By Tom Bragg
For Lootpress.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The George Washington football team is off to a hot start in the first half of the 2024 West Virginia high school football season, with the Patriots rolling off win against St. Albans, John Marshall, Cabell Midland and South Charleston.
The Patriots will put that perfect record on the line Friday with an always-tough trip to the Wolves Den in Wayne County to take on Spring Valley (2-2).
The Timberwolves opened their season with a 55-20 win in Ohio at South Point before losing 63-48 at Hurricane and 45-31 to Jefferson the following week. Last week, however, Spring Valley got back in the win column with a 49-19 victory against Cabell Midland.
George Washington head coach Steve Edwards, who has been on the sidelines for GW since 1996 and collected the 200th win of his career last week in the win against South Charleston, said he and his team know to expect a hard-nosed game against Spring Valley on Friday.
“It’s a big challenge for us,” Edwards said. “They’re a good football team. They’re big, they’re fast and they’ve got all the right components to be really good. They’re well coached and we’ll have our hands full. It will be, by far, the best team we’ve played so far.”
The Patriots have been led by a powerful rushing attack, with senior Sai’Vyon Brown accounting for nearly 600 rushing yards and five touchdowns in four games. Fellow senior Hunter Giacomo has 283 yards on the ground to go with four touchdowns. In total, seven different Patriots have a rushing touchdown this season.
Edwards said part of that is because he has a lot of guys who are capable of making plays with the ball in their hands, but no matter who has the ball the ground game starts up front with solid play along the GW offensive line.
“They’re doing a really good job,” Edwards said. “They’re playing with confidence, and we’re really young up front. We’ve got two sophomore that are starting for the first time, we’ve got two juniors that are starting for the first time and one senior up there. The group is gelling together every game and they get a little bit better, but this challenge Friday night is going to be a really good test for the whole team.
“Spring Valley is well-seasoned with big and strong kids. It’s going to be tough.”
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Nitro (3-1) bounced back from its first loss of the season two weeks ago against Herbert Hoover with a 34-21 win at Chapmanville last Friday, and this week the Wildcats return home to take on resurgent Wayne (3-0) at Underwood Field.
The Pioneers were a powerful force in Class AA in the not-so-distant past, and went through some up-and-down seasons recently. In 2024, however, Wayne has been back to its old ways of pounding out wins.
In three games, the Pioneers have run for 761 yards as a team – with 305 of those coming in last week’s 26-14 win against Winfield. Junior Kaiden Hayton gets the bulk of the carries for Wayne in the rushing attack, with 54 carries for 246 yards and three touchdowns this season, while junior Jayden Wayman has run the ball 31 times for 357 yards with two scores, including a game-high 137 yards with a touchdown in last week’s win against Winfield.
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Other Kanawha, Putnam and Boone games on the Week 5 schedule:
Sissonville (0-3) at Herbert Hoover (3-0)
Parkersburg (1-3) at Capital (2-1)
South Charleston (0-4) at Riverside (0-4)
Cabell Midland (0-3) at Hurricane (2-2)
Logan (2-2) at Winfield (2-2)
Poca (3-1) at Williamstown (4-0)
Chapmanville (1-3) at Scott (1-2)
Sherman (2-1) at Mount View (1-3)
Van (0-4) at River View (3-0)–
