Parkersburg South’s Eli Bartley outruns Linsly’s Lucas Troullos (23) to the corner during Saturday’s game. (Photo by Kim North)

PARKERSBURG — With 16 members in Class AAAA, Parkersburg South is guaranteed a postseason.

However, playoff football arrived a bit early during last week’s win at Linsly and intensifies the following two weeks of the regular season with road games at Spring Mills on Friday then Princeton the following week.

“Friday night at Spring Mills will be a playoff-type competitive game,” South coach Nate Tanner said. “We don’t have to be more than who we are. If we play a good game for four quarters I think we can play with when or anybody else in the state of West Virginia. Our third quarter against Bridgeport earlier this season showed that.”

Spring Mills is coming off a game of heavyweights – the Cardinals ranked No. and Martinsburg No. 2. Martinsburg improved to 9-0 with a 17-12 win, while Spring Mills (7-1) suffered its first loss.

Cardinal quarterback Max Anderson completed 8-of-20 passes for 110 yards and rushed flor 62 yards on 10 carries. Xavier Anderson finished with four receptions for 54 yards, while Keyon Mills caught four passes for 56 yards.

On the ground, Blake Sanders rushed for 49 years on 17 carries, and Kamren Taylor added another 32 yards/

“Spring Mills is as good as advertised,” Tanner said. “Their quarterback is a good-sized kid and has good speed and agility. He throws the ball extremely well.

“Their receiver (Xavier Anderson) is a big kid – he is like 6-4 or 6-5. He plays both receiver and defensive end.

“Martinsburg presents matchup issues and Spring Mills was able to match them pretty well.”

South expects to be at full strength – unlike last Saturday at Linsly when six players did not play either due to injury or serving team suspensions.

Backup quarterback Kinzyn Lutchmansingh took advantage of his opportunity and completed 18-of-27 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns.Lutchminsingh also rushed for 27 yards on 10 carries. His legs helped keep Patriot drives moving.

Kinzyn stepped in and did well,” Tanner said. “I thought he was pretty efficient.”

Receiver Brendon Kelley caught seven passes for 116 yards, including a 61-yard TD reception which was part of 21 unanswered points South scored after halftime to open the gap to 35-13.

The Patriot coaching staff did not make too many adjustments defensively in the second half. Yet, coach Tanner was pleased with how they responded and got stops for a majority of the final 24 minutes.

“Defensively, the kids just played tough and stingy,” Tanner said. “In the first half, we did allow one touchdown on a slant. We were caught in a blitz. They also had a kickoff return for a touchdown, but the defense continued to play hard and at a high level.

“Linsly’s record (now 0-8) was deceiving. Based on their opponents’ records we were the worst team.”

One South individual in particular who didn’t allow a hand injury to keep him on the sidelines was Eli Bartley, who rushed for 175 yards and two TDs. Between the carries and pass receptions, he recorded 39 touches for the game.

After seven games, the senior is 68 rushing yards shy of 1,000 this season.

“The six kids who stepped in last week did pretty well,” Tanner said. “As for Spring Mills, I am curious to see how well we perform in that setting.”

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com