By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
Gallery by Craig Allison
WINFIELD, W.Va. – Winfield was a dominant football team for most of the 2022 high school football regular season, and that trend continued on Saturday in the first round of the Class AA state playoffs.
The Generals, seeded No. 1 for the postseason, rode an outstanding performance by senior running back Caden Beam en route to a 43-0 win against No. 16 Logan.
Beam ran the ball 24 times Saturday in Winfield’s first home playoff game since the Generals (10-1) won the Class AA state title in 1988 to finish with 239 yards and four touchdowns to lead a ground game that rolled up 441 rushing yards.
“Caden Beam is a special kid,” first-year Winfield coach Eddie Smolder said. “He had an injury last year and he came back from that. He had surgery and rehabbed like crazy. He worked out like an animal twice a day and he has just been a leader for us all year. He’s a great kid from a great family. He’s tough and he’s strong and our line did a great job of blocking for him. Our wing backs as well. They don’t get a lot of credit but on run plays they are almost like linemen.”
As good as Beam and the Winfield offense performed on Saturday, the Generals’ defense might have been better.
Winfield forced two early interceptions of Logan quarterback Drew Berry and held the Wildcats (6-5) passing attack in check all afternoon. Berry finished just 2 of 14 for 28 yards with no touchdowns, and Logan fared worse on the ground. The Wildcats finished the game with negative five rushing yards and lost 35 yards on sacks and fumbles.
Logan managed just one first down in the game.
“We challenged them this week to be the most physical team on the field, and I feel like our kids did that today,” Smolder said. “They want this really bad – the first home [playoff] game in 30 years. They were just so excited for kickoff.”
Along with Beam’s big day, fellow senior Bray Boggs ran the ball 15 times for 94 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Brycen Brown carried eight times for 34 yards. K-Juan Pearson also had a productive day on the ground, gaining 52 yards on five carries.
Brown threw just three passes, finishing 2 of 3 for 20 yards with a touchdown pass to Jace Miller on Winfield’s first drive of the game.
The win by Winfield sets up another regular season rematch against a Cardinal Conference rival in next week’s Class AA state quarterfinal when the Generals will host No. 9 Herbert Hoover.
The Huskies cruised past No. 8 Clay County 63-36 in their first round matchup. Winfield and Hoover previously met this season in Week 2, with the Generals taking a 19-14 win on the road. That game was two months ago, however, and since then Hoover has not lost.
“We’re just excited about this win,” Smolder said. “We were excited to play at home today, and we’re looking forward to playing at home again next week. We’re going to enjoy this one this weekend. We’ll rest up and relax then go back to work on Monday. It doesn’t really matter who we play, we’re trying to improve what we do and fine tune it and be better than we were this week. We play Hoover and it’s a rematch – we’ll be here and we’ll be ready to play.”
W 8 14 14 7 – 43
L 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
W – Jace Miller 18 pass from Brycen Brown (K-Juan Pearson conversion)
Second quarter
W – Caden Beam 1 run (Bray Boggs conversion)
W – Beam 1 run (conversion failed)
Third quarter
W – Boggs 1 run (conversion failed)
W – Beam 11 run (Boggs conversion)
Fourth quarter
W – Beam 28 run (Caleb Kuhl kick)
Stats
Rushing: (W) Beam 24-239-4, Boggs 15-94-1, Brown 8-34, Hayden Hinkle 6-14, Pearson 5-52, Dylan Hill 2-11; (L) Gabe Workman 4-(-3), Garrett Williamson 1-(-3), Drew Berry 1-1.
Passing: (W) Brown 2-3-20-1-0, Hinkle 1-1-10-0-0; (L) Berry 2-14-28-0-2.
Receiving: (W): Miller 2-28-1, Beam 1-14, Boggs 1-2; (L) Riley Jones 1-16, Aiden Slack 1-12.
