Season Preview: Fort Frye’s Season Opener against Barnesville
By: Ashley Frye
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BEVERLY, Ohio (WOUB) – It has been three years since the Fort Frye Cadets last faced the Barnesville Shamrocks, and now they meet again in week one at Fort Frye’s home field.
In their last two meetings Fort Frye dominated Barnesville ending their season in the regional semifinals outscoring the Shamrocks a combined 76-7.
Fort Frye’s head coach Eric Huck has been the head of this team since 2008 leading them to a five-year winning streak against Barnesville from 2017 to 2021. But despite Fort Frye’s past success against the Shamrocks, Huck is clear about this game being a different fight.
“It’s completely different teams both teams, they were a very good team last year that had just about everybody back, you know I’m confident that we’ve been a team that knows how to win, so hopefully that comes back week one.”
After losing to Fort Frye in 2021 Barnesville has not lost a regular season game and won those games by an average of 27 points. Last year’s season brought 12 wins for the Shamrocks and 10 for the Cadets with both teams making impressive playoff runs.
Senior running back Clayton Miller was a freshman on the varsity Fort Frye team that beat Barnesville back in 2021.
Now as he’s gearing up to play them again in the season opener of his senior year, he understands the competition that Barnesville brings.
“I’m glad we got them back on the schedule this year, it’s always a great competition playing against them, and it’s just great to play them again.”
All seven of the seniors on this year’s Fort Frye team played for Huck back in 2021. Aside from them this is a young team, last year the Cadets did not take a major hit with graduating seniors because they didn’t have many, so controlling a season with younger talent is not new territory for Coach Huck.
“We weren’t real deep last year, didn’t have a whole lot of varsity type players, same kind of thing this year we have to bring some of these young guys along, one thing I do think is different though is the hunger these boys have.”
And this team is hungry for a week one win. Something that has been a focal point at practice all season long. As Huck said, “We don’t have to worry about anything else it’s all about winning week one.”
Fort Frye will open their season at home against Barnesville on August 23.