For 10 straight years the Bridgeport High School football team has still been practicing the week of Thanksgiving.

 

That of course means the Indians have advanced to the semifinals 10 straight times. Eight of those times were in Class AA and four of those years ended with state championships. They made the Class AAA semifinals in 2011, the year prior to the dominant run in Class AA from 2012-19.

 

Now, back in AAA, the Indians find themselves in familiar territory even if the road to the 2020 Class AAA semifinals had more than a few curves in it.

 

The obstacles in the path to a potential spot in this year’s Super 6 are plentiful. Many of them out of the team’s control, but the biggest is top-seeded Cabell Midland (7-0), who the Tribe (8-1) are scheduled (as of now) to travel and face at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

 

The game won’t be a 100 percent go until the West Virginia Department of Education school alert system map is updated at 5 p.m. Saturday.

 

Cabell County was orange on last Saturday’s map, meaning the semifinal game had to be scheduled for Sunday in order to provide Cabell with a week’s time to get to gold or below on the map.

 

Also a factor is that the numbers are trending in the wrong direction for Harrison County.

 

As of Thursday’s DHHR update, both Harrison and Cabell counties were gold.

 

Both schools have already been caught up in the color map game. The Indians’ quarterfinal matchup with four-time defending state champion Martinsburg was called off because of Berkeley County being red on last week’s map.

 

“We wanted to go play,” BHS coach John Cole said. “We knew it was going to be a tough matchup, but we were ready to go. I was real interested in seeing how that game played out on both sides of the line.”

 

Also, the Knights’ quarterfinal game against Spring Mills (also from Berkeley County) was called off.

 

In fact, Cabell Midland is in the semifinals and yet to play a playoff game as an opening round contest with John Marshall was also victim to the color map.

 

The Indians won their first-round game, 55-7, against Washington.

 

This marks the second ever meeting between the Indians and Knights, the previous one coming in the 2011 Class AAA quarterfinals, a game in which Bridgeport won 41-8, setting up the current semifinal round streak. Brett Hathaway ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns against Cabell Midland in 2011 and the Tribe would fall in the semifinals the following week, 21-14, to Ryan Switzer and George Washington.

 

A lot has changed since that 2011 meeting, specifically Bridgeport’s offense that has morphed from the stick-I to the pistol and to the single-wing in 2020.

 

Leading the way for the BHS offense is Cam Cole, who has 1,301 rushing yards on 132 attempts with 18 touchdowns, while completing 11-of-17 passes for 277 yards and five touchdowns.

 

He has plenty of help in the Indians’ single-wing attack as Hayden Moore adds 554 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns (he has also caught two touchdown passes), J.T. Muller has 530 rushing yards and seven TDs and J.D. Love has 321 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

 

Defensively, linebacker Landyn Reppert leads the Indians with 66 tackles. Eight other players have at least 30 tackles. The defensive end duo of Muller and Tanner Saltis have been especially effective with 51 and 44 tackles, respectively. They have combined for 16.5 tackles for a loss and eight sacks.

 

Muller and Saltis will likely be key in containing the Knights’ triple option attack. Leading the Cabell Midland offense is fullback Jakob Caudill, a first-team all-stater in 2019 and one of two 1,000 yard rushers that led Cabell Midland to the state championship game.

Caudill has 652 yards on the ground and 10 touchdowns in five games this year. The Knights’ run-heavy offense also features quarterback Jayden Johnson and wing back Isaiah Vaughn.

 

“What they do, they do well,” Coach Cole said. “You need a good fullback, they have that. You need a quarterback than can run, they have that and you need some speed for your pitch guy and they have that.

 

“They come off the ball pretty well. They play hard on both sides of the ball.

 

“They are a lot like us in philosophy even though we do things differently.  I think we match up with them. The line is comparable, the speed is comparable. It’s going to come down to each offense doing what they do well. You are going to have to take advantage of your possessions.”

 

The Indians Radio Network will once again broadcast the game locally on WKMZ 103.3 FM or online with the Bridgeport Sports Radio App or at www.bridgeportindiansfootball.com 

 

The Voice of the Indians, Travis Jones, will handle play-by-play with Chris George on color commentary and Brent Kimble as the sideline reporter.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo features Phil Reed making a tackle, middle photo shows Cam Cole following the lead block of J.D. Love and the bottom features Devin Hill (68), J.T. Muller (23) and Landyn Reppert awaiting the snap on defense. All photos by www.benqueenphotography.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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