No. 1 North Marion hosts No. 5 Weir for Saturday semifinal in Rachel

Nov. 24—FAIRMONT — The road to Wheeling Island makes one final stop in Rachel.

The No. 1 North Marion Huskies make it back to the semifinals to take on the No. 5 Weir Red Raiders at home in the WVSSAC football playoffs.

North Marion (11-1) played No. 9 Herbert Hoover for the second time this season in the quarterfinals last Saturday. The black and silver Huskies had more control of the playoff game than the first, winning 35-17.

"The preparation was trying to keep care of the ball better, and we did better," North Marion senior quarterback Casey Minor said. "We still had a turnover, which I'm not happy about, but we came out with a W, so we had enough to win."

Now, having knocked out last year's state runner-up, North Marion turns its attention to Weir (11-1), who went on the road to No. 4 Scott last Saturday and won a nailbiter 35-33 on a last-minute touchdown.

North Marion and Weir scrimmaged each other before the season began. Head Coach Daran Hays is familiar with Weir and said he talked throughout the season with Weir Head Coach Frank Sisinni. As Hays explained it, it's a fairly even matchup.

Senior receiver and defensive back Landon Frey said Weir runs similarly to North Marion on both sides of the ball, based on what he saw in the scrimmage.

"They got some pretty good skill guys, they have some athletes outside, they have a good interior," Frey said. "I feel like they might be a little bit similar to us as an offense. As a defense, they play man, they do a lot of things that are like us, I think."

According to Hays, both Weir and North Marion use a lot of the same formations, even though Weir is more pistol based compared to North Marion's spread offense. Defensively, both have even four-man fronts, although Weir uses more of a 4-2-5 defense and North Marion a split field coverage.

The two teams have similar personnel too, according to Hays. He described them as "not huge, but they're also not really undersized." He also said Weir's quarterback, Malachi Stromile, can air it out and extend plays with his feet, not too differently from Minor.

Comparing the opponents each team faced, only Brooke played both Weir and North Marion. Weir, located in the northern panhandle wedged between Ohio and Pennsylvania, only played four teams from West Virginia this season.

"They're kind of a rare breed in terms of they don't really play a whole lot of West Virginia opponents because of where they're at," Hays said. "They played a Pennsylvania and a lot of Ohio schools. So prior to the playoffs, you really didn't have a whole lot to gauge on, but luckily we scrimmaged them."

Weir played five opponents from Ohio: Toronto, Indian Creek, Union Local, Martins Ferry and East Liverpool. Their only loss came from Union Local. Weir also played Albert Gallatin from Uniontown, Pa. Weir's out-of-state opponents have a combined record of 30-23.

On offense, Weir averages 34.2 points per game, while its defense averages 15.5 points allowed per game. Until the quarterfinal against Scott, Weir's defense didn't allow more than 21 points in a game all season.

North Marion, meanwhile, averages 41.3 points per game on offense and 16.3 points allowed on defense. The Huskies defense has only allowed 21 or more points twice all season, and the offense put up 35 or more points in all but one of its games.

One might be concerned for North Marion if senior running back and team rushing leader Aaron Hoffman isn't 100% for the semifinal, as he left the quarterfinal against Herbert Hoover in the third quarter with an apparent lower body injury.

Hays said Hoffman will likely be a game-time decision regarding what role he'll play, but there are plans in place if he can't. Hays said it's up to the head coach and coordinator to plan for how to manage the team when a player goes down.

"We tend to do what we can an 'if-then' meeting as a staff, so if this guy goes down or whatever, then what pieces do you shuffle?" Hays said. "Sometimes that means shuffling some pieces and sliding in the next guy, even if he's a receiver or an offensive lineman... shuffling the pieces around so that we can be the best team that we can be, or maybe we don't do as much two-back stuff or this or that."

But as Hays pointed out, Hoffman didn't play in the scrimmage against Weir. He added that anything the team gets out of Hoffman in this semifinal is an added bonus.

The semifinal between North Marion and Weir kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Woodcutter Stadium in Rachel on Saturday, Nov. 25.

Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548