WVSSAC Super Six Football Championships

Familiar foe meet again at Super Six
Monday, November 26, 2007
By RICK RYAN - The Charleston Gazette

It’ll be reunion weekend at the Super Six football championships in Wheeling.

All three matchups will be familiar ones, as St. Albans tackles Parkersburg in Class AAA, Bluefield and James Monroe meet in AA and Wheeling Central squares off with Williamstown in single-A.

St. Albans (12-1), the No. 5 seed, hasn’t played No. 3 Parkersburg (12-1) this season, but the teams met twice last year and have probably popped up on each other’s VCRs a lot because they both schedule nearly all their games against Mountain State Athletic Conference rivals.

It marks the first time MSAC teams have met for the state title since 1999, when the Big Reds edged Riverside 31-28.

The two programs carry different pasts, as Parkersburg has appeared in SSAC championship games 13 times since 1950, winning seven. St. Albans will participate in its first title contest since losing 20-7 to Bridgeport in 1979 at Laidley Field.

Parkersburg blanked the Red Dragons twice in the 2006 season, 31-0 at St. Albans in the regular season and 21-0 in the playoff quarterfinals at Stadium Field in Parkersburg.
The AA finals looks a lot like last year, when Wayne County rivals Tolsia and Wayne hooked up for the championship.
The top-ranked Beavers (12-0) and No. 3 Mavericks (12-1) hail from adjoining counties and have met often in recent seasons. Bluefield edged James Monroe 14-7 on Oct. 26 in one of the state’s best games this year.

In 2006, the Mavs knocked off the Beavers 41-28 during the regular season at Lindside. In the 2005 playoff semifinals, Bluefield earned a 24-14 victory.
No one has to recite recent history to either No. 1 Wheeling Central (13-0) or No. 2 Williamstown (11-2), as they’ve played each other in the Class A finals each of the previous two seasons.

The Maroon Knights won both times, 35-20 in 2005 and a surprisingly close 14-7 tussle last year.

AAA (noon Saturday)

Parkersburg’s bid is buoyed by senior tailback Matt Lindamood, who is making a late push for consideration for the Kennedy Award as the state’s top player.

Lindamood rushed for 241 yards and four touchdowns in Friday’s 31-21 victory at University, which was regarded as having one of the state’s best defenses. For the season, Lindamood has run for 2,384 yards and 34 TDs.

In two games against SA last year, Lindamood had a total of 11 carries for 85 yards and one TD. He carried just once for 1 yard and a TD in the regular-season meeting, suffering an injury early in the game.

AA (7:30 p.m. Friday)

James Monroe finally knocked down the door to the Class AA finals. The Mavericks made their sixth semifinal appearance over the last 10 seasons Saturday and earned their first win by beating Wayne 21-14.

“I guess now they can quit daggone saying that we can’t get by this game,’’ said JM coach David Witt.

No. 2 Wayne (12-1), one of just three unbeaten teams in the state entering the weekend, had won 19 games in a row and was the defending AA state champ.

“They are very talented,’’ Wayne coach Tom Harmon said of the Mavs. “The things they do are hard to stop, especially with the size they have. They are consistent with it and those things hurt us, along with some of the miscues we had on offense.’’

A (7 p.m. Saturday)

Central brings a 32-game winning streak into the Class A finals, and with a victory can match Moorefield’s record run of four straight championships (1996-99).

The Knights, who play all their home games at Wheeling Island Stadium, will be playing in their seventh Super Six over the past eight years. Williamstown is back for the fourth time in five years.

The Yellowjackets, in fact, played in the last Super Six game on the Island Stadium’s old grass field — a mud-caked 20-18 setback to Moorefield in 2003.