Football Game Preview Week 7: Greenbrier East at Oak Hill

WHO: Greenbrier East (2-3) at Oak Hill (4-1)

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 11 at 7:00 PM

WHERE: John P. Duda Stadium in Oak Hill, WV

LAST WEEK: Gbr East (def. Shady Spring 34-21) Oak Hill (def. Independence 21-20)

COVERAGE: TV: New River Network on Facebook and YouTube— Radio: 103.1, WRON

Stop if you have heard this before: The Greenbrier East Spartans will hit the road this week.

Honestly, it’s all we have heard now for the last four games of this 2024 football season, but after their best performance of the season to date last week in a win over Shady Spring, the Spartans maybe could get used to life away from home as they travel to play the Oak Hill Red Devils this coming Friday. East is hoping to build what they call “a winning streak, but the Red Devils plan on standing in the way.

ABOUT THE RED DEVILS:

Coached by Davion Marion and members of Class AAA, Oak Hill is a familiar foe to the Spartans and their fans. They are 4-1 on the season and have won each of their last four meetings against the Spartans including a dominating 40-6 effort a year ago. They come in ranked no. 8 in the most recent MetroNews Power Rankings and will look to run their current season winning streak to three and to make it five in a row over Greenbrier East. For the season, Oak Hill is averaging 24.4 points per game and allowing just 17 ppg.

–Players to Watch—

Oak Hill: Devin Richardson, JD Mauritz, Armonyi Hicks, Carson Treadway

Greenbrier East: Brady May, Nate Suttle, Brayden Brown, Kaden Stone, Payton Ritter, Grant Burdette, Brody Hamric

Red Devils quarterback Devin Richardson, a Woodrow Wilson transfer, guides the offense and while he is a capable thrower (720 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT), he is also a dangerous runner (54 carries, 359 yds, 6 TD) and will take off in the blink of an eye. He will hand off 90 percent of the time to running back JD Mauritz who has run for 289 yards and two scores on the year. Last season in Fairlea, Mauritz had 88 yards and three TDs against East and coach Marion knows the senior has had past success against them. Armanyi Hicks (11 rec, 268 yds, TD) and Carson Treadway (9 rec, 147 yds, 2 TDs) are Richardson’s favorite targets and the Spartan defensive backfield will have to keep those two in front of them.

Spartan Stat Leaders (5 games):

Offense Team: Rushing—96.2, Passing—173.4, Total—269.6 yards per game

Defense Team: Rushing—189.2, Passing—161.6, Total—350.8 yards allowed per game

Passing: Brody Hamric- 56-of-94, 813 yds, 9 TD, 4 INT

Rushing: Brady May- 103 carries, 385 yds, 6 TDs

Receiving: Nate Suttle- 24 rec, 345 yds, 3 TDs

Top 3 Keys to the Game:

Spartans offensive line win in the trenches

Spartan linebackers spy Richardson. Don’t let him loose

Spartan defense limit big pass plays to Hicks and Treadway

Summary:

On paper, this is a winnable game for East. There is one common opponent between the two teams and that’s Riverside who the Spartans defeated 24-20 to open the season and Oak Hill beat them 21-6. Everything starts and stops with Richardson for Oak Hill, but Mauritz has had some huge success against East and has five touchdowns—3 last year, 2 in 2022– in the last two meetings combined. If Oak Hill’s running game gets going, it will be extremely important for the Spartans not to get caught looking into the backfield because that’s when Richardson will let it fly down the field to one of his multi-talented pass catchers. East also cannot take the Red Devil defense for granted as they have been stingy at times this year.

This should be a good one, however. If Greenbrier East can steal a win, they get three out of their final four games at home and at that point, one must think anything can happen in front of the home crowd down the stretch of the season.

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