
Chapmanville coach James Barker addresses his team following last week's home win over county rival and No. 14 Logan (Holly Eldridge/Holly Eldridge Photography).
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
CHAPMANVILLE The push for the Class AA playoffs enters the home stretch as the Chapmanville Tigers have two more regular season games to determine if they will make the playoffs.
Currently sitting in 13th of the latest West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission ratings, the Tigers are in control of their own destiny and can potentially clinch a spot in the playoffs with a win Friday night at Mingo Central.
A win over the Miners (3-5) doesn’t officially clinch a playoff berth for the Tigers, but a win as well as a combination of four losses by either No. 16, Weir, No. 17 Bluefield, No. 18 Point Pleasant, No. 19 Lewis County or No. 20 Liberty (Harrison) would clinch the first playoff berth in seven seasons for Chapmanville.
A win Friday night and a win next week at county rival and Class A No. 12 Man would clinch a playoff berth and could have the Tigers knocking on the door of hosting a first round playoff game.
“Everyone wants to talk about the playoffs, and we understand that, but our playoffs started after our bye week,” Chapmanville coach James Barker said. “Our kids understand the task at hand and are preparing for a tough game against an underrated Mingo Central team.”
Last season Chapmanville defeated Mingo Central for the first time in school history and a win Friday night at Mingo Central would be another first for the Tigers.
“We’ve never won on Miner Mountain,” Barker said.
Chapmanville is riding a two-game winning streak heading into Friday night. Last week the Tigers defeated No. 14 and county rival Logan, 49-7, in what Barker called a great team win.
“When we talk about a team win, we count how many players played for us and contributed,” Barker said. “That was around 30-plus kids for the Logan game. Our team won that game.”
One of those 30-plus individuals, senior running back Kohl Farmer rushed for 191 yards and three touchdowns in the win. Farmer, who entered the game with 810 rushing yards, went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season.
Farmer leads the Cardinal Conference in rushing (1,007), touchdowns (18) and scoring (108 points).
“Great young man that deserves all the accolades he receives,” Barker said. "But he’s going to be the first to tell you he couldn’t do it without his offensive line.”
Chapmanville is riding a wave of momentum heading into Friday night and Barker attributes to that to the game-winning fourth quarter drive in a 26-21 win at Wayne on Oct. 14.
The Tigers trailed 21-20 with under one minute to play, but a 30-yard kickoff return from Austin Adkins set the Tigers up at midfield. After two incompletions to start the drive, quarterback Brody Dalton completed three straight passes, a 12-yarder to Jacob Topping and a 12-yard and 14-yard completion to Adam Mullins to move the ball to the Wayne 12.
Farmer’s 10-yard run set the Tigers up at the 2 and Dalton’s 2-yard touchdown with 0:09 remaining gave Chapmanville its first win in 31 years at Wayne.
“Our mindset has changed since that fourth quarter,” Barker said. “Our young men believe in each other, and I think that’s what changed it.”
Mingo Central and Chapmanville share three common opponents in Herbert Hoover, Poca and Scott. The Miners are 0-3 against those three schools while Chapmanville is 1-2.
Chapmanville’s feeder programs, Chapmanville Middle School and the midget league programs, combined to go 29-3 throughout the regular season heading into postseason play.
The middle school Tigers, who finished the season 6-2, will face county rival Man in the Black Diamond Conference championship Saturday at noon at Man’s George A. Queen Memorial Field.
The Chapmanville midget league A-team and B-team finished the regular season 8-0 and the C-team finished 7-1 heading into postseason play.
“Happy for our program to be in the position it is in, but even happier for our feeder programs,” Barker said. “We are happy with our program at the moment, but we must stay humble and hungry.”
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