MAN- It’s week seven of the high school football season, but the stakes are high as rivals Man and Mount View meet in a Tuesday night battle that could have major playoff implications on the Class A playoff field.
A loss wouldn’t be a season-ender for either team, but it would put both in a tough spot with some work to do.
While the official West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission ratings won’t be released until Tuesday afternoon, both Man and Mount View currently sit inside the top 16 of the Class A field.
Early projections have the Golden Knights ranked 10th and the Hillbillies ranked 16th unofficially.
“We gained a few points last week,” Man head coach Harvey Arms said. “The big games that we have left on our schedule are the ones that will make the determination of what we have to do.”
Mt. View, who was ranked 17th last week, picked up a 44-18 victory on the road at No. 8 Sherman Friday night. The Golden Knights are 3-1 on the season and a victory would be huge for the Hillbillies playoff chances moving forward.
“A win would be big because we got a lot of tough games down the stretch,” Arms said. “We need every win that we can get.”
Man overcame special teams miscues and costly penalties to defeat Buffalo 20-6 Friday night at Man.
“It was our worst day of all seasons on special teams and we got some work to do there,” Arms said. “We probably should have scored more points on offense, but we would make a mistake on offense and it would kill a drive.”
Man posted 306 yards of offense on Friday night, led by senior Jeremiah Harless’ 91 passing yards, 26 receiving yards and 23 rushing yards and one touchdown. Senior quarterback Israel Canterbury threw for 70 yards and one score while Jacob Walls hauled in three passes for 100 yards and Jordan Adams rushed for 67 yards on 10 attempts.
The Hillbillies’ defense was impressive registering four sacks, nine tackles for loss, picked off three passes and held the Bison to just 72 yards of offense.
“I thought we executed pretty well on offense and defense,” Arms said.
Mount View will present a challenge for Man with its speed.
“They got several kids that can all run and run well,” Arms said. “They break tackles and make good tackles so we will have our work cut out for us.”
Man and Mount View had met every year since Mount View opened its doors during the 1978 season, but last year’s meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic as neither team could find a common scheduling date.
Tuesday’s game was originally scheduled for Sept. 3, but COVID issues at Man forced the two schools to reschedule the game for Sept. 21. However, a substitute teacher shortage in McDowell County pushed the game to Tuesday, which happens to be Man’s bye week.
Man elected to give the kids Saturday and Sunday off and return to practice Monday to get ready for Mount View on just one day or preparation. Arms doesn’t feel that the one day will have any impact on the outcome Tuesday.
“I would like to have more than one day of preparation, but we had one day and I think they had one day so it’s an even situation,” Arms said. “At this time in the season we are halfway through the season or a little over.”
“By this time teams don’t change a whole lot,” Arms said. “You tweak the little things for each opponent, but it’s not like you go in and make big offensive or defensive changes.”
Man leads the overall series 25-17-0 and has won 10-of-the-last-12 games played between the two schools.