It’s that time of the year, everyone. High school football games kicked off throughout the state of West Virginia Oct. 10-12 and there was plenty of great action taking place.

The No. 1 team in the Mountain State continues to be powerhouse Martinsburg then followed by Spring Mills followed by Bridgeport and Fairmont Senior.

Here’s the complete breakdown of West Virginia’s elite high school football teams, heading into Week 8 of the 2024 season, as we see it.

Hard to argue with this one. The Bulldogs have shut out three of the seven opponents they’ve faced this season, only yielding 49 points so far. Not much of an argument to be had here when it comes to Martinsburg at No. 1.

The other team in the City of Martinsburg is playing pretty well, as Spring Mills cruised to a 43-0 shellacking of Washington last week. Spring Mills is a lock as the state’s No. 2 club.

First team out of AAA in our rankings this week is Bridgeport, with the Indians cruising to a 56-21 rout of Parkrsburg South last week.

Polar Bears’ quarterback Brody Whitehair has been very efficient this season, completing 92-of-128 passes for 1,838 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Only loss this season came at the hands of No. 1 Martinsburg. Other than that, pure domination by Huntington this fall.

Chance Barker has looked great under center for Princeton, completing 69-of-94 passes for 1,364 yards, 19 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

The Redskins looked a lot more like their dominant selves when they rolled to a 63-28 rout of Capital.

Eli Bartley has been strong from the outset and has rushed for 655 yards and 11 touchdowns through six games.

The Timberwolves dropped their third game of the season when they fell 40-21 to Huntington last week.

Wheeling Park remains in the top 10 after a 34-14 loss to Fairmont Senior last week. They’ll look to bounce back against Butler this week.

We look at the losses that Jefferson has had this season and don’t want t drop these guys too far down the ranks. Latest one is a 42-12 decision to Martinsburg. The Cougars have won back-to-back games against Hedgesville and South Hagerstown.

The Patriots have been riding the legs of running back Saiyvon Brown, who has rushed for over 939 yards and eight touchdowns this fall.

Hoover continued its undefeated ways by routing Wayne 49-0 last week.

Connor Lambert has been a scoring machine for the White Falcons, scoring 25 touchdowns and rushing for 1,239 yards on 68 carries through three games.

The Yellow Jackets have bee producing on offense, averaging well over 45 points per game this season.

We really like the Wildcats’ offense and the play of their quarterback Josh Moody, who has thrown for 2,046 yards, 22 touchdowns and five interceptions.

The Huskies have bounced back from their lone loss of the season, with consecutive wins over Elkins and Lincoln, respectively.

Over the first six games, the Falcons are averaging a staggering 45.1 points per game. Impressive numbers so far this season for this talented group.

The Flying Eagles made their debut into the rankings a couple weeks after they cruised to a 43-7 victory. Woodrow Wilson rolled to a 49-12 win over Princeton and this week take on Princeton.

Among one of the top teams in Class AA, Roane County continues to make their way up the rankings after a 45-19 shellacking of Poca.

The Red Devils make their debut on this list after they defeated Independence 21-20 a couple weeks ago.

The Patriots only two losses on the season have come to teams on this list in Princeton and Oak Hill, respectively.

The Mountain Lions have leaned on the stellar play of running back Jared Reall, who has rushed for 1,150 yards and scored 21 touchdowns.

Bulldogs’ quarterback Brysen Dixon has been sensational this season, throwing for 1,070 yards, 16 touchdowns and just one mere interception.

It was too tough for us to drop the Mohigans completely off this list after back-to-back losses to Wheeling Park and Martinsburg, two of the state’s best squads.

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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports

This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.

WASHINGTON — A mass shooting at a Georgia high school in September thrust the issue of gun violence to the forefront of the presidential race.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump agree that gun violence is a major problem, but they offer strikingly different views on how to address it.

Two 14-year-old students and two math teachers were killed at Apalachee High School.

While at a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, shortly after the Apalachee shooting, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, renewed calls for an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and red flag laws.

Students should not have to be frightened of school shootings, she said. “They are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, yet some part of their big, beautiful minds is worried about a shooter breaking through the door,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, expressed his condolences.

“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

Trump has survived two assassination attempts, one where he was injured in the ear, but has not changed his stance on guns.

After the first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said at the Republican National Convention that the party won’t back away from its support of Second Amendment rights.

During a Univision town hall with undecided Latino voters that aired Wednesday night, an audience member asked Trump how he would explain his gun policy to “parents of the victims of school shootings.”

“We have a Second Amendment and a right to bear arms,” Trump said. “I’m very strongly an advocate of that. I think that if you ever tried to get rid of it, you wouldn’t be able to do it. You wouldn’t be able to take away the guns, because people need that for security, they need it for entertainment and for sport, and other things. But they also, in many cases, need it for protection.”

A majority of Americans view gun violence as a problem — about 60% — and they expect it to only get worse over the next five years, according to a Pew Research Center study.

This year there have been 421 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks gun violence in the U.S.

For a third year in a row, in 2022 — the most recent year of finalized data — firearms were the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1 to 17, according to a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Harris’ record

In the aftermath of two mass shootings in 2022, Congress passed the most comprehensive bipartisan gun safety legislation in decades.

In Uvalde, Texas, 19 children and two teachers were murdered, making it the second-deadliest mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. In Buffalo, a white supremacist targeted a Black neighborhood and killed 10 Black people in a grocery store.

The package that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law provided $11 billion in mental health funds and $750 million for states to enact red flag laws. It also closed loopholes and established a White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention, among other provisions.

Red flag laws allow courts to temporarily remove a firearm from an individual who is a threat to themselves or others, among other provisions.

Biden tasked Harris with leading the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which helps local communities implement that 2022 bipartisan gun legislation and aids communities impacted by gun violence.

Trump’s record

During Trump’s first presidency, he had a mixed record on gun policy.

After a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Trump administration moved to ban bump stocks, which allow an automatic rifle to quickly fire bullets.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court, to which Trump appointed three conservative justices, struck down the ban on bump stocks. 

Trump also threatened to veto legislation from Congress that would have enhanced background checks on guns.

Promise: a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines

Democrats have long called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which are typically used in mass shootings.

The U.S. used to have a ban on assault weapons, but it expired in 2004 and Congress failed to renew the ban.

“I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban,” Harris said at the White House in late September.

Fulfilling this promise would come down to the makeup in Congress and overcoming the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.

Promise: a rollback of Biden regulations

During a forum with the National Rifle Association in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in February, Trump promised to roll back all gun-related regulations that the Biden administration has implemented.

“Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated on my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day,” Trump said.

Trump specifically said he would cancel the Biden administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, which revokes federal licenses from gun dealers who violate firearm laws.

Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign senior adviser, said in a statement to States Newsroom that if Trump wins a second term, “he will terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden’s attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office and stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.”

Promise: tax credits, no gun-free zones

During an NRA event in April 2023, Trump said that he was supportive of a tax credit for teachers who wanted to carry a firearm in schools.

Trump has also previously voiced his disapproval of schools being gun-free zones. Days after the Uvalde school shooting, Trump attended another NRA event in Houston, Texas, where he argued that a gun-free zone does not allow people to protect themselves.

“As the age-old saying goes, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Trump said. “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens.”

He argued that schools should have metal detectors, fencing and an armed police officer.

West Virginia faces a must-win game this weekend against No. 17 Kansas State in yet another game under the lights. Schuyler Callihan and Eugene Napoleon discuss what went wrong vs. Iowa State, Neal Brown’s “message” to the fans, what to watch for vs. K-State, and predict this week’s top games.

This week’s pick’ems:

Nebraska at Indiana

Alabama at Tennessee

Michigan at Illinois

Georgia at Texas]

Kansas State at West Virginia

Comment your picks on our YouTube page (West Virginia On SI). If you get all five right, you’ll win a Eugene Napoleon autographed picture.

Between the Eers will air every Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday throughout football season. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified the second a new show drops.

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