Parkersburg’s Sylas Cheuvront (2) carries the ball during a game against Riverside earlier this season at Stadium Field. (Photo by Brian Cox Photography)

PARKERSBURG — Things go from tough to tougher for fourth-year Parkersburg head coach Matt Kimes and the Big Reds.

Following a 37-30 setback last week at Stadium Field to current No. 2 George Washington, which is the lone remaining undefeated quad-A program aside from fellow 6-0 and top-rated Morgantown, the red and white face another Mountain State Athletic Conference challenge this week with a road trip to Bob Sang Stadium to tangle with No. 3 Huntington.

Head man Billy Seals’ Highlanders bounced back from a season-opening 49-0 setback to Oakland in the Volunteer State by knocking off two-time defending state champ Martinsburg (22-20), Spring Valley (38-7), Hurricane (68-20) and after a bye a 38-6 victory last week at Capital.

HHS dual-threat senior signal-caller Tayveon Wilson, who was Clemson’s first 2026 tight end commit, connected on 11 of 14 attempts for 160 yards with four touchdowns while rushing six times for 35 yards versus the Cougars.

“He’s a really good football player,” said coach Kimes. “They are getting the ball in his hands every play putting him at quarterback. He’s not your prototypical sit-in-the-pocket quarterback, but he’s got a nice release and a strong arm. They create a lot of challenges. That’s for sure.”

The running back brother tandem of Trevon Okonkwo (10-107-1) and MeShawn Okonkwo (7-53) allowed Wilson to have his most efficient game to date versus Capital.

“We’re pretty good. Hunter Leavitt (team-high six pass breakups) is probably going to be limited or out. Other than that we’re as healthy as we’ve been,” Kimes replied when asked about the injury front.

“Guys getting back and staying healthy so far. We’re pretty healthy and firing on all cylinders so to speak and excited to go see if we can go compete a little bit.”

The only common opponents are Spring Valley and Hurricane. The Timberwolves beat the Big Reds, 30-20, after PHS opened with a 44-7 loss at Morgantown. PHS started its three-game win streak against the Redskins (45-16) and then beat rival South (20-17) and Riverside (48-0) before coming up short to GW.

“I think that’s the strength of their team this year offensively is their offensive line,” Kimes added. “They’ve got guys that are returning and a lot of experience, and big, and strong, and athletic and playing the right way upfront. They play and they finish every block. They seem to get joy in finishing blocks.

“They play with that right attitude. We’re going to have to match it. We’re going to have to match the physicality and they are going to try and run the ball to setup everything else. That’s where their focus is and that’s what we are going to try and focus on is try to slow their run game down the best we can.”

The Big Red defense also will have to contend with wideouts Andreas Reese, who had three TDs on his five grabs that covered 68 yards, and Kellen Rife (2-49-1).

Although this week presents another tall task for the Big Reds, coach Kimes continues to be encouraged with the overall growth of his squad.

Versus the GW Patriots, PHS opened a 17-6 lead on a Cole Sisk field goal, a Sylas Cheuvront touchdown run and a Brady Thorn receiving score from quarterback Alex Greer.

Despite a 17-9 halftime cushion, GW pushed ahead 23-17 before Ethan Jones raced 76 yards to paydirt late in the third to tie it.

“I think after the Morgantown game our message was that there’s a pretty big gap if they are a state title contending team, we got a lot of room to grow and close that gap,” Kimes said. “I felt like we’ve done that over the last six weeks. We’ve gotten better every week and played probably our best game of the year last week against GW. We played really well first half and came out beginning of the third quarter just a little bit unfocused. Maybe didn’t come out of half with the same intensity that we needed to and they took advantage of it and kind of went on a little run there. It was a 14-point swing and they had the momentum. It was kind of back and forth after that, but we showed some resilience and got back in it and had a chance to win at the end with the ball going inside their red zone, and just didn’t finish. I think we take a lot of positives out of that game.

“It proved that we can compete with some of the top teams in the state. Hopefully we can build upon that this week and continue to grow in practice. Like I told these guys and I’ll keep telling them if we keep improving every week, and you know not playing our best football now, but keep improving and we’ll be playing our best football here in a month we should be a tough out for someone in the playoffs. There was just a play here and there in both the Spring Valley and the GW game where if those plays don’t happen or we perform our assignment or if we don’t have mental mistakes maybe we win both of those games and we’re sitting here with a little bit different record and a little different outlook. We’re still trying to figure out how to win and it’s hard to win, especially with the teams we play and we have a big challenge again this week.”

Jones (71-504-6), Greer (61-453-4) and Cheuvront (31-178-6) have been the main cogs for the PHS rushing attack.

The sophomore QB is completing 48.2% of his attempts for 535 yards with six touchdowns and as many picks. Thorn (14-212-2) and Tytan Parsons (11-133-2) have been his top targets.

Mike linebacker Devin Widman continues to lead the PHS defense with 51 tackles and three sacks. Adam Elder has two sacks and nine tackles for loss while Cheuvront has two blocked kicks.

The Highlanders will look to keep the good times rolling versus the Big Reds on homecoming as HHS has won the last four meetings and holds a 16-14 advantage in the all-time series.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com