Chapmanville wide receiver Adam Mullins is tackled after a 39-yard reception in the first quarter of the Tigers 43-26 victory over the Sissonville Indians Friday night at Barker Stadium. (Holly Eldridge/Holly Eldridge Photography)
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHAPMANVILLE Coming off a season-opening victory over Sissonville, the Chapmanville Tigers will look for its first 2-0 start to the season since 2015 when they host the Poca Dots Friday night at Barker Stadium.
The Tigers overcame two first quarter fumbles, rolled up 421 yards on offense, and rushed for 300 yards as team in the Tigers 43-26 season opening win over the Indians this past Friday at Barker Stadium.
Kohl Farmer led the way on offense with 177 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries while Brody Dalton ran for 105 yards on 15 carries to overcome those two turnovers.
“Obviously disappointed in the turnovers, but proud of the way we fought back and overcame that adversity,” Chapmanville coach James Barker said. “Credit our offensive line: RJ Jones, Dan Atwood, Gabe Davis, Gabe Silva, Brady Dalton and Jacob Blair for paving the way for our offensive rushing attack. Caden Robinson and James also had a hand in that yardage as well.”
After an impressive victory over the Indians, Chapmanville will be looking for its first 2-0 start in Barker era and its fist since 2015 when they qualified for the Class AA playoffs.
A 2-0 start to the season has been a rarity for the Tigers. In fact, since Chapmanville began playing football in 1950, the Tigers have just 11 2-0 starts in school history.
In order for Chapmanville to accomplish that feat, the Tigers must defeat the Poca Dots for the first time since 2017.
The Dots defeated the Tigers 38-8 in 2018 and followed that up with a 48-7 victory in 2019. The two schools did not play in 2020 due to COVID restrictions but the Dots were victorious 52-12 last season in a game played at Poca’s O.O. White Stadium.
“We are just looking to go 1-0 against a Poca team that has had our number, embarrassingly so, the last three times we’ve met,” Barker said.
Chapmanville and Poca will meet for the 18th time in school history. The series has been one of streaks and memorable games.
Poca won the first four meetings played in the series, but Chapmanville rebounded to win 10 consecutive games from 2008-2017, before the Dots won the next three.
Barker said the series has seen its fair share of close memorable games and recalled four memorable victories in the series.
In the 2009, Todd Terry took a lateral from quarterback Josh Easterling and found Tyler Cox for a 42-yard touchdown with 0:20 remaining to give Chapmanville a 30-26 win.
The following year, Jake Robinson ran for 408 yards and seven touchdowns as the Tigers and Dots combined for nearly 1,200 yards and 63 first downs, but it was the Tigers who came away with a 69-66 victory over the Dots.
Two years later Chapmanville erased a 20-point third quarter deficit to defeat Poca, 34-33, in overtime. Dustin Smith scored from 20-yards out on the Tigers first play in overtime. Poca answered with a 2-yard run from Jacob Payne to draw within one, however, following a timeout, the Dots elected to go for two and win, but were stopped short of the goal line.
In 2013, Alex Berry connected with Jacob Dingess for a 22-yard touchdown with a minute to play in the fourth to give Chapmanville a 34-31 victory.
“Poca and Chapmanville have had some crazy endings in the past where we’ve been able to sneak away with some victories,” Barker said.
Poca, a Class AA semifinalist last year, is looking to avoid its first 0-2 start to the season since 2017 after dropping its season opener to rival Nitro, 27-26.
Jordan Wolfe returns for the Dots at quarterback. Wolfe threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in last week’s loss to Nitro.
“The offense at Poca revolves around Jordan Wolfe and rightfully so,” Barker said. “He’s a great athlete and has been well coached.”
Wide receiver Brandon Moore had two touchdown receptions for the Dots, who Barker says are a physical team with big play capability.
“Poca is still big and strong, so we have to match their physicality which we haven’t done in years past,” Barker said. “We have to continue to work on taking away the big play on defense and on offense we have to be better at taking what the defense gives us.”
Chapmanville is looking for back-to-back victories to open conference play in what may be a wide open race for the top spot this season given Scott’s season-opening win over Herbert Hoover, who won the Cardinal Conference last season.
When asked about the results from last week Barker said they talked to the team about focusing on what they can control and the focus for the week, which is beating Poca.
“We don’t know how good anyone is right now after week one. We don’t know how good we are,” Barker said. “The only thing we are focused on is getting ourselves better in practice and gameplan for Poca.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night at Barker Stadium.
“Our student-athletes are excited to play in front of another home crowd this Friday night and our student section and atmosphere was awesome thanks to our administration: Rob Dial, Camille Evans, Paula Thomas, and teachers Julie Alderman and Katie Craig,” Barker said. “Again, we hope to prepare the right way and make the towns of Chapmanville and Harts proud.”