Parkersburg High’s Xadrian Snodgrass, pictured here running against Spring Valley earlier this season, returned last week from an injury. The Bed Reds play Friday night at South Charleston. (Photo by Duane West)

PARKERSBURG — The more things change, the more they stay the same for Parkersburg High School head coach Mike Byus.

The 2021 campaign has been more than testing on not only the Big Red players, but also the coaching staff.

Now, the 2-4 Big Reds have a Mountain State Athletic Conference showdown at 7:30 p.m. Friday at No. 8 South Charleston (4-1).

“They are pretty darn good,” Byus said of head coach Donnie Mays’ Black Eagles, who are led by dual threat signal-caller Trey Dunn.

Not only do the Big Reds have to worry about Dunn, running back Mondrell Dean as well as wideouts Chris McCorkle and Wayne Harris, PHS will be doing so without linebacker Zach Howard, who is the team’s leading tackler.

“No chance,” Byus said of Howard being available this week.

PHS, which did get running back/Mike linebacker Xadrian Snodgrass back during last week’s 42-30 home setback to Hurricane at Stadium Field where the Redskins trailed 30-27 late in the third, also will have slot receiver Anthony Ice back in the fold.

“He played mostly offense, but he did play more defense after Zach got hurt,” Byus said of Snodgrass. “That made him tired for offense because he hadn’t been playing.

“We tried not to use him both ways, but Zach got hurt. We were playing seven kids on defense that started on JV the first game this year. That’s a fact.”

Snodgrass (22-103) and Bryson Singer (23-148) each surpassed the century mark on the ground last week. The Big Reds will need to utilize quarterback David Parsons with hopes of grinding out some scoring drives and keeping the SC offense off the field.

“Well, we’re going to try and not turn it over at key times,” Byus said of something his team has to start doing. “Ball security is huge.

“Just trying to get a consistent group of kids to be able to practice from week to week so that we can actually grow on things from the week before.”

The coach admitted of the injuries “it’s a huge problem when you have continued injuries like we’ve had. You just got to suck it up and continue to go. That’s all we can do.

“We are pretty dang young. We are young everywhere right now. That’s our biggest problem. This is a black and blue conference and when you are playing with a bunch of sophomores… we are starting 10 sophomores.”

Nearing must-win territory to keep their five-year postseason streak alive, coach Byus remains optimistic.

“I can’t fault that,” he said of the team’s attitude. “It’s not their fault they’ve had 1,000 injuries. As a coach you always want the best out of them and keep pushing and pushing and trying to get the best out of them.

“These are just unforeseen circumstances and unforeseen times. Man, just crazy. I never thought we’d have to deal with this level of injuries.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com