With the first showdown of the season in the books, now the schedule gets a little schizophrenic.

George Washington's 21-7 victory over two-time defending state champion South Charleston Friday may have tilted the balance of power in Class AAA, but the schedule tilts this week courtesy of the West Virginia-Marshall game in Huntington.

Dozens of high school games around the state have been moved to either Thursday or Saturday to avoid bumping heads with Friday's college matchup. At last count, there are now 17 games involving state teams set for Thursday, 33 on Friday and 17 Saturday.

Only one Kanawha Valley team, Capital, plays Friday. The Cougars (2-0) travel down the West Virginia Turnpike to visit Mountain State Athletic Conference rival Princeton (0-2).

GW takes its 2-0 record into a home game against Nitro (0-2) Thursday night at Steve Edwards Sr. Field in South Hills. The only other Valley team competing that night is Herbert Hoover (1-1), which visits Class AA power Wayne (2-0). The Huskies are coming off an impressive 48-45 win at Chapmanville, considered another strong AA contender.

The rest of the area teams play Saturday - Buffalo at Poca, Hurricane at Spring Valley, Parkersburg at South Charleston, Ripley at St. Albans, Sissonville at Point Pleasant, Wheeling Park at Riverside and Winfield at Cabell Midland.

The games involving Hurricane, SC and Riverside are all afternoon kickoffs.

George Washington stamped itself as a definite title contender with its knockout of South Charleston in front of an overflow crowd at Oakes Field. The estimated attendance of 4,000 included a few hundred people sitting on the stone steps in front of the wall in the South end zone.

It marked just the second loss for the Black Eagles in their last 32 games.

"This is a big game for us,'' said GW senior tight end Cody Clay. "This will help us, hopefully, the rest of the season. We've been waiting for this game for a year. To win this game, it's a big deal for us.''

South Charleston had beaten the Patriots in each of their last three meetings, including the 2008 state championship game, which matched the No. 1 (SC) and No. 2 (GW) playoff seeds in AAA.

On Friday, GW was able to hold down the big-play attack of the Black Eagles, who managed just two pass plays longer than 14 yards and two runs longer than 12 yards.

Tyler Harris, SC's Kennedy Award-winning quarterback, threw three interceptions (two on deflected balls) after getting picked off only six times in 14 games last season.

"I thought our kids executed our defensive game plan real well,'' said GW coach Steve Edwards Jr. "It was a total team effort, from the sideline on out here [on the field]. My coaches did a great job preparing the kids all week.

"We feel fortunate to win tonight, and I'm really happy for my seniors. My goodness, this is huge for them.''

Edwards hopes his squad can handle success the way it's handled adversity in the past, with another consistently solid effort.

"I've said this before,'' Edwards said, "that when [a big game] goes either way like this, it can affect you both ways. That's why we'll see how mature we've become as we go down the road. Are we going to take advantage of the opportunity that's in front of us or are we just going to rest on our laurels? That's what we're going to have to work on now.

"I think the kids are ready to get back to the drawing board, and I hope we are, because we've got a really tough schedule on down the road.''

The Patriots still have four games left against teams who are also unbeaten - Spring Valley, Capital, Greenbrier East and St. Albans.

South Charleston, meanwhile, would like to get standout running back Ray Coleman healthy. He's been bothered by a sprained ankle and was held to 50 yards Friday.

He twice left the game with leg cramps.

Black Eagles coach John Messinger points to a thinner bench as one of the reasons his team could be lacking the firepower it's flashed in recent years.

"One issue that gets us is depth,'' Messinger said. "We just don't have any offensive line depth. If one gets hurt or has leg cramps, we've got one kid to depend on. Davontae Edwards has got to play from tackle to tackle and all three linebackers. He's the only sub we've got. That's not an excuse. That's how it is. We don't get 60, 70 kids to choose from.''

SC has had experience in bouncing back. Last year, the Eagles fell 8-6 to Capital in the mud at Oakes Field and didn't lose the rest of the way, winning 10 in a row and taking another title.

"Our football coaches agree with me, and Stevie agrees with me,'' Messinger said. "It's early. There's a lot of football left to play. I'm sure come Week 11, we're still going to be around somewhere. There's been a lot of one-loss football teams make good runs and have done well. If we're going to lose one, I'd rather lose it at the beginning of the year than somewhere at the end, where it knocks us out of playoff contention.

"I'm proud of our kids. They played hard. No excuses. They just took us out behind the woodshed and whipped us tonight. We'll take it. We'll live with it. We don't like it, but we'll live with it. It's a great win for Stevie. He's got momentum going the rest of the year, so I think he'll be all right. And I know we will, too.''

Quick kicks

Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com.