Friday’s lid-lifter at Jim Mayo Memorial Stadium will match two teams who want more than they had last year and see how they do against each other as a bellwether to that end.
Six of the last seven Fairland-Portsmouth West football games have been decided by one possession, most recently a 30-27 Senators win last year in West Portsmouth.
That same time period has been a boon for both the Dragons and the Senators, who have become consistent contenders in their respective conferences. But the year-by-year graph dipped a tad last fall in both Rome Township and on the West Side, as Fairland (4-6) sustained its first losing record in nine years and Portsmouth West (6-6) didn’t win more games than it lost for the first time in four seasons.
Doing well Friday night would be an indication their teams are heading back toward winning campaigns and competing for crowns, Dragons coach Ron Wooten and Senators skipper Todd Gilliland said Monday.
“For a long time here at Fairland, and I would say there at West too, we always kinda knew how we were gonna do based on this first game,” Wooten said. “If you could play with West, well, then, you got a pretty good shot at being pretty decent, and if you could ever beat West pretty good, then you were gonna be real good.”
Concurred Gilliland: “Fairland is always a good measuring stick to see how your season’s gonna go. It’s been a battle for us ... and it’s one of those games that can springboard you to a lot of success the rest of the year.”
As close as they typically are in quality, the Senators and Dragons do it differently offensively. Portsmouth West espouses Wing-T concepts without necessarily lining up in the Wing-T formation, Gilliland said.
Fairland operates from the spread and usually does it quickly, which Portsmouth West fully expects to see Friday, even as the Dragons have a new coach.
After all, though Wooten is in his first year leading the Dragons, he first spent six years in three stints assisting former Fairland coaches Mike Jackson, Melvin Cunningham, Cullen Homolka and Brent Wilcoxon.
The Dragons burnished a reputation under those coaches for piling up yards and points in bunches. Wooten had a hand in that, including three years as Jackson’s offensive coordinator before taking over this season.
“What we’ve seen so far in scrimmages, they’ve been very similar to what they’ve done in the past,” Gilliland said of Fairland and Wooten. “There’s no doubt there’ll be a wrinkle here or there that we’ll have to adjust to on the fly, but he’s always done a really good job with their offense since he’s been the OC, and why change something that’s been working so well over the years?”
Kinyon Smith is next in line to direct the Dragons’ offense at quarterback, with Xander Collins and Christian Bompus leading his playmaker corps.
“He knew there were gonna be times it would be a struggle, but times it was gonna be a lot of fun, and he has just kept getting better at it,” Wooten said of Smith. “Really all these guys, the effort’s been great. Everything we’re asking of them, they’re doing the absolute best they can do. And as long as we keep that going, we’ll be all right.”
One significant challenge for Fairland on Friday will be depth. The Dragons’ roster numbers 28 players, while the Senators check in at 48, their teams’ coaches said.
Wooten has been mindful of that in ramping up preparation while also trying to ensure a fresh squad takes the field Friday.
“That’s the balance that I would say the majority of high school coaches in our area are dealing with, is, you’ve only got so many bullets, but you’ve gotta make sure they will fire when it’s time,” Wooten said.
The Senators, meanwhile, have more personnel than they’re used to, which has translated to a deep and talented skill-position group, Gilliland said.
Rising senior Anthony Bishop leads it. He rushed for 1,613 yards and 16 touchdowns last season.
Westyn Ratcliff (312 rushing yards, three TDs), Braden Adkins (837 receiving yards, 11 touchdowns), Gunnar Shonkwiler (203 receiving yards, three house calls) and new quarterback Carter Keyser, who missed last season due to injury, figure to lighten Bishop’s load.
Portsmouth West leads the all-time series 25-11. The Dragons have won four of the last five meetings after the Senators took 17 of 20 encounters between 1998 and 2017.
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