BUCKHANNON – Well “Hello there!” to what I hope become my faithful readers now at My Buckhannon.

You never know where life will take you and here I am — but enough about me. Let’s get right down to business in the first ever edition of Carpenter’s Crunch Time sports column.

We here at the Crunch Time will pick five local high school and college games per week, with myself and My Buckhannon creator Brian Bergstrom going head-to-head each week.

We had to toss the Wesleyan game this week as we were informed Thursday morning that their home opener Saturday with UNC-Pembroke was canceled.

Our first game this week is Buckhannon-Upshur (0-1) at Philip Barbour (0-0) — Considering the Bucs had eight players out last week in their loss to Ripley, I thought the team put up a pretty good fight against the Vikings. Coach Davis said he is expecting to have most of those players back this Friday night. Philip Barbour has had their own COVID-19 issues as they had to cancel their game last week with Clay County. The Bucs have had the Colts’ number the last few years and I expect it to be more of the same Friday night. My pick: Buckhannon-Upshur, 28-7; Brian’s pick: Buckhannon-Upshur, 28-17

North Marion (1-0) at Fairmont Senior (1-1) — The battle of Marion County. North Marion is 1-0 after beating East Fairmont 28-21 in week one, while last week’s game with Preston was canceled. Fairmont Senior doesn’t lose many regular season games, but they dropped a 31-22 decision to Linsly last week after beating Lewis County 47-22 in week one. Fairmont Senior likes to spread the ball around through the air with quarterback Dom Stingo. I suspect Fairmont Senior’s passing attack will be too much for the Huskies to handle. My pick: Fairmont Senior, 35-18; Brian’s pick: Fairmont Senior, 35-28

Long Island (0-1) at West Virginia (0-1) — Long Island lost to FIU last week by a 48-10 score. We all know WVU is going to win this game, but the key is how much will they improve after last week’s loss to Maryland. With Virginia Tech looming next week, WVU needs to get a lot better very quickly. My pick: WVU, 55-3; Brian’s pick: WVU, 42-7

North Carolina Central (1-0) at Marshall (1-0) — When I was selecting games this week, at first glance I thought N.C. State was playing Marshall, and I thought that would be a great game. On second look, it was N.C. Central, which to say the least, isn’t that exciting. For what it’s worth, North Carolina Central won their opener last week against Alcorn State, 23-14. Marshall wins this game in a laugher. My pick: Marshall, 55-14; Brian’s pick: Marshall, 42-28

Oregon (1-0) vs. Ohio State (1-0) — This game lost just a tad bit of its luster when Oregon’s Heisman hopeful Kayvon Thibodeaux left last week’s game with an ankle injury and was still uncertain about playing this Saturday against the Buckeyes. Oregon survived an upset bid against Fresno State while the Buckeyes looked average on the road against Minnesota last weekend. Just one of two games this week where Top 15 teams meet each other. My pick: Ohio State, 31-17; Brian’s pick: Ohio State, 28-27