Weir High looks to ground the Jets
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BELMONT -- While their teams might be in different positions coming into Friday night, both Weir High's Frank Sisinni and Union Local's Bernie Thompson expect their teams to be in for a battle when the Red Riders travel to Belmont County to take on the Jets.
The Red Riders are coming off one of the biggest wins of Sisinni's tenure, knocking off then-No. 2 ranked Frankfort at home with a dominant second half, 35-21, to improve to 4-0.
"We've been saying all year it's one game at time," Sisinni said of his refocusing after the big win. "I know it's cliche, but it's real. It was a big win last week over one of the best programs in the state of West Virginia ... the most important thing is our kids don't get too high or too low emotionally.
"Union Local is another challenge, we have to be ready to go."
The win propelled the Red Riders into the top-five in the West Virginia Class AA rankings at No. 4 this week. Sisinni, though, says its way too early to focus on the playoff picture.
"It's too early right now," Sisinni said. "We're aware of the rankings, we obviously knew where Frankfort was, but we're four games in, we've got a lot of football left to play, we're far from a playoff team yet and we have a lot of things we're still working on daily in practice to get better.
"Our focus right now is to stay on a path to get better every week. We're not looking at the big picture as much as we are the weekly gains."
Weir High's other victories have come over Oak Glen and Indian Creek at home and Toronto on the road. Friday will be the Red Riders' second trip away from Jimmy Carey Stadium and put them at the halfway mark.
Meanwhile, Union Local had a good start of its own, winning its first three-straight games, but has since suffered back-to-back defeats to sit at 3-2.
Those losses, however, are to Harrison Central and Beaver Local, both of whom are 4-1.
The Red Riders, Thompson said, are just the latest challenge in a schedule that is loaded with tough tests.
One taking a look at that schedule would tend to agree. After hosting the Red Riders, the Jets take on Cambridge (1-4), St. Clairsville (4-1), Bellaire (1-5) and Barnesville (6-0).
"That's what we're all about," Thompson said of playing challenging opponents. "We have one of the toughest schedules around in my opinion. We have a very good Weir team this week and it does not get any easier for us after that. We're all about showing up, working hard and competing week-to-week. We know every week is a challenge."
The Jets enter a critical second half with the match up with the Red Riders, as they sit No. 17 in the Division V, Region 19 computer rankings, one spot outside the playoff picture.
For the Red Riders, they know all-too-well how challenging Thompson's Jets can be as the Belmont Countians came to Weirton a season ago and topped the playoff-bound Red Riders 42-6, one of just three regular season defeats Weir High suffered.
"I know they're reeling a little bit coming off of two losses, but they showed some very good things the first three weeks, they play a lot of really good teams." Sisinni said. "We are well aware of what they are capable of, we learned that last year. We saw last year the brand of football they play and now we're going down to their stadium, it's going to be another true test for us on the road.
"They're a run-first team, but they will also spread it out and throw it around. Last week we saw a lot of the wing-T stuff from Frankfort, this week it's a completely different type of opponent to prepare for in terms of how they spread the ball around."
Meanwhile, the Jets know the Red Riders are going to be fired up coming off of a big win and provide several challenges.
"We have to play better defensively than we did the past two weeks," Thompson said. "We struggled a little bit with tackling and we need to do a better job of containing big plays. We need to make teams drive the ball down the field. If we can do that, I like our chances."
The last time the teams met in Belmont County was back in 2018, and the Red Riders won that meeting 38-13.
The Red Riders are led by quarterback Malachi Stromile and tailback Corey Lyons.
Stromile has completed better than 63 percent of his passes thus far for 463 yards, six touchdowns and three picks. In addition to averaging over 115 passing yards a game, he's rushed for 181 yards and two more scores. He does not run a lot, but when he does, he's averaging 12.9 yards per carry.
Lyons, meanwhile, is averaging more than 103 yards per game with 413 and nine touchdowns on the season. He had a pair of scoring runs against Frankfort, has had at least two TD runs in each of the team's four games so far and is averaging nearly 6.2 yards per carry.
Stromile spreads the ball around a lot, but his top targets have been basketball standout turned receiver G Cross (seven catches, 125 yards, two TD) and Devan Colson (six catches, 73 yards). Cross, who is averaging 17.9 yards per catch, had five grabs for 104 and a score last week in a breakout performance.
"They're extremely athletic," Thompson said of the Red Riders. "You have to be able to match their intensity and their athleticism. They're dangerous if they can get the ball in space.
"They have great athletes on the outside and their quarterback is experienced. It's going to be a tough challenge, any time you play an extremely fast, athletic team it creates mismatches."
The opening kick Friday night is set for 7 p.m.
"We like going into these hostile environments and being challenged," Sisinni said. "We had a tough road game at Toronto, we want the kids to be challenged in environments like this because to be the football team we want to be, to get where we want to be, at some points we're going to have to go on the road and be able to win tough games."