By Jim Workman
One victory away from a trip to Wheeling Island.
That’s where the No. 3-rated Richwood Lumberjacks find themselves.
The undefeated Lumberjacks (12-0) travel to Logan County to face No. 2 Man, where they’ll take on the 11-1 Hillbillies in a Class A semifinal game at 7:30 tonight.
The winner gets its ticket punched for a berth in next Saturday night’s Super Six Football Championship in Wheeling against No. 1 Weirton Madonna (13-0), which defeated No. 5 Wheeling Central (9-4) in a semifinal game Friday night.
Fall short, and you go home empty-handed.
“We’ve been trying to keep our focus on Man,” Richwood coach Jason Rogers said. “That’s what we’ve been doing all year long, taking it one game at a time. But the boys know what’s going on. They’ve been very focused this week.”
Richwood has never advanced to a title game.
Man has some history of title game experience, but none of the current Hillbillies players were even born the last time the school went that far. Man lost in the Class AA championship game three times: in 1984 to Grafton, 14-10; 1980 to Ceredo-Kenova, 18-13; and in 1977 to Poca, 20-6.
It’s been 20 years since the Hillbillies’ last semifinal game in 1989.
It should be a grind-it-out affair, as both teams rely heavily on their running attacks.
Richwood already has one 2,000-yard-plus rusher in Dustin Brown. The senior running back has 2,305 yards on the ground through 12 games.
Brown went over 2,000 in the regular season, reaching 2,001 in just 10 contests.
He is also the state’s leading point producer with 39 touchdowns — plus, as the team’s kicker, Brown has added field goals and extra points and two-point conversions from his running back position on point-after tries.
Junior quarterback Sam Tindal could join Brown on the 2,000-yard club tonight. Tindal has 1,914 yards so far with 27 TDs. Also a threat to pass, Tindal has 1,209 passing yards and 11 TDs through the air.
“Our offensive line is taking this game personally,” Rogers said. “Even though we’re 12-0, they still believe that they have to prove a point. They’ve been playing with a chip on their shoulder.”
Man’s offense stays on the ground, but employs several different running backs and a highly skilled option quarterback.
Senior signal-caller Ryan Crum operates the offense for the Hillbillies. He has 527 yards and 12 TDs himself.
Man has one 1,000-yard rusher in senior running back Brandon Plymale, who has 1,021 yards and 11 scores.
Senior Michael Lomax (437 yards, 6 TDs), junior Derek Lomax (408, 5) and senior Andrew Hale (394, 5) spell relief for the Hillbillies’ backfield.
“They all run hard — it doesn’t matter who it is,” Rogers said. “We have to hit them and hold on. We have to get pursuit to the ball. They don’t do anything real fancy. They just come at you. We’ll have to get off the block up front and tackle to have a chance.”
Incredibly, the Lumberjacks have enjoyed a homefield advantage for the last five games.
The regular-season schedule was set up for three final home games, plus the Lumberjacks benefited from hosting two playoff games thanks to their No. 3 rating.
Now, instead of stepping out of its familiar orange and black-painted locker room at Dean Memorial Field, a nearly 3 1/2-hour drive covering about 180 miles one way awaits the Richwood squad.
The Lumberjacks haven’t had to leave Richwood in over five weeks.
Until today...
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had to travel,” Rogers admitted. “Being at home has been nice. I reminded our players that we are going to be wearing our white (road) jerseys, and they looked around at each other like they didn’t know what I was talking about. We’ve been wearing our black (home) jerseys a lot.”
A large crowd is expected on converge upon George A. Queen Memorial Field in Man.
“We have two charter buses and two high school buses of students and fans going down (from Richwood) that I know of,” Rogers said. “Everybody that I know says that they’re going to be there.”
— Email: jworkman@
register-herald.com
