article NKY Power Rankings 10-05-16 - Sponsored by NKY Family & Cosmetic Dentistry

Thanks to Northern Kentucky Family & Cosmetic Dentistry -"Making Northern Kentucky Smile" for sponsoring our 2016 Northern Kentucky Power Rankings! We encourage everyone to patronize all of our sponsors, and you can visit Northern Kentucky Family & Cosmetic Dentistry at 2047 Centennial Boulevard in Independence, KY.

THE RANKINGS:

10) Holy Cross (2A) 4-2 – The Indians were undoubtedly a little crestfallen after losing to 1A Beechwood the week before last, but they shrugged it off and came back with a win against 1A Bethlehem this past Friday, blanking the Eagles 26-0. That’s the third shut-out win of the season for Holy Cross. The Indians kept their offense on the ground this week, with 307 of their total 384 offensive yards gained via rushing, and an impressive ELEVEN players carried the ball for Latonia Tribe. The Holy Cross defense managed to hold Bethlehem to a mere 51 yards total offense, with -11 yards rushing for the Eagles. The Indians have their biggest district matchup of the season this week when they travel to Newport to take on the 2A New Cath Thoroughbreds on Friday.

9) Newport Catholic (2A) 2-4 – The first half of New Cath’s season this year hasn’t been a great one, although all 6 of their games have been against opponents from higher classes than the 2A Breds. New Cath welcomed the week off to re-group from things and prepare for 2A district rival Holy Cross (Covington) this week at home.

8) Beechwood (1A) 5-1 – Beechwood came out hard on Friday, and absolutely punished a badly struggling 2A Newport squad, beating the Wildcats 62-15. The game saw a first half running clock, and five Tigers chalked up touchdowns in the matchup…with three of them scoring twice a piece. Beechwood had 262 yards rushing, and 133 yards passing for a combined 395 total yards offense. This week brings on the 1A Bellevue Tigers in what can be anticipated as another blowout win for Beechwood.

7) Highlands (5A) 1-5 – It was bye week for the Birds on Friday. They may have lost by 24 points in a shootout with 6A Simon Kenton on Sept. 23rd, but not after showing some serious resilience in the first half of the game. Highlands will be trying to put the past behind them and work on putting down their 5A competition when they play Dixie Heights on the road this week.

6) Campbell County (6A) 3-3 – No action for Campbell County this past week. After ending a 2-game slide against 6A opponents, the Camels were able to win on the road against Western Brown (OH) two weeks ago. Campbell County will be attempting to improve to a 4-3 record when they host 6A Conner this week.

5) Conner (6A) 5-1 – Conner beat 2A New Cath 27-14 the week before last, and this past Friday they took on 2A Lloyd Memorial, beating the Juggs 34-14. Wins always beat losses, but the 6A Cougars need to start beating 2A competition by more than 2 and 3 touchdowns if they want to make noise in the post-season. Lloyd’s defense is their undeniable strength this season, and Conner’s offense managed to put up 150+ yards each, running and passing, but the Cougars need to start stepping up their game as they take on 6A competition in the last third of their season and in the post-season. Conner heads to 6A Campbell County this Friday night.

4) Covington Catholic (5A) 4-2 – No action for Cov Cath this week. The Colonels spent their week off recouping from a big loss to Ohio D3 power Columbus DeSales, and have their first district matchup of the season against 5A Grant County in Dry Ridge on Friday.

3) Cooper (6A) 5-2 – The Jags came away with another W on Friday, this time beating 5A Dixie Heights 28-13 at Dixie. However, looking closer, the 28 points came against the same team who allowed 40 points to 6A Conner, and 43 points to 6A Simon Kenton. Furthermore, the only team to hold Cooper to fewer points than Dixie was the Jag’s district foe, Simon Kenton. QB Lonaker and WR Hendrix both had huge nights for Cooper, with 259 yards and 4 TDs passing for Lonaker and 217 yards and 3 TDs receiving for Hendrix. However, final outcome of the game was not necessarily the greatest showing for the Jags as they are holding on to their #3 spot in NKY by the weakest of threads. Cooper takes on 6A Ryle this week in one of their biggest games of the regular season.

2) Simon Kenton (6A) 6-0 – No action this past week. The Pioneers have their second district competition of the season against 6A Boone County in Independence on Friday, with little threat to their record coming from the 0-6 Rebels.

1) Ryle (6A) 6-0 – Ryle handled 6A George Rogers Clark with no problems. Backups saw significant playing time in the game, and Ryle’s defense shut down the Cardinals offense, holding them to less than 100 total yards in the Raiders’ 38-6 victory. No change in the ranking, seeing as 6A Simon Kenton had the week off as well. Ryle takes on their hometown rival and 6A district opponent Cooper at home this week.

Trending Up:

With the lack of action this week, it’s tough to really mark teams trending up or down. However, 2A Walton-Verona, 2A Gallatin County and 2A Holy Cross all celebrated shut out wins, and 1A Beechwood dominated in a rout over 2A Newport.

Trending Down:

Again, not much to report on with numerous byes across Northern Kentucky, but troubles still continue for 2A Newport (1-5), 4A Holmes (4-2), and 5A Grant County (3-3), who all took losses on Friday.

Player Of The Week:

Dante Hendrix (Cooper)

Hendrix continues to show his scholarship quality, as he added 217 yards receiving and 3 more touchdowns to his stats for the season. He also pulled down an interception on the defensive side of things.

Game Of The Week:

Cooper (6A) vs. Ryle (6A)

It’s certainly the most anticipated game across Northern Kentucky this week, with district/playoff implications riding on the outcome of the game, as well as some serious hometown pride for the two teams from Union. Additionally, it will be another gauge to see how things are playing out between the teams in NKY 6A as we look to learn a little more about how Simon Kenton and Ryle stack up against one another before they play on October 21st.

Three good top ten matchups this week. We might see the power rankings get a shake-up from the results of those games.

Highlands lost to SK by 24. 77-53.

Highlands lost to SK by 24. 77-53.

Typo on my part. Thanks for catching that

Typo on my part. Thanks for catching that

Anytime.