By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
MADISON, W.Va. – Scott senior quarterback Matt Frye gets considerable hype because he is a considerable talent.
But talent can only take you so far, and often when you find a quarterback who excels you’ll also find some skill players who help make it happen. Sometimes it’s one or even two players, but the Skyhawks have a whole crew of home run hitters who have helped keep Scott unbeaten going into the final game of the regular season this week at Nitro.
Running back Preston Cooper and receivers Carson Brinegar, Brayden Clark and Isaiah Bush have been the beneficiaries of Frye strong play, but that’s a two-way street – Frye has been so good in part because those guys are really, really good.
Last week the Skyhawks welcomed Winfield to Boone County for a grudge match with the winner claiming the Cardinal Conference championship. Brinegar caught 14 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns, Clark caught 11 passes for 100 yards and two more touchdowns and Bush caught just one pass, but it was for 39 yards.
Cooper, meanwhile, ran the ball 28 times for 154 hard yards and two touchdowns of his own through a good Winfield defensive front. Scott dominated the second half for a 48-27 win to claim the program’s first Cardinal title.
“Matt is awesome but when you have Brayden and Isaiah and Carson out there and Preston running downhill with that line in front of him, [Frye] does a really good job and he knows what to take advantage of,” Skyhawks head coach Jeremy Dolin said. “He gets it to the guys that he needs to get it to.”
Scott (9-0) went into last week ranked No. 3 in the Class AA state playoff ratings, behind No. 2 Roane County and No. 1 North Marion. Those two played last Friday, with the Huskies getting the best of the previously unbeaten Raiders and leaving the Skyhawks as the only unbeaten team in Class AA and likely to move up when new ratings are released this week ahead of this week’s road trip to take on a Nitro team in desperate need of a win to keep playoff hopes alive.
But the Wildcats aren’t the only ones with something to play for – a win Friday for the Skyhawks would secure the second unbeaten regular season in school history.
“We had never won [the Cardinal Conference title] as a program, so it’s just another goal that we’ve had that we’re able to check off,” Dolin said. “We’ve got to keep working. There has only been one undefeated season [at Scott], and that’s another goal of ours. We’ve got to go down and play a good Nitro team, hopefully finish that off then get ready for the postseason and hopefully stay healthy.”
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While Nitro is on the outside looking in at the playoff picture with slim hopes of an invite to the postseason party, across Kanawha County Herbert Hoover has somewhat quietly put together another solid regular season and appears to be rounding into form with the playoffs looming.
It’s not a much different scenario than the Huskies found themselves in last season, when they went on the road and won three times in the Class AA playoffs before falling in the state title game against Independence.
Hoover (6-3) was at No. 10 in the playoff ratings prior to last week’s blowout win at home against Poca, and it would be hard to not consider the Huskies as the favorite in their regular season finale this week against 1-8 Logan.
Hoover had to win on the road last season to pave its path to Wheeling Island Stadium, but that might be easier said than done in 2023. All three of the Huskies’ losses have come away from home, but Hoover has posted a perfect 4-0 record at home in Elkview in its shiny new stadium. A win Friday at Husky Stadium could be enough to land at least one more game there this fall.
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In Class AAA, Hurricane and George Washington have separated themselves as the Kanawha Valley’s top teams with one game to play. The Redskins (8-1) were ranked No. 2 in the state last week and could move up to the top spot for the playoffs with a win at No. 3 Huntington on Friday.
GW, meanwhile, could also have its hands full on Friday. The Patriots (5-4) host Beckley’s Woodrow Wilson (5-4) with the loser likely needing a lot of help to land a spot in the postseason.
