Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Joel Detling has a Bellaire player wrapped up around the ankles while teammate Austin Armstrong (59) assists on the tackle earlier this season. The Shamrocks travel to Woodsfield’s Monroe Park on Friday to meet Monroe Central.

WOODSFIELD — When neighboring high school football teams get together on the gridiron, you can throw all the records and past history right out of the window.

According to Barnesville (4-0) head coach Blake Allen, that is the case in Friday night’s matchup as the Shamrocks head to Monroe Park to meet Monroe Central (1-3).

However, Seminoles’ head coach Jonathan Calder isn’t so sure about that.

“These are fun games,” Allen said. “Take a pause, throw all the records out and all that stuff, this week we’re only focusing on Monroe Central. It doesn’t matter what either team has done up to this point.”

Calder said, “Honestly, until we start competing with them again, it’s not much of a rivalry. For a long time, it was a great rivalry and the game seemed like it could go either way every year. We are working to get back to those games.”

This will be the 24th meeting between the teams, with Barnesville holding a slim, 12-11, advantage, including 44-14 last season. The Shamrocks, who will be seeking regular-season win No. 41 in a row, have won three straight and four of the last five. All told, Barnesville has a 43-24-2 record in the series, including Woodsfield High, which began in 1904. Monroe Central won eight in a row from 2008-15.

The rivals enter the contest headed in different directions as Barnesville blasted Buckeye Local, 56-0 last week, while Monroe Central was blanked 41-0 at Caldwell.

“They lost a lot of players from last year’s team which was really good,” Allen said of the Seminoles. “I think they are still trying to find an identity. My message to our kids this week is going to be ‘you can’t look at what they did last week or the previous week because we’re going to their place and they always play us tough down there.”

Monroe Central couldn’t do much right last week.

“It was a tough loss. We just can’t seem to get anything going offensively. We are going to concentrate on the little things this week,” Calder said. “We have a lot of inexperienced players and we need to get back to the basics. The players are ready to go and still know we have a lot of football left and are ready to get back to work.”

Barnesville has outscored its opponents 182-28, including back-to-back shutouts in its last two outings.

“You have to commit to the run. They have a very big line with powerful backs,” Calder noted. “We need to fire off the ball and get some penetration up front, and our offense needs to have some long drives, allowing our defense to stay off the field.”

The Shamrocks’ Trey Toliver has rushed for 558 yards and nine touchdowns while seeing limited time to do blowout victories. Koby Jones had 306 yards rushing and five TDs.

The passing game has impressed Allen thus far as Cole Francis has taken over the Casey Carpenter who set numerous school records in his two seasons.

“I feel good about both sides of the ball,” he said. “I’ve really liked the way our passing game has come along the past two weeks. Everyone knows what our backs can do and with the size of our line and they are going to try and stack the box against us. Cole has really developed into a good passer.”

Colt Carpenter is the leading receiver with seven receptions for 141 yards. Toliver has five for 98 and a touchdown, while Parker Graham has caught four for 105 and a score.

Allen and his staff have the challenge of keeping the kids grounded each and every week.

“We just focus on one game at a time. We don’t look forward and we don’t look back. We try to keep the kids humbled and our task at hand that week,” he said. “We’ve got bigger goals here. We are still upset by the way we played in the playoffs last year against Wheelersburg. That is what is motivating the kids right now.

“If we want to reach those long-term goals, we’ve got to keep getting better week by week, and I think we’ve been doing that.

“I think around the community there’s a buzz about what’s to come and the teams we will be facing,” Allen continued. “We’ve got to stress to the kids that they’ve got to drown that stuff out and let the community worry about that stuff. We’ve got to be focused on a rival this week.”

Monroe Central is led by junior quarterback Cooper Howell who has run for 250 yards and a touchdown while passing for 494 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. However, he was just 1-for-12 for nine yards last week.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.