The Shadow
Another Friday night of high school football is upon us.
This week, we have two home games in the area with the Alleghany Mountaineers home against the James River Knights and Bath County hosting the visiting East Hardy Cougars.
Both schools will be looking to avenge 30+ point losses each from last Friday.
The lone area team off this week, the Covington Cougars.
The Cougars had their game last Friday at Grayson County get canceled. The team is on their bye week this week.
James River at Alleghany
With having been on the road for their last three games, the Mountaineers are finally back on the field of Mountaineer Field tomorrow night in a Three Rivers District match-up with the Knights.
With a 1-3 record, the Mountaineers are coming off their third straight loss of the season after a 36 point loss (42-6) to the Radford Bobcats on the road last Friday night.
In the loss, the Mountaineers gave up 35 first half points.
The teams lone touchdown came on a Eli Entsminger seven yard touchdown pass to Hayden Knighton.
While the score may have read a blow out, the game could of changed drastically had the Mountaineers been able to convert a fourth down play in the Bobcats territory. The team did not convert the fourth down play and three plays later, the Bobcats found themselves on the scoreboard first.
The Mountaineers were also fooled by a squib kick following the touchdown that was recovered by the Bobcats. One play later and the Bobcats took a 14-0 lead.
The team will need to put it past them tomorrow as they’ll be playing a Knights team that has not played in three weeks.
The Knights were last out on the football field back on September 17, when they held off the Covington Cougars in a tightly contested battle, 34-32.
Last week the Knights had their game with Glenvar be rescheduled to October 18.
The Mountaineers come into the game with averaging 19 points a game while the Knights are averaging just over 21 points a game.
It will interesting to see the gameplan for the Mountaineers tomorrow night.
The team only had 26 total passes thrown in their first three games. Last week the team attempted 21 between Entsminger and Kole Caldwell.
With six games to go in the season for the Mountaineers, one big plus for the team is five of their next six games will be at home. The team will be on a four game homestand starting with tomorrow nights game.
East Hardy at Bath County
The Bath County Chargers three game homestand will close out tomorrow night at Carl F. Williams Stadium with a non district meeting against East Hardy.
The Chargers who are entering just their fourth game of the season are not only winless at 0-3, they are also scoreless through their first three games.
Opponents facing the Chargers are outscoring them 118-0.
One of those losses being a Pioneer District loss in the season opener at Covington.
This week, it does not get any easier for the Chargers who face another Cougars team, one that is averaging over 42 points a game.
The Cougars of East Hardy have held their opponents to under nine points a game and have two shutout victories this season.
The Chargers who are averaging around 100 total yards a game may find themselves in trouble if they let the Cougars jump out quickly.
However, this is why you play the game. On paper, it’s a David versus Goliath type game. But all it takes a is a few mistakes and a few plays to go your way that could make a game changing difference.
For the Chargers, they’ll be down a few players, two stemming from the altercation that took place at Covington during the season opener.
One positive side for the Chargers is something I mentioned last week, its still a young season for the team. There is plenty of room for improvement before the upcoming district games.
