SHORT GAP, W.Va. — Border rivals Frankfort and Allegany will share the field Friday for the first time in 14 years.
The Campers (0-1) head to defending West Virginia Class AA state champion Frankfort (2-0), aiming to end the Falcons’ school-record 16-game winning streak.
Kickoff at Frankfort Stadium is slated for 7 p.m.
“I think they’re a good football team,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said of the Campers. “People want to look at their game last week because they lost, but they played a very good football team that is going to win a lot of games. I think it’s going to be a really good football game.”
Frankfort and Allegany have met 14 times, with the Campers holding an 11-3 edge. Allegany has won eight straight in the series, all by double digits.
Allegany had a 12-1-1 record against Ridgeley in 14 meetings.
History aside, Frankfort comes into Friday as the favorite. The Falcons, ranked No. 2 in the area, finished 14-0 last season and have rolled through their first two games, defeating Moorefield, 34-10, and Hampshire, 45-7.
“Well-coached football team,” Allegany head coach Bryan Hansel said of the Falcons. “Kevin (Whiteman) and his guys are good at what they do. They run the Wing-T well, very disciplined up front. They’re not as big as Hollidaysburg, but they’ll play with great discipline and technique. It’ll be a battle.”
Allegany dropped out of the area poll this week after falling to Holildaysburg, 40-13, in its opener.
Asked what the keys to an Allegany victory are, Hansel said:
“We can’t have turnovers and we have to force one or two of them. We can’t give up explosive plays. The (Carder) Shanholtz kid in the backfield and (Blake) Jacobs at quarterback are dangerous. We have to force them to drive down the field.”
The explosive Shanholtz is Frankfort’s leading rusher with 16 rushes for 155 yards and three touchdowns. Jacobs was 4 for 4 with 50 yards through the air against Hampshire, and he’s rushed for 86 yards and two scores.
As a team, Frankfort is averaging 7.2 yards per carry.
In the Campers’ opener, Amanni Blowe had 17 rushes for 74 yards, Aidyn Mckenzie carried the ball eight times for 56 yards, and Khiante Bible ended with 36 yards of total offense and two touchdowns.
“They do a lot of good things on both sides of the ball,” Whiteman said. “And I really like the running backs. (Bible) and (Blowe) run hard. I know they’re both big and strong, and I just know we’re going to have to hit and wrap and bring them to the ground or it could be a long night for us.”
Allegany sophomore quarterback Dylan Blank completed 6 of 11 passes for 88 yards, one touchdown and one interception in his first career start.
He’ll have to contend with a secondary that intercepted four Hampshire passes last week, part of seven turnovers the unit forced.
Gunnar Bradshaw leads Frankfort’s defense with 16 tackles, and Brady Twigg, Shanholtz, Blake Carlile and Rhett Sensabaugh have intercepted passes.
“We’ve got to try to keep them from having long, sustained drives or busting big plays,” Whiteman said. “We can’t let them have the ball the whole time and move the ball down the field on us. We’ve got to be able to have some three-and-outs.”
Allegany’s offensive line appeared to be slow off the ball against Hollidaysburg, limiting the effectiveness of one of the area’s premier backs, Bible, who struggled to get to the second level.
“Our line didn’t get off the football,” Hansel said. “We blocked some base plays wrong. The cadence was killing them too. We got a couple breaks on false starts in Week 1. We fixed Dylan’s cadence, so it’s little different this week. Hoping that’s fixed and we can get off the football.”
Allegany’s DJ Riley, Maddox Hensel, Rylen Ellsworth and Bible had double-digit tackles against Hollidaysburg, Mckenzie broke up three passes and recovered a fumble, and Sebastian Stewart had an interception to lead the Campers’ defense.
Both head coaches are looking forward to a great atmosphere.
“I’m ecstatic,” Hansel said. “(Kevin Whiteman’s) my guy. When you can drive 20 minutes to play a good football team, you want it. It’s good for the area. There’s another game locally that’s going to pack a crowd, but they’ll be a lot of excitement Friday. You want to give our local kids a big-game atmosphere. I hope (this series) stays forever.”
“It should be exciting,” Whiteman said. “I hope that there’s a big crowd. I know Frankfort will have a big crowd. I hope Allegany brings a big crowd. I know that they typically don’t bring their band to away games, but they’re having a band here, so that should help the crowd and help the atmosphere for sure.”