On September 15th, 2023, Parkersburg South High School faced their cross-town rivals Parkersburg High School at Stadium Field. There was lots of trash talk between the two teams as they usually do every year. Social media posts, showing up to rival schools’ events or other sports games, and some extreme trash-talking at the game. There was a lot of tension between the teams where both teams wanted nothing more than to have the bragging rights to their cross-town rivals and seem more credible for all of their claims before the game.
Many people expected the game to go how it did last year with Parkersburg South leaving with the victory at home, becoming runner-up state champions later on in the season.
This year didn’t go anything how people had imagined being a very close game with Parkersburg High coming away with a close victory in a 43-35 heated battle. The talk was that South wouldn’t be as good as their team last year but starting off 2-0 they seemed to be doing okay so far with that loss to a not-so-great team, and visual struggles coming down late, it’s evident that there no longer as good. Many players on the South team were confident in their team and believed they could still do as well if not better than the previous year but in the loss, the effect of losing their starting quarterback was on full display.
The students at Parkersburg High were keen on Parkersburg South not being as good as they used to be, and that this year would go differently as they believed they had the stronger team and after Friday’s game all their claims showed to be true. The students from both sides believed that their school would be the winner and the game brought a large crowd of people. Yet something not accounted for it seemed was that half of the bleachers at Parkersburg Highs stadium were not in commission and many people didn’t even get a chance to sit down. That didn’t stop anyone from wanting to support their side of town; people brought things from both sides like signs, speakers, megaphones, and signs. It was a great game and came down to the final seconds and Parkersburg High has the bragging rights… until next year.
