After a two-year absence, Shady Spring has returned to the playoffs, searching for its first postseason victory since 2011.
That won’t be easy as the No. 11-seeded Tigers travel to the Kanawha Valley for a matchup with No. 6 Nitro. When the game kicks off it will be only the second the Tigers have played against a Class AAA foe this season.
While the unintentional bye left the Tigers in a flux, unaware of whether they’d travel to Oak Hill or Nitro, they prepared for both and are ready to battle an electric Wildcat offense.
“I had to get back a hold of Nitro’s coach and get his films again because we both erased our films,” Shady Spring head coach Vince Culicerto laughed. “We got Nitro film way back two Fridays ago and kind of started looking but then Saturday morning it switched and we’re supposed to be playing Oak Hill so yeah, we’ve been looking and we looked at even at the beginning this week pretty much we planned for Nitro. We’ve seen everything and know types of defenses and offenses we’re gonna plan for.”
Quarterback Josh Moody leads the Wildcat offense. A year after throwing over 50 touchdown passes he’s added 35 more to his ledger with 3,134 passing yards to go with it. His top receiver is Malachi Thompson (58-1,258-16) with Luke Shafer (43-726-6) and Bryson Sowards (35-427-4) serving as strong complementary options. Eli Littlejohn paces the ground attack with 1,133 yards and 19 touchdowns.
“Their defense and their offense no doubt wide open,” Culicerto said. “We have been in that spot before a while back just spreading it and slinging it and that’s what they wanna do first for sure. They’ve got good kids, they run ball real good and on defense man, they’ve got a big guy. You know they’re looking to throw it. We watched their Winfield game and it’s raining and they’re still firing it so that’s their mentality and we’ve got some kids we feel can cover. (Nathan) Easley’s got nine interceptions and Jalon’s (Bailey) got a couple interceptions. This is what they want – a team but that throws the ball and you know I think we match up OK but they’re definitely a solid team, no doubt about it. They’re 9-1 and beat some quality teams. They’re explosive so we got our work cut out for sure.”
The Tigers come in largely light on playoff experience. The seniors on this team were freshmen when the program earned its last playoff berth in 2021 but they still have big-time players.
Cal Culicerto serves at QB where he’s thrown for 962 yards and 10 touchdowns. His top target has been Easley who’s hauled in 23 passes for 387 yards and four touchdowns.
Jalon Bailey comes in second with 291 yards receiving while Evan Romage leads the ground assault with 672 yards and seven touchdowns. The Tigers haven’t been committed to one style or another, taking what the defense gives them instead of forcing the issue.
Bailey in particular will be relied upon to help his teammates.
Bailey was a starter on the Class AAA basketball state championship in March and Culicerto will lean on a player like that to help calm the tides, especially with a first-year starter at QB.
“Experience is big,” Culicerto said. “QB-wise and I’ll be talking to him about that first playoff game. A lot of times with a QB there is just a little nerves and it happened with all of mine. I’ve had just to settle them down and that’s huge. Sometimes our first time around isn’t as good and then if they were lucky enough to get a second time around it was a lot better but he’ll be ready. And Jalon he’s been in the spotlight and those kind of things, that’s why kids playing all the different sports is the best thing in the world. A lot of people ask why and it just toughens you up for the competitive stuff. You’re out in a spotlight and then it just makes you a better athlete so Jalon, that kind of experience is huge for him and you know the rest of them haven’t been. But I think they be excited to finally play.”
Shady will play at Nitro on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
