Cameron Hosts Tyler in Clash Of Playoff Hopefuls
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CAMERON -- A small-school battle of West Virginia playoff hopefuls will kick off Friday night at Dragon Stadium as 3-1 Tyler Consolidated travels into the hills of Marshall County to take on unbeaten, 4-0, Cameron.
Coach Tim Brown's Dragons have steamrolled through the early portion of its their schedule, including last week's 53-8 dismantling of Magnolia, and have captured 11 straight regular season home wins dating back to September of 2019. Meanwhile, coach Ryan Walton's Silver Knights rolled over Gilmer County by a 42-14 count a week ago and have lost only to Doddridge County (20-12).
"We have three wins under our belt, and while we would love to be 4-0 right now, we lost a couple of kids during the Doddridge game and we just weren't able to recover from that," Walton said. "But we want to play good football teams and we want to know exactly where we stand.
"Our goal is to not only make the playoffs this year, but to make some noise while we are there."
As they have been all season, Tyler Consolidated is led by running back Sean Winfrey, who racked up 293 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries last week. For the season Winfrey has gained 776 yards and scored 11 times while averaging 8.9 yards per carry.
"Sean Winfrey is a nice player to have on our side," Walton added. "I am glad that I don't have to scheme to stop him. And he does such a nice job on both sides of the football for us."
Quarterback Brady Strode threw for only 49 yards a week ago but did have a 26-yard scoring strike to Tristen Tuttle.
The Knights have scored 157 points on the year and only allowed 34, with a pair of shutouts.
"Tyler Consolidated is such a well-coached team," Brown commented. "They have a very nice senior class, led by Coach Walton's son, Ty, who is like a coach on the field for them. Their tailback (Winfrey) is also very good and their line does an outstanding job of blocking and leading the way.
"They really keep you on your toes on offense and they are very aggressive on defense and try to keep everything in front of them. This is definitely going to be a big test for us."
Cameron has plenty of play-makers of its own, even though the majority of the Dragons' starters have seen limited playing time since the season-opener at West Greene.
Junior quarterback Colson Wichterman, a three-year starter under center, leads the way and has completed 26 of 45 passes for 463 yards and five touchdowns while averaging nearly 45 yards a game on the ground. His leading receiver is senior Cole Burkett (15-297-5), who averages 133 all-purpose yards a contest.
Senior Payton Neely has carried the ball 24 times for 310 yards and six touchdowns while junior J. Ross has 36 carries for 252 yards and three scores. Cameron has outscored its first four opponents by a whopping 179-45 margin, with 31 of the points they have given up coming in week one.
"Cameron is building a tradition and has won a lot of games the last couple of years," Ryan Walton said. "They know how to win football games. They have a nice, veteran quarterback and some good, lanky receivers. They are well-coached and always fundamentally sound. Their offensive line does a good job blocking and they can throw the ball, but also hurt you with the run. They are a pretty good football team."
For Brown winning comes from the attitude that his team brings to the field.
"These kids do a great job learning techniques," Brown mentioned. "They understand their roles and a lot of them are playing out of position because of the low numbers that we have. But I have to hand it too them, there is no 'I' when it comes to getting things done, they all put the team first in every situation.
"They also work very hard conditioning, and they give every little thing they have out on that football field."
Cameron won the last meeting between the schools, 34-26, in 2020 with Tyler Consolidated picking up a 56-21 verdict in the series back in 2015.
The Dragons enter the contest sitting in a tie for 12th in the most recent W.Va. Class A playoff rankings while the Silver Knights are currently 19th.