POINT PLEASANT — The Point Pleasant Big Blacks go on the road Friday night to battle the Keyser Golden Tornadoes in the first round of the West Virginia football playoffs. And this road is quite the long and winding road. With the emphasis on l-o-n-g.

Go to Mapquest.com and type in Keyser. From Point Pleasant to Keyser is 250 miles. Route 2 to I-77 to Route 50 to I-79 to I-68 to Maryland 658 to Maryland 53 to Route 220 to West Virginia 46 to Keyser. It’s not a “you can’t get there from here” place, but you can see that place from Keyser.

The Golden Tornadoes finished the regular season with a 7-3 record and a 7th place finish in the final Class AA rankings. Their point total (98) was nine points higher than Point’s (89). The higher point total was aided by Keyser defeating at least three AAA schools -- Hampshire (28-0), Musselman (20-13), and Mountain Ridge, Maryland(41-14). Other wins for the Golden Tornadoes were over Northern Garrett, Maryland (34-0), Allegany, Maryland (28-25), Berkeley Springs (56-16), and Shady Spring (65-7). Their losses were to Wayne (22-0), Fort Hill, Maryland (29-8), and Frankfort (22-13).

Many attempts to find stats, a roster, and starters for Keyser failed, but last week’s game was on the internet. In that contest, Keyser running back David Echartea rushed for 192 yards and 3 touchdowns. Jarell Ross returned a punt 71 yards for another score, and quarterback Tyler Biser connected with wide receiver Garland on a 23 yard scoring pass.

Big Black Head Coach Dave Darst said his staff watched all ten Keyser games on film and came away very impressed. “They are a tough football team,” said Darst. “They played a very tough schedule. They started out 0-2, but bounced back to win six games in a row. Then they lost to Frankfort, a playoff team, before defeating a Class AAA team from Maryland last week,” continued the third year mentor.

Coach Darst said local coaches thought Keyser was almost a mirror image of the Big Blacks. The basis for that was the type of plays that they will run during the game, plus the fact that they started slowly and have progressed into a pretty good football team. “They run a lot of leads, traps, and power plays,” said Darst. “They won’t throw the ball much, probably because they haven’t had to. They have good size and they are pretty physical. If I had to pick a team on our schedule to compare them to, it would have to be Wayne, although Keyser lost to Wayne in the first game of the year. With the improvements they have made, I think that game would be a little different if they played now,” added Darst.

The Big Blacks have had a good week of practice, according to Darst. One thing that he and his staff has stressed this week is that getting to the playoffs shouldn’t be the goal of this football team. The goal should be to win playoff games. “We haven’t won a playoff game in 30 years,” said Darst. “We need to change that. “Our goal shouldn’t be one playoff game, it should be to go far into the playoffs,” added Darst.

Point Pleasant has not been real successful in the post season. Way back in 1979, the Big Blacks defeated George Washington in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs. The next round the locals were defeated by St. Albans, which marked the beginning of a six-game losing streak in the playoffs. Point lost to George Washington in 1985, to St. Albans in 1996, to Capital in 1997, to Morgantown in 1998, and to Magnolia last year. “That has to stop,” said Darst.

The Big Blacks enter this week with no major illnesses or injuries. The starters should be the same ones that have started the past couple of weeks. They will be Eric Roberts at quarterback with Nathan Roberts and Jarrod Long in the backfield along with either JaWaan Williams, Derek Pinson, or Chris Blankenship. The split end is Cody Greathouse with Beau Bellamy at tight end. Up front, the starters are Casey Hogg, Gabe Starcher, Brock McClung, Clay Krebs, and Derry Osborne. Darst said the only change would be more playing time for Blankenship. Others expected to see time on offense are Brandon Toler and Orrin Chason.

Defensively, the locals will start Long, Trey Livingston, Krebs, Pinson, Michael Musgrave, Nathan Roberts, Donovan Powell, Williams, Layne Thompson, Ryan Warner, and Chauncey McClanahan. Others expected to play are Josh Hereford, Zach Thomas, and Hogg.

“We would like to pull a Poca this year,” said Darst. “Twice the Dots were 7-3 going into the playoffs and twice they won the whole thing. That’s what we are shooting for,” said Darst.

Game time is set for 7:30.