Parkersburg’s Cooper Cancade (3) airs it out during last week’s game against Huntington at Stadium Field. (Photo by Brian Cox Photography)

PARKERSBURG — A rare 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday at Stadium Field will see a pair of Mountain State Class AAAA programs collide with hopes of tasting victory in their final regular season contest.

Parkersburg and third-year head coach Matt Kimes enters the fray currently rated last in the 16-team quad-A field with a 3-6 record.

Conversely, Musselman head coach Brian Thomas’ Applemen led 21-15 last week against Washington on senior night only to come up short, 28-21, which has them rated No. 13 in quad-A.

The Applemen will be out to try and snap a two-game slide on Parkersburg’s senior night before entering the postseason with an automatic berth. During last week’s setback, coach Thomas’ team had touchdowns from Dustin Boley, Zach Miller and Taryn Boyles.

PHS finishes up its three-game homestand looking to go 2-1.

Although the Big Reds had a more than solid effort last Friday against Huntington, the Highlanders left town with a 37-12 triumph one week after the red and white won their first home game by topping St. Albans, 27-12.

MHS, who like the Big Reds were a playoff qualifier a year ago in Class AAA, is currently 2-7 with a recent forfeit win against Spring Mills.

“Number two (Miller) and number four (Nathaniel Lasure) are the two guys that carry the ball the most,” said coach Kimes. “They are running kind of like a single wing, direct snap, like Bridgeport so they got two guys back there and either one of them can catch it. They got different guys that catch it.

“Two, four and nine (Boyles) I believe are the three guys that catch the ball on the snap the most frequent. It’s their own version of it I would say. Their basic formation is very similar to what Bridgeport will do and then they’ll do a couple different spread formations, but similar concept out of all of it.”

Despite being down on the road, Washington and its coaching staff stuck to the game plan and continued to run the pigskin.

A year ago, PHS made the trek to the Eastern Panhandle and rolled to a 41-10 victory. The Big Reds upset Hurricane in the opening round of the playoffs before falling in the triple-A state quarterfinals at Princeton, while the Applemen were bounced in the first round by Cabell Midland.

“I think it’s a lot of different kids playing,” coach Kimes said when asked about the makeup of the programs from 2023 to 2024. “I think the concept of us trying to win and improve and advance into the next week to get into the playoffs is similar.

“We know we are guaranteed a shot. Try to get some momentum going into next week and you know these seniors it will be the last time they play at Stadium Field and we want to send them off the right way.”

Big Red Jakel Shelton is averaging more than 80 ground yards an outing and has rushed for eight touchdowns.

Cooper Cancade enters his final career start at Stadium Field completing nearly 62% of his passes. He’s thrown for 1,402 yards with seven touchdowns and as many picks. Brady Thorn (19-311-4), Shelton (30-274-1), Hunter Leavitt (13-154-1), Zane Lewis (12-133-0), Braxton Kupfner (13-122-0) and Tytan Parsons (10-115-0) have been his top targets all season.

Thorn also has a 90-yard kickoff return to the house to his credit, while Lewis has both a scoop-and-score along with a pick-6. Lewis is tied with Cyrus Backus with a team-high three interceptions, Ethan Jones paces the Big Reds with a trio of sacks and Aeneas Lauderman has forced a pair of fumbles.

“You can tell they are playing some young kids in a lot of spots, but they are playing hard and their running backs run hard and run physical,” coach Kimes said of Musselman. “It’s something that we’ve kind of struggled with over the course of the season is slowing down physical run games, so that’s what they are going to try and do. We put a couple tweaks to our plan to try to slow that down the best we can.

“We think we can have some success offensively. We got to be able to spread them out at times, but also get into our two tight end, two back formation at times and be able to run the football. We think we can move the ball. We struggled to run the ball a little bit against Huntington last week, but we’re hoping to be able to run it a little bit better this week.”

Defensively for the Big Reds, Devin Widman (79 stops, 8 TFL), Lewis (66, 6), Javel Chandler (47, 1), Lauderman (40, 9) and Jones (35, 6) have led the way.

“We’re going to try and establish the run game early and often and try to set up our RPO and play-action game and take shots down the field when they provide the opportunity to do that,” admitted coach Kimes.

“When we’ve been able to run the ball and sustain drives and stay ahead of the chains so to speak, we feel pretty good offensively. That’ll be the game plan again.”

Just like in 2023, the Big Reds will try to close out the regular season with a win knowing a road playoff upset will be the goal next week.

“It’s an emotional night for the staff and the players and the parents and knowing that with the season we’ve had knowing it’s going to be the last time we suit up on Stadium Field, and these guys have put so much time and energy and committed so much of their lives to the program so it’s kind of sad to see it come to an end,” coach Kimes added.

“At the same time it’s a chance to honor them for all the time they have put into it. Making sure that we send them off the right way and play the best we can, and if we play the best we can we should have some success.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com