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Weir High Dots the ‘I’

Red Riders run away with Class AA first-round victory over Poca

HURDLING — Weir High’s Reed Reitter hurdles over a Poca defender during a Class AA first-round contest on Saturday. (Photo by Andrew Grimm)

POCA — Tabbed as one of the favorites in Class AA before the season started, veteran Weir High coach Tony Filberto has been waiting for his team to live up to its potential all season.

Saturday afternoon in the playoff opener, the No. 12 seed Red Riders finally connected all the dots, dominating No. 5 Poca from start to finish, en route to a message-sending 41-14 triumph.

“This is the team that we knew we could be all along,” Filberto said. “I have not been satisfied at all with the way we’ve played this year. This has been our first total team effort … total team response that we knew we were capable of.

“This is when it counts. Everything else has been practice up until now.”

That message, according to Filberto, is that the Red Riders are better than a typical No. 12 seed.

“Yeah, I think we are better than the 12th-best team in the state,” Filberto said. “We have proven (Saturday) we are somewhere near the top. Who knows. We have a lot of football in front of us. If we continue to play this way, we’ll see what happens.”

Senior standout Tyler Komorowski agreed with his coach after a stellar performance on both sides of the ball.

“Being ranked 12th definitely hurt a little bit,” he said. “We took that with a grain of salt and came here knowing what we could do. Yes, absolutely we do (feel like we have something to prove), for sure.”

Komorowksi, who saw a lot of time at quarterback since being sidelined by an early season injury and was slowly brought back into the fold in the final weeks of the regular season, delivered a pair of long touchdown throws and rushed for another score, while making several big plays on the other side of the field from his customary defensive end position.

“It feels good to be out here and get this win,” Komorowski said. “It feels great (to be back at quarterback). I get to be the leader of the team. We are all out here for each other. It’s thanks to our coaches. They put in the work to make sure we were prepared on everything.”

He finished 6 of 12 passing for 161 yards and two touchdowns.

Sebastian Spencer. not to be out-done, turned his time at quarterback into a pair of long scoring runs in the second half that helped put the game away. The duo split duties much of the afternoon, and the speedy Spencer was on the receiving end of both Komorowski scoring throws when he was not taking the snaps himself.

“He is the fastest kid in the state,” Filberto said of Spencer. “Once he gets into linebacker area one-on-one, he is usually going to win, and he proved that (Saturday). He has that great speed and great vision.”

Spencer came up just short on gaining 100 yards three different ways. He ran for 172 and two scores on 11 carries, 119 receiving and two scores on five catches, and 91 through the air on 9 of 13 passing.

The rotation, even though it was expected by Dots coach Seth Ramsey, gave Poca fits all game long.

“We knew they were both going to play,” he said. “We knew what they were going to try to do with them. We just didn’t (stop it). They made plays. You have to tip your hat to them. They were able to mix it enough to keep us on our toes.”

Ramsey agreed that Weir High can make some noise the rest of the way.

“They are a really good football team,” he said. “We knew coming in they would probably be the best team we have seen. Tony does a great job. They have a chance to make some noise in this tournament.”

Spencer opened the scoring with 5:05 left in the first quarter, breaking a screen pass from Komorowski for a 36-yard score. Donavan Kirby, who had a mostly quiet day by his standards with 67 yards on 14 carries, added to the lead early in the second quarter with an 11-yard run to cap an eight-play, 50-yard drive.

After a penalty negated a long Spencer touchdown pass, Komorowski finished the drive with a 1-yard QB sneak to cap a 10-play drive and make it a 20-0 halftime lead.

The Red Riders out-gained Poca, 291-36, in the opening half.

Komorowski found Spencer in man-on-man coverage to make it 27-0 midway through the third quarter on a 40-yard touchdown before the Dots got on the board.

Poca quarterback Jay Cook, who at that point had been sacked five times and picked off twice by Reed Reitter, used a little hesitation trickery to turn a sneak into a 60-yard touchdown run. Those 60 yards gave him a total of 19 rushing yards to that point, and he finished with just 25.

“Defensively, I just thought we were terrific,” Filberto said. “We talked to our kids. When you get to playoff time, whoever is the best up front usually wins. Our kids responded.”

Spencer ran for scoring runs of 50 and 76 yards to push the lead to 41-7, before a late Cook touchdown pass capped the scoring.

The Red Riders will travel to Summersville to take on No. 4 seed Nicholas County. It defeated No. No. 13 Petersburg, 41-10, on Friday.

With the road team choosing the time and place, Filberto left little doubt that meeting will take place next Saturday afternoon.

“Saturday at 1:30 (p.m.),” he said with a chuckle. “If we played down the street I would say Saturday at 1:30 (p.m.). What I like about it is we understand how to travel. It is little disruption for us. If we take a team from their normal Friday night, now they have a little disruption. You never let your opponent pick the battle field.”

(Grimm can be reached at agrimm@heraldstaronline.com. For local sports updates, follow us on Twitter @HSDTsports.)

Weir High 41, Poca 14

Weir High 7-13-13-8 — 41

Poca 0-0-7-7 — 14

W: Spencer 36 pass from Komorowski (R. Reitter kick), 5:05

W: Kirby 11 run (R. Reitter kick), 9:29

W: Komorowski 15 run (Kick fails), 3:30

W: Spencer 40 pass from Komorowski (R. Reitter), 5:24

P: Cook 60 run (Starcher kick), 4:15

W: Spencer 50 run (pass failed), 3:11

W: Spencer 76 run (Spencer run), 8:26

P: Rhodes 11 pass from Cook (Starcher kick), 4:11

RUSHING: Weir High 32-250-4 (Kirby 14-67-1; Spencer 11-172-2; Walters 3-7; Semedo 2-2; Komorowski 1-1-1; DeMatteis 1-1). Poca 30-77-1 (E. Payne 10-25; Taylor 9-26; Cook 7-25-1; McClanahan 4-1).

PASSING: Weir High 15-25-252-2-1 (Komorowski 6-12-161-2-0; Spencer 9-13-91-0-1). Poca 8-23-97-1-2 (all by Cook).

RECEIVING: Weir High 15-252-2 (Spencer 5-119-2; R. Reitter 5-59; McCoy 3-64; Semedo 1-6; Hostuttler 1-4). Poca 8-97-1 (T. Payne 3-37; Miller 1-29; Rhodes 1-11-1; McClanahan 1-8; E. Payne 1-8; Lynch 1-4).

FIRST DOWNS: Weir High 11; Poca 9.

FUMBLES-LOST: Weir High 4-1; Poca 0-0.

PENALTIES-YARDS: Weir High 13-120; Poca 11-75.

PUNTS: Weir High 2-37.5; Poca 5-33.6.

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