BACK IN THE PLAYOFFS — TJ Miller has guided his alma mater back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020 in his debut season at the helm. - Andrew Grimm

BLUEFIELD — The Oak Glen football team has made great strides this season, and the Golden Bears were rewarded for all of their hard work and success with a spot in the playoffs.

“We talked to the boys about making this the standard at Oak Glen. We want to consistently make the playoffs. We want to make the playoffs year in and year out. This is huge for us. I am extremely excited for the boys. This is a great thing for them. They have earned it. We are looking forward to getting ready and going down there and competing on Saturday.”

It is the first time the boys from northern Hancock County have qualified for the playoffs since 2020 when their dreams of a state title were derailed about COVID-19.

The Golden Bears are the No. 15 seed in the West Virginia Class AA playoffs, and Oak Glen is set to take on No. 2 seed Bluefield at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon on the road down at historic Mitchell Stadium.

The Beavers have a long track record of success in the postseason.

“They have a great program,” Miller said. “Their coach has been there for forever. They have been very successful. They have played for several state championships. They are a great program and a great team.

“They’re athletic, they have a lot of speed and they have a lot of size on their line. They are a great team. We are going to have to be prepared to go to war. That is what it is going to be. We are going to take it one game at a time like we have all season.”

The boys from Mercer County enter this week’s game with a record of 8-2.

“They are very athletic, and they want to get their guys out in space,” Miller said. “They use the shotgun. They are a spread time. They will line up in trips. They have a really good quarterback. He can throw the ball. They have a lot of speed and athleticism, and they want to get the ball to their guys in space.”

Bluefield opened the season by defeating Graham, 20-10, before falling to Princeton, 51-6, in Week 2. The Beavers then won their next two games as Bluefield defeated James Monroe, 35-27, and Woodrow Wilson, 34-28, before losing to Independence, 31-10.

The Beavers rebounded from their loss to the Patriots to win their final five games of the regular season as Bluefield ended the year by defeating George Wythe, 40-21, Nicholas County, 36-7, PikeView, 39-0, Greenbrier East, 27-13, and finally River View, 48-0.

Graham and George Wythe are both Virginia schools, and Graham is from right across the boarder in Bluefield, WV.

Independence defeated Martins Ferry, 37-14, and Barnesville, 42-21, during the regular season.

Bluefield stepped up defensively toward the end of the season as the Beavers only allowed 20 total points in their final four games of the year.

“Defensively, they’re similar to their offense,” Miller said. “They’re fast, their athletic and they fly to the ball. They are good tacklers. They use their speed and athleticism. They fly to the ball. They create havoc. They play a lot of man-to-man. I like to bring pressure.”

Both teams have good size up front.

“Our line has been a strength all season,” Miller said. “I think we match up well with them. There is going to be a battle in the trenches. It is going to come down to which team can get their gamelan going early and often.”

Both teams enter the game coming off a bye week as both teams last played on Halloween. While Bluefield came out with a big victory to close out the regular season, the Golden Bears suffered a heartbreaking loss as Clay-Battelle defeated Oak Glen, 16-8, at home.

“We had some varsity guys dinged up, so we use the week off to rest up and to take care of some injuries,” Miller said asked how his team handled the bye week. “We watched some film. We were in the weight room. We got some good workouts in, and we had some good practices. We worked on some things we needed to fix. We watched and waited Friday to see how things would fall. We had an idea of where we would end up, and things fell exactly the way we thought they would. We want to have a good week of practice.”

Oak Glen defeated Herbert Hoover, 53-26, in the playoffs Nov. 21, 2020, however, the win against the Huskies turned out to be the final game of the season for the Golden Bears as the team’s next game scheduled to be against Robert C. Byrd ended up being canceled due to issues with the pandemic.

This week’s game comes nearly five years after that last one, and the Golden Bears know what they are going to have to do in order to leave Bluefield with a victory Saturday afternoon.

“To be successful, we are going to have to win the line of scrimmage,” Miller said. “We are going to have to control the clock. We are going to have to possess the ball. We are going to have to slow down their athletes. We are going to have to slow them down if we have to be successful Saturday.”

The game is Oak Glen’s second Saturday afternoon game of the season. Oak Glen traveled south to defeat Bridgeport, 56-3, Oct. 11 on the road at Perkins Field inside Bill Jobko Stadium down in Brookside.

“That game has kind of helped us with our approach,” Miller said. “That was a middle of the afternoon game on a Saturday. It has helped with our schedule. Playing that game was good for us, for sure.”

The trip down to Perkins Field from Oak Glen took about an hour, however, this week’s trip down to Mitchell Stadium is much longer as the stadium is more than five hours away from Oak Glen.

“I cannot stress how proud I am of our guys,” Miller said. “They have done a great job all year. I would not want to go into a game with anyone other than these guys in the locker room. I am super proud of them.”