photo by: Nick Henthorn

Wheeling Park’s Brennan Wack carries the ball during Friday night’s victory over John Marshall at Monarch Stadium. The Patriots will be the No. 6 seed in the WVSSAC Class AAAA playoffs.

WHEELING — The regular season is over, but you’ll still hear the cheers of crowds in football stadiums around the area this Friday — and Saturday.

The final WVSSAC football playoff seedings were released Saturday, with Wheeling Central, Wheeling Park, Cameron and Oak Glen making the cut of the 16-team playoff fields in classes AAAA-A.

Wheeling Central stands out as the top seed in Class A. The Maroon Knights were dropped down to Class A from AA as one of several schools reclassified over the summer. Wheeling Central, 6-2 on the season, will host No. 16 Tolsia (3-7) on Saturday at 1 p.m. on Bishop Schmitt Field at Wheeling University.

“Being injury free is a part of this,” Wheeling Central head coach Mike Young said about his team’s regular season. “We’re excited to be able to host, and as long as we’re winning, we’re hosting until it’s time to go to Charleston for the Super Eight. It says a lot for our kids, our program.

“The strength of schedule … is probably the reason why we’re number one. Because now they give you points based on the strength of schedule and we played some good teams. We lost to some good teams. When you lose to Fort Frye and Barnesville, who are both in the hunt in Ohio, and you’re able to beat Union Local and Williamstown, Ferry, bigger schools, it gives you points towards finishing at the top.

“I’m thankful to have a veteran coaching staff, a great group of kids. Only having eight games, is a little bit challenging because, to keep these kids busy when they’re not on the field is tough. But now we’re back to being excited.”

The Maroon Knights lost to Williamstown in the Class AA quarterfinals last season.

Wheeling Park will take to Wheeling Island Stadium this Friday at 7 p.m., as the Patriots secured a 6-4 record and the No. 6 seed in the Class AAAA field. The Patriots are set to face No. 11 Woodrow Wilson (5-5) in the first round.

“We’re in a tough side of the bracket, that’s for sure,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “Watching Woodrow Wilson, they’re not the average 5-5 team. The film I saw, they’re big, they run the ball, it’ll be a difficult task. It’s nice to be at home and have a home playoff game. We’re in the same side of the bracket with [No. 2] Huntington and [No. 3] Martinsburg. So this side of the bracket is going to be a difficult bracket and some of the best teams in the state are in it– I think we’re one of them, but it won’t be an easy road, that’s for sure.”

Wheeling Park lost in the Class AAAA quarterfinals last season in a game against Huntington.

The Cameron Dragons (6-3), after finishing as state runners-up this year, will be entering this year’s postseason as the No. 7 seed, and will face No. 10 Meadow Bridge (7-3) in the first round inside Dragon Stadium on Saturday at 1 p.m.

“Anybody that makes it in the playoffs, they’re pretty lucky,” Cameron head coach Tim Brown said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries this year, and we’ve had some ups and downs with that. We’ve had a lot of close games and we’re really pleased that some of our young players and new players and unexpected players have been able to step up, take positions that they may not have started out playing and learned how to do those well enough to get us into the playoffs. So we’re feeling pretty blessed to still be here.

“I think that the kids are ready. I’m very proud of the fact that that ‘next guy up’ mentality has really worked for us. The coaches are doing an outstanding job of getting kids to learn new positions, learn different positions, and to mature quickly. So I can’t say enough about the effort of my young guys that have had to step in and play.”

Oak Glen (7-3) ended the season as the No. 15 seed in Class AA, and will travel to face No. 2 Bluefield (8-2) in the first round.

NOTE

Wheeling Park nose tackle Akeem Davis, who scored on a improbable 50-yard interception return in his team’s regular season finale against John Marshall, had his play featured on ESPN and several other national news outlets over the weekend, making for a special moment for the 6-1, 320-pound Patriot, and for his whole team.

“It’s amazing what happened between 11 o’clock on Friday night and 8 o’clock Saturday morning, it just kept growing and growing and growing,” Daugherty said of the clip. “My wife and I were actually eating dinner and they showed the clip during the Alabama-LSU game. And I know they showed the clip on game day. Pretty neat to see Nick Saban cheering on a West Virginia high school kid. Obviously Pat McAfee has West Virginia ties also. So, to see those guys kind of cheer on one of our players, Akeem, and his effort, it was pretty neat.”