Keyser hosts Frankfort in Mineral Co. Bowl

Mtn. Ridge hosts Fort Hill; Allegany goes for 600th win at Northern

Mike Burke

KEYSER, W.Va. — Coming down the home stretch no less than eight area high school football teams will have their state playoff fortunes in play this evening as one arch-rivalry takes place between Frankfort and Keyser, a budding and relatively new Allegany County rivalry between Fort Hill and Mountain Ridge resumes, and the Allegany Campers attempt to become one of the select few teams in Maryland scholastic football history to win their school’s 600th football game.

The second-ranked Keyser Golden Tornado (6-2) will play host to fourth-ranked Frankfort (7-1) in the Mineral Country Bowl tonight at Alumni Stadium at Tornado Alley, top-ranked Fort Hill (8-0) visits fifth-ranked Mountain Ridge (4-4), and the third-ranked Campers (6-2) go for 600 in Accident against the Northern Huskies (1-6).

Meanwhile, Bishop Walsh (5-3) visits Southern (2-6), Hampshire (4-4) hosts Washington (1-7), Moorefield (5-3) hosts Pendleton County (6-2) and Petersburg (1-7) visits Tucker County (6-2).

All games kick off at 7 p.m.

There are two emotional factors in play tonight in Keyser for the Frankfort Falcons, and neither one of them are products of happy occurrences. For beginners, the Falcons were unceremoniously dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten last week by Allegany, 43-14. Secondly, it was last year at this time, and in this game that they were unceremoniously dropped by the Golden Tornado, 61-8. Making matters even more testy is the Falcons have lost four in a row to Keyser, which leads the series, 21-13.

Keyser supplanted the Falcons last week as one of the two hottest teams in the area with its sixth straight win, 20-13 over Musselman. Frankfort is ranked seventh in the Class AA in the Charleston Daily Mail state poll, while the Tornado is ninth. More importantly, for now, Keyser is No. 5 in the AA state computer ratings that determine playoff seedings, and Frankfort, as high as No. 4 this season, is now No. 8.

As for the hottest team in the area, undefeated Fort Hill, which won a classic mudder, 12-0, over Thomas Johnson last Friday in Frederick, the Sentinels will be in Frostburg tonight to try to further enhance their first-place standing in the Maryland Class 1A West Region and to perhaps overtake Joppatowne as the overall top-rated team in Class 1A. Joppatowne currently leads the Sentinels by .14 of a point. Fort Hill is ranked No. 8 in MDVarsity.com state poll, the media poll that rates teams from all four classifications.

As for the Miners, they continued to hang in there and keep their playoff hopes alive last week with a 43-7 win over Southern. Mountain Ridge is the fifth-rated team in the West Region, with a ratings average of 3.89, trailing fourth-place Boonsboro at 3.90. The Miners’ playoff fate is not exclusive to the Railroaders, though, as Williamsport (3.76) and Clear Spring (3.26) are right on their tail.

While the Miners are playing Fort Hill, Boonsboro will be at North Hagerstown, Williamsport hosts third-place Smithsburg (5.14), and Clear Spring is at Randolph-Macon.

Fort Hill defeated Mountain Ridge last year, 24-21, when Garrett Dolly blocked a Mountain Ridge 48-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds of the game.

The Campers, who are a solid second in the West Region, are coming off the big win over Frankfort in which fullback J.D. Hook rushed for 162 yards and two touchdowns in leading the offensive outburst of 425 yards.

Allegany brings an all-time mark of 599-240-26 (71 percent) into the game with Northern, with one of those being a 45-16 victory over the Huskies last year.

Northern’s tough season continued with a 24-16 loss to Chestnut Ridge last week.

The Bishop Walsh Spartans broke their three-game losing streak last week, beating Randolph-Macon, 23-19. Dyan D’Atri’s 13-yard halfback touchdown pass to Quincy Redmon with 24 seconds left in the game was the difference in the game.

Southern is coming off the loss to Mountain Ridge. BW won last year’s game, 20-6.

Hampshire will be out to ensure at least a .500 season when its hosts Washington of Jefferson County. The Trojans, who defeated Washington 14-13 last year, beat Hedgesville last week, 20-7, as Brent Walter rushed for 121 yards and three touchdowns.

As for Pendleton and Moorefield, Pendleton is currently rated 13th in the Class A standings, while the Yellow Jackets, 7-0 winners over Petersburg, are rated 17th, with the top 16 teams in each class entering the playoffs.

Moorefield won last year’s meeting, 22-14.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.