article 5A Notebook (8/22): Colonels, Colonels, Everywhere!

With the first week of the season in the books, we have already learned quite a bit about a few teams in class 5A. First off, even with what Bowling Green lost to graduation, they are still the team to beat. However this season, the gap between the Purples and everyone else may not be as large as it was last season, that remains to be seen. When thinking of teams that present the best challenge to the Purples think of the Colonels. Take your pick between the Christian County and Covington Catholic Colonels as the top threat to the Purples this season, which will likely be an ongoing discussion this season. Don’t forget about Fern Creek, Doss, Owensboro as well as they all had great showings in their opening games.

Bowling Green was impressive in their 42-7 win versus 6A North Hardin in the opening week of play, although it wasn’t expected to be a big test for the Purples. This Friday the Purples travel to Louisville to take on 6A #7 Pleasure Ridge Park, which will certainly be a much larger test for the young Purples. One thing to note about the lopsided victory over North Hardin however, is that the Purples didn’t dominate on offense as much as you would have expected. They accumulated 289 yards of total offense, while allowing the Trojans 239 yards of total offense. As mentioned earlier, this week’s game versus Pleasure Ridge Park will give us a better look at how good the Purples really are at the moment.

Preseason number two and three Christian County and Covington Catholic both took care of business in their openers as well, however one was a bit more impressive than the other. Christian County entered the season as the #2 ranked team with one of the best quarterbacks in the state running the show. While Christian County beat a respectable 3A #8 Caldwell County team 27-10, they were not able to hold on to their #2 ranking and were leapfrogged by Covington Catholic.

Covington Catholic also has one of the best quarterbacks in the state in AJ Mayer, which had a big hand in the Colonels 49-17 win over preseason 6A #5 Ryle. After that beating Ryle is no longer in the BGP top ten, which leads to the question was Ryle over ranked or is Covington Catholic just that good this season? Time will tell and with Covington Catholic’s tough schedule we won’t have to wait long to know a lot about these Colonels. This week the Colonels travel to Lexington to face off against 3A #5 Lexington Catholic in the Bluegrass Bowl.

Owensboro, Fern Creek and Doss round out the top 5 and left little doubt to anyone who know’s 5A football as to why they are considered top five teams in the early season. Owensboro visited 4A North Hopkins and went home with an impressive 41-19 win. Fern Creek blanked 6A Seneca 52-0, while cross town rival Doss also forced a shutout with a 42-0 win over 6A Jeffersontown. These three teams all had some question marks coming into the season, Owensboro and Fern Creek lost a lot of upperclassmen, but have shown that they can reload rather than having to rebuild. On the other hand, everyone knew that Doss has a ton of talent, their question mark is what becomes of it. So far things are looking promising for the Dragons, who will play in one of the most anticipated games featuring two 5A teams this week versus the #9 South Oldham Dragons. Fern Creek and Owensboro didn’t schedule any cupcakes this week either though, as Owensboro will face Mater Dei, (IN) while Fern Creek will get 6A #10 Manual.

While the upper portion of the preseason top 10 was essentially flawless, there are some teams that have some issues to work out in the 7-10 range. Greenwood and Southwestern both posted wins to open their season with Greenwood sporting a 37-12 win over 4A Warren Central in their season opener, however Warren Central was winless last season. Southwestern may have had the most impressive win, how good Northwest, (IN) is remains to be seen, however the Warriors did win that game 41-6 while only allowing 135 yards of total offense. The remaining preseason top 10 teams South Oldham and Dixie Heights both ended up in the loss column in the opening week. South Oldham lost to 2A #2 Christian Academy of Louisiville in a two score game, however it never seemed as though the Dragons were going to challenge. Dixie Heights looked really solid opening up to a big lead over what is expected to be an improved 6A Campbell County Camels squad, however the Colonels stumbled and found themselves looking at the losing end of a 27-23 scoreboard. South Oldham still made the top ten in the #9 spot in this week’s rankings while Dixie Heights found themselves on the outside looking in with South Warren replacing them at #10.

Teams to keep an eye on

In the preseason rankings everyone wondered where Highlands landed outside of the top ten, which led to a running joke that they came in at 18th. Who knows where they really landed but they certainly are better than 18th. Highlands opened up last season with a 52-42 win over 6A Cooper, this season they opened up with a 42-22 win over Cooper. The score alone doesn’t tell a whole lot, but one of Highlands biggest issues last season was the lack of defense. While you can’t just compare scores even if teams played each other in back to back weeks, this Highlands team does seem to be improved in many aspects of the game. This week the Bluebirds face off against 6A Campbell County which will help shed some light in where they may land in the three team NKY 5A district as well as the BGP rankings.

Pulaski County was expected to be a little down this season, however with their 49-28 win over Jeffersonville, (IN) they don’t seem to be down much at all. One thing you can bet on, this week’s game versus 4A #2 Wayne County will be a tough one for the Maroons to win. If they hold strong or happen to pull off the upset, then Pulaski County has certainly not skipped a beat.

Dixie Heights even with their loss to 6A Campbell County is certainly a team that could work their way back into the top ten. They have things a bit easier this week against 4A Scott which gives them a chance to regroup from what looked like what would be a solid opening against a solid 6A team that the Colonels let slip away.

Nice work JD!

From a BG offensive perspective, I agree it was not the video game numbers you saw last season, but you must recall only 3!starters back and this was the first game, so I am very encouraged. We will see hate thing play out at tough PRP!

Nice work JD!

 

From a BG offensive perspective, I agree it was not the video game numbers you saw last season, but you must recall only 3!starters back and this was the first game, so I am very encouraged. We will see hate thing play out at tough PRP!

I agree, I only pointed it out because when looking at the score only I was kind of expecting some big numbers with very little allowed by the defense. When looking at the stats it for both teams it showed that 3 turnovers for North Hardin as well as some big defensive stops by Bowling Green really hurt the Trojans. That said, there isn't a doubt in my mind that Bowling Green will once again have a really solid offense to go with another great defense. I'm really interested in how the Purples respond this week versus PRP.