especially the first half I mean they're creating some space you know and and then again second half I mean Martinsburg pretty much just brought the house pretty much eleven guys within three to four yards of the football and they just kept bringing it and bringing it and Bridgeport just kept you know push in and push in and push and again it was a few snaps a few penalties a couple little minor things that got in behind the change and that's pretty much what stopped Bridgeport you know plus the two turnovers we talked about that you know Martinsburg did a great job defensively in the second half but Bridgeport was still getting some push to getting some yards it's just the mistakes really hard and I think at the end of the day you know Tyler and his staff is really really frustrated with that and I think in fact I know I was at one practice this week prior to the middle school game I did

1:38:14back on Wednesday and that was a a good practice to observe the coaches were you know vocal the kids were dialed in and and just from this from viewing it from the press box that was a very good practice so I think they've got the kids where they won and they'll get better starting tonight with East Faremont and they'll keep getting better right other S.S. before we bounce around a little bit let's let's I guess look ahead for Bridgeport obviously this is a an East Faremont team that has a numbers issue this year and I think their their season in many ways really begins not this week but next week where they play I think a much much easier schedule after this for Bridgeport though I do wonder you know is with the way things have gone for Faremont senior and a couple of other teams I kind of wonder if you know Fort Hill represents the next really good test for Bridgeport I would

1:39:16imagine and again I and I talked with with Mike about this here not that long ago but I would imagine that if there is any concern about Faremont senior right now not being a very good team this year which I still think it's it's premature but that would take away a potential quality opponent for Bridgeport who obviously wants to get ready for the AAA playoffs again after last season so I wonder if that has now increased the the importance of that Fort Hill game in a couple of weeks it has and I think Faremont's going to win a bunch of games the rest of the way I really do they had a pretty tough schedule there to start out in that bird game who knows what would have happened in that bird game had to delay not came when it did you know and that kind of settled out for the home team to get a win their late but I think Faremont's going to win some games and there's just too much talent there not to win some games how many I don't know they're definitely not the caliber team of a year ago but yeah you're right about Fort Hill Fort Hill is going to be a tough one

1:40:18because you're going up against a program I mean and what I mean by Fort Fort Hill is is kind of like Bridgeport in the state of Maryland especially in Western Maryland it's a program they've run the wing team and variations of the wing team for many many years they they know how to win they don't make mistakes you've got to beat them so that's down the line Roberts C bird you know a team that Bridgeport's blown out for many many seasons and they're better this year I think Tyler Ferris and his coaching staff are like guys look it's next came up and I know that's kind of you know for a coaching staff you want to say that me you and my all you all of us here you know can sit here and look ahead we can do that okay you know they can't and I think Tyler has his guys beard in week to week and this team's gonna get better this week they're gonna get better next week it's little barber and they're gonna see where it goes but I think you're right the Fort Hill game is huge I think the spring valley game that bigger as well that's gonna be a tough opponent and by the end of the year we'll see where Ferris my senior is at when they play them there at the

1:41:19very end of the season I think Graptin's an improved team as well something we'll talk about much later down the line so yeah there's some there's some bumps in the road coming up but you just face the biggest bump of a mom Martinsburg and I think you can tell your kids at the end of the day boys you're gonna play some good teams the rest of the way you're gonna see some good teams in the playoffs but you're not gonna play anybody it's talented on both sides of the footballs this Martinsburg team let's go get better let's work on us let's see what happens Chris we were talking about Morphin and Elkins so I said you can use the little guy from Orfield and they took care of business they beat Elkins for the first time ever I believe what is kind of the morale in Elkins right now after that loss well you know I haven't got a chance to talk to Chad where you know I know Chad's here and you know a bunch of a bunch of stuff many different off of team social media and stuff like that expectations were probably as high in Elkins for football team than there has been in many years if not maybe in recent time and some of that's fair some of it's unfair and you know they were upset that you know things were

1:42:22a little bit I don't want to say they some people were a little upset that the things of flanking got a little bit tighter and they thought and then the loss at Morfield that raised a lot of eyebrows around here and you know it's general general things for people some people who don't follow it like we do look at Morfield as a single A small AA school which is what they are but we all know Morfield's got a pretty good program they got some very good young talented kids that are soft moors and a couple fresh in fact the majority their roster plays the soft moors and freshmen and we knew going into it that was going to be a battle and Morfield ended up winning that battle 33-30 so what Chad has done he's just pretty much like hey we're as one and that's their logo as one as Tag as one we're going to get better a game in and game out it's going to start this week of Lewis County a team they should roll and then they end up playing Buccane up for next week that that'll be a winnable game and then we'll see where they are going going into the filiparber game and I think you know the biggest thing with the he he's not fighting anything from the outside but

1:43:22the biggest thing he's got to work with his team this year is learning how to play with the target on your back and we talked about that prior to the beginning of the season before they played Lincoln Elkins is going to have a target on their back every game this year they kind of surprised people last year they came out of nowhere and then bang you know they are in the playoffs you know with with a great seven and three mark and they and they really turned some heads last year and this team's good it's a talented bait it's talented football team they may have some questions on defense that they didn't have a year ago as much and that's something though I have the work one this year but they've got the target on their back so that means every night in night out they're not going to surprise anybody they're going to get everybody's best punch and I thought Lincoln gave him a good punch I know Warfield did last week but I think they'll be okay these next couple games before they get ready for their big clash of filiparber in three weeks we we didn't get a chance to talk as much about South Harrison as we typically would during the main show today so I wanted to take a few minutes to do it here also because of course I know you're pretty familiar with

1:44:22the bread hathaway and it's time at bridge port as a as a player but I got to say you know they lost last week 27 20 to Lincoln a Lincoln team that certainly looks like they're going to make a push to be a playoff team if not maybe even an outside shot at hosting a playoff game after getting that win remember they didn't beat a double a team last year they only beat schools bigger than them a year ago kind of a an odd oddity in the schedule but South Harrison's got some stuff to figure out senior safety and running back land and Ross now granted not obviously not their top running back but he is arguably their best defensive back out for the season and and you know it's a particularly big deal in in double a when roster sizes aren't very big you know South Harrison was in sort of I think the gupper 20s around 28 guys Ross was a big part of what they were doing defensively and he's out for the years so now South Harrison has got to find a way to adapt as they get set to face oh Glenn this week I'm kind of curious from your perspective and you know I don't know how well

1:45:23you you know bread or keep in touch with bread but I imagine that this is a you know this is a big moment for a coach when you figure out all right we just lost a big piece we know we lost for the season eight weeks still remaining in the regular season uh how do we adapt well hey they're just going to have to do what they do best just got to grind out positions you're going to have to work you're going to have to work the clock they're going to have to keep they're going to have to short knees games because you know you look at your roster you mentioned that the numbers aren't where they want them to be right now you got a lot of different players in different spots you got a bunch of new skill players this year you got some new lamin mixed in I'll be honest with you I've been very impressed with what they've done the first two games this year the the game at Braxton County was was a game I was a little concerned about because I had heard Braxton improve this year but they went down there and pitched a shut out and then they were right in that Lincoln game last week so much so they could have won it so I'm very happy to see where South Harrison's at right now but he's really going to shorten the games I think from here on to try to to try to

1:46:24keep everything and you know and check not just shorten it to try to win the game but try to shorten it to keep this defense off the field and keep guys at at that level let's face everybody at that level goes both ways right but you want to keep them on one side of football which is the offense of side as much as you possibly can you want to lean on the other team with your offensive line more than you're leaning on you with the defensive line so I think that's the plan going forward I think they're good enough to do that that's their mentality that's what they do that's their identity and it starts a folk limb but I'm telling you right now you know if the numbers are there at they can't afford to lose anymore skill players they've already got some guys that they're breaking in this year for the first time guys that are doing well I mean Shepherd Paul's done really well this year so I think they got a shot here to have a good season but last year the entry bug bit him a little bit and unfortunately with that news that that's a tough blow there and you hate to see that the young man being lost for the year that's tough blow I think too with the games they have after these next two these next two are big beat up Gwyneth and Polka you're three and one you're in pretty good shape

1:47:27yeah I think they can do that I think they can get Oakland a Polka I think that's a team they can get as well know you know it was a good game last year when they played polka but overall you're right these next two games are huge and they got to keep everybody healthy again they're going to have to really control the clock and out in a type of offense they run it is three yards and a and a pull in a puddle of mud so the speak instead of a cloud of dust because there's not a lot of dust around the fields these times a little much rain if we've had an area in the last couple months but I think you know Alex you probably can can attest this you know since you see him week to week the offensive line are you happy with the line of scrimmage play with south Harrison to this point are you surprised with how well they played I know they're one and one but this team could easily be two and oh with some of the new players they had to put in some spots this year that obviously didn't play a lot of your go yeah I mean it was actually one of the things Brett said was he thought after week one he thought it was not the offensive line that that limited them offensively he thought the the backs would be you know and he was not super explicit about this but

1:48:30he sort of implied he thought maybe they they they left a a few yards on the field that wasn't necessarily on the offensive line so yeah it's it's I think this is a big moment for south Harrison and I think Mike is is absolutely spot on that you know these next two weeks are huge if you look at the early stages of this polka and oak Glen are competing early and with how hard the schedule is going to get this is where you're going to have to stack you're going to have to stack those wins yeah and you're and you're going to get better right you're going to keep getting better but you want to get those wins now while you're getting that experience getting these kids better so that way you're ready to go when the schedule gets tougher here in the next few weeks we've talked a lot about penalty in county how about he's hardy yeah really good win for them last week 21-20 they're shooting up the power rankings right now as well yeah a little surprise by that not that it wasn't going to be a close game because I knew it would be a little surprise there and I'm sure Pimton County was probably as surprised as anyone I really think they believe that this is

1:49:31their year to you know to get in that top five and nothing nothing wrong of losing at East Arty because there's a lot of a lot of teams it's it's suffered losses to the cougars but this is always a good matchup these two teams always play tight battles I could go either way and unfortunately it went away for the cougars yet or night and you know Pimton County 20 points I think that's where it starts there they got to figure out what's going on offensively because they got a quarterback that's a fringe D1 kid Marshall's offered a Roberson already I think they expect more out of the offense and what they got let's create East Arty for how well they play because that's a strong East Arty team you're in an ear out that's a lot of streaming it was a bunch of strong farm fed type players that they can really do a habit up front and they've got it again but I think I think I think Pimton County is going to get back to the drawing board and figure out okay what do we need to do here we got everybody back from a year ago both sides of the football we got to be able to score more than 20 points in any game and we'll see what happens I

1:50:35think they'll be fine but I think that could be a good thing for them because I think maybe they felt you know they were here just like Elkins the targets on the back of Pimton County they kind of surprised people last year Roberson came on the scene and kind of showed everyone what he can do a quarterback and now the targets on their back and they're in the same situation Elkins very talented team with a lot of questions going into week three to try to find some consistency on both ends of the football but I think for Pimton starts with offense because 20 points I mean they're better than that they know that but now they got to go out and show it. Good time for a by-week for them you think to kind of have two weeks to fix this at a one? Yeah I think they do I think it's a good time for a by-week I think I think the best thing is to kind of refocus everybody because everybody was thinking to know this year I know I heard it and I'm not saying they can't go nine and one because I think it's very good possibility but I think that's one they really love to have plus it's a rivalry game and to be held to 20 points I think they they know they're better than that I think they got chance to go out there and

1:51:37take her a little bit and correct some of the mistakes you know I didn't get to see the film of it but I'm sure there's a lot of correctable mistakes after two games usually there is and I think they'll be fine. Real quick. Something that Warfield game has some extra weight because what Warfield just did too that'll be a good game coming out the buy for them. Yeah no doubt about it no doubt about it I think at Warfield team keep it on them this year you know their schedule is interesting I think that's a team I think you got hamster this week coming up that's a winnable game for Warfield you know don't be surprised that Warfield team doesn't find a way into the playoffs this year but this is a program with a ton of sophomores and freshmen playing right now that's going to be good for the next three years and keep an aisle more feel not just what they did to Elkins but here are the rest of season. Real quick just because I want to make sure we get in we got about five minutes left so I want to throw some rapid fire and we can kind of just alternate here. I asked this question of Mike earlier I'm curious Chris about your response how what level of concern do you have right now for Fairmont senior. Zero zero level of concern because they're going to win they're going to win this week.

1:52:42You know I don't have their schedule in front of me as we're talking right now I think this team will be I think they'll find a way to get to at least a six win season in some way somehow we'll see I think they can win some games coming up there's just too much talent here offensively not to do that I think the question lies with Fairmont senior secondary and their secondary got picked apart last week against Robert C. Bird and Robert C. Bird and let's face it they got a good quarterback and they got some good receivers but it starts in the back end for Fairmont senior and it also starts up front because I know they're strong enough up front to generate some pressure on the quarterback something they have to do a better job at but you got a quarterback like Anthony Smith I think they're going to be fine I think they can find a way to get the six wins this year it's not going to be easy I understand that but I think they'll be okay tonight at Preston and I think if they go if they lose tonight against Preston with Rowan Kramer you know former East Fairmont quarterback transfers to Preston he's been really good and their first two games I'll be at losses and then I think the I think the worry meter goes up significantly if they struggle to be

1:53:45Preston but I think they'll find the ways to get things right here tonight yeah I think Preston but can't an up sure Alcons East Fairmont those should be wins yeah basically looking to be two out of North Marion University Bluefield and Bridgeport to get well I think I think North Marion's a winnable game after that I don't see winnable games so you mentioned so what's that so you mentioned the next few so how many how many is that that they can foreign to correct if they win the if they win the four I think they'll be foreign to so they're looking to to get the six wins that have to be two of North Marion University Bluefield and Bridgeport I think they'll get to five I think this is a five and five football team is that enough to get them into playoffs I don't know we'll have to wait and see I mean that's that's going to be tough because I'm not sure it is I mean that's what makes that North Marion games so big you know I said this could be a six win team I don't think they be Bluefield I don't think they're I think Bluefield's a better football team than they are I know University is I think Bridgeport has had their number for many seasons it comes down at North Marion game and that might be able to give enough points and all

1:54:50depends what happens to rest of your guys we don't have a clue what's going to happen five and five has gotten people in before and this will be a dangerous five and five team very much used to that they've been the 16C before and then wreaked havoc on a title at one point so I don't think this is a state championship team but I think they can get to five wins what do you make of this full barber North Marion games speaking of North Marion up front is going to be a problem for Phillip Barber tonight I think Phillip Barber has the athletes to compete I think they'll move the ball a little bit but the line of scrimmage is big in this game Phillip Barber has struggled really in past protection all year Robbie Jones is just such a great athlete a quarterback he's had to move away from several would be tackle from losses or would be sacks you know just to get the ball off and try to get that passing game and running game going I think Landon Carpner is also an X factor in this game I think Landon has to find a way to get to 100 yards if they want to have a chance to beat North Marion I really do I think this game is going to be one of the line of scrimmage unfortunately North Marion is bigger and stronger up front you know we're last year there's three offensive

1:55:54linemen on that Phillip Barber team that graduated year ago or an out playing college football somewhere and those three losses are huge and I was talking to some talking to my buddy Rick Mauser who is the statistician for the Phillip Barber radio network radio network and he just simply said look our offensive line is what it is they're young they're inexperienced at three of the positions up front they've struggled in past pro they've done a good job in the run game you know running open up lanes for for Landon Carpner but you know this is this is going to be tough this is a line of scrimmage I'm afraid I'm worried about for Phillip Barberness when I really am concerned here not just this way but next week for rich port as well these two games coming up concern me for Phillip Barber but it's a Phillip Barber team though it's going to get some wins this year you know I don't know how many they're going to get but it's a town to team I think the the price kit is developed at wide receiver and I really think that Robbie Jones is going to have to use his legs a lot this year not just a just a scramble and and and try to find some space to throw the ball down field but he's going to have to take off and run too so we'll see what happens but

1:56:58I'm concerned here about this line of scrimmage match up with force Mary. All right guys we're just about out of time but I wanted to say and you know just take a quick minute here obviously 25th anniversary of September 11th don't really need to comment on it other than I know it's bizarre in many respects it does not feel like it's been 25 years but I'm still I'm glad to see that for as much as changed here we are talking high school football even on such a somber occasion I think it's I think it's actually a real testament to to the strength of communities that they continue to kind of live their lives you know it's it's something I remember it really well I was at work that day and I was walking through our conference room we have a TV you know it's a saying it's not the same TV we had them but it's in the same spots it's the flat screen compared to a tube television back then but I'll never forget step you know stand there in a conference room with muff fellow work you know people I work with we were sitting there watching and we

1:58:02couldn't believe it we sat there and watched it for probably two hours and it wasn't just us to it was just it was me and a friend of mine there I worked with and then it'd be in about 30 people after that kind of gathering around the TV and just watching what was going on and you know I think a Chris Gray former Mountaineer quarterback that kind of shared time in the 1990s with Greg Jones it was a couple years after that was the year after major Harris had left his last year at WV was this 89 season and and Chris Gray unfortunately was lost in the in the in the horrible tragedy and and as were many and you know this country really came together as one back then and I just hope and pray as this day goes on nothing else happens every time this day comes up guys always worry you know and I love and even even this far into the future as we sit today I worry about it every year passes and let's hope everything goes good today and we have no issues at all whatsoever and uh yeah I'm glad you brought up and again I pray for all the families and all the victims that were

1:59:03lost in that it's a terrible terrible thing something out there forget yeah we had a bum thread that day so we were outside you know we saw we saw the towers it but then we were outside for a lot of the day kind of waiting to see what would happen with the bomb thread and that was crazy obviously I was the time there were some cell phones but not a lot and you know the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was an hour away from where I grew up um there are a lot of you know people families that worked in you know at the rocket center at the at the ballistic missile places in Mineral County so there was a lot of concern that that would be a target so that day was just not knowing what was going on for a big jump at the day and in fact they evacuated our office because we had a couple planes stuck above the in the skies because all the airports were in flux they wanted to land in Elkins because they run out of fuel and our runway wasn't big enough to you know to accommodate them but one of those big C-130s did land and somehow they were able to get it down on a shorter runway on there forget that because you know we're all worried because

2:00:05you heard what happened you know with with the summer set incident you know and also the one that was potentially heading towards the Pentagon say everyone was worried because you just didn't know so yeah those were let's just hope we don't have to go through those times again yeah like I said didn't want uh didn't want to not acknowledge it but I I appreciate you both uh sharing some thoughts and I'll just say and I mentioned this on the show yesterday just the one thing I remember you know obviously grew up in New Jersey and a lot of folks commute from where I lived in New York and the thing I do remember more than anything else was the announcement our principal made basically saying hey some of your parents might have a hard time getting home tonight and that was quite the euphemism if you will for for what was going on and we had a gym teacher who was in tears didn't know if her father was was alive or not who worked in the towers and but yeah I wanted to wanted to make sure I know we're ending on a saw a real somber note here but I want to do at least acknowledge it so on that note we'll we'll step aside and Chris thanks for hanging out for a very

2:01:08long segment with us today we will we'll take a break come back we'll wrap the show and that'll do it for both the morning spiel and the Friday free for all reminder podcast check it out and you'll hear Chris's segment in full as the bonus segment this week we're back after this