I have a reputation for being not only wrong, but WAY wrong, with my score predictions, but who cares!

 

Wanna say Mayfield wins big, but Fairview took down an inspired Pikeville squad and shocked most of the state (at least those who don't know much about Fairview) with the big win over Hazard. Overlooked is the VERY impressive win over Raceland.

 

Can't wait to watch this game. I think it'll be closer than a lot of folks think, but in the end, Johnathan Jackson will refuse to walk off the field as a high school football player for the last time with an "L".

 

Here comes my sure-to-be-wrong score prediction:

 

Mayfield 30

Fairview 24

“If they run 50 plays, they want to get Jackson involved in 35,” McPeek said. “That’s the guy you want to know where he is at all times. I told our guys if he goes to Wendy’s, you better know what he orders.” Quote of the week from Fairview's head coach.

 

I bet Jonathan could have a Frosty in one hand and the football in the other and still flatten his opponent, many of which will be hanging on from behind just trying to slow him down.

Despite Fairview wanting to be the more physical team on the field, I expect the Eagles to be a step or 2 slower in the second half and Mayfield will pull away. 42-21 Mayfield

Fairview last Class A hurdle for Mayfield

 

 

by By Joey Fosko [email protected]

 

Nov 29, 2012 | 13 views | 0 | 1 | |

 

 

Fairview makes for one of the state football championships’ best stories: a school that has never made it to the state finals with a once-in-a-lifetime team that has set a state record for rushing yards in a season.

Standing in the Eagles’ way is Mayfield, the biggest and baddest kid on the Class A block with a pocketful of state titles.

“I’m 30 years old and I’ve been going to the state finals since I was a kid,” Fairview coach Nathan McPeek said. “I’ve probably seen Mayfield there 12 or 13 times. It seemed like they were there every year for a while.”

History is repeating itself with this group of Cardinals, who are playing in the Class A state title game for the fourth consecutive year. Mayfield hammered Hazard in 2010 for its eighth crown, but lost to Lexington Christian in 2009 and Hazard a year ago.

“This group of seniors will be playing in their 60th game,” Mayfield coach Joe Morris said, “and they’ve been there four years in a row, something we haven’t done before.”

That’s the only part of Mayfield’s trip that doesn’t fall into the “been there, done that” category. Jonathan Jackson, the Cardinals’ star linebacker and running back, will start in his fourth title game. His reputation is such that it’s even spread to Fairview, located just north of Ashland in the state’s northeast corner.

“Mayfield has the best defense we’ve seen,” McPeek said, “and the stud linebacker in the middle, it starts with him. We’re not sure we can tackle him and block him, but we’re going to try.”

Fairview is 14-0, ranked third in the final Associated Press poll, and has fielded some barbs for a soft regular-season schedule. Yet the Eagles turned some heads with last week’s 40-6 rout of Hazard in the semifinals and have put up some very impressive rushing numbers in their last three playoff games, easy victories over Nicholas County, Pikeville and Hazard.

In those three games, fullback Chris Brewer and wingbacks Elijah King and Devon Turner have averaged more than 100 yards apiece, combining for 1,416 yards and 14 touchdowns. King, a transfer from nearby Huntington (W.Va.), missed some early-season games while embroiled in an eligibility case and is playing under a court injunction.

Brewer is a 5-foot-9, 235-pound power runner, while King “is their jet sweep guy that makes people miss in space,” Morris said. “(Turner) goes inside-outside and makes good cuts.”

With an offensive line led by 290-pound tackles Cody McPeek and Anthony Roark, Fairview has averaged better than 500 yards per game in the past three games and been so successful that its passing game has been non-existent. Quarterback Alex Roy was a combined 1-for-12 against Nicholas and Pikeville and didn’t attempt a pass last week. The lone completion was to Mason Rutherford, another transfer from Huntington.

That prompts a question: Can a Class A team beat Mayfield strictly on the ground?

“Obviously we have to throw it some against Mayfield,” McPeek said. “But you don’t get to this point of the season and then do something completely crazy. You do what got you there. We’ll roll with it and see what happens.”

That puts pressure on Mayfield’s front four, tackles Trent Kendall and Cole Kendall and ends Kyle Downing and Tim McCampbell, and what might be the Class A ranks’ best linebacker corps in Jackson, Dondre Jackson and Stuart Mills.

At the same time, Fairview has to contend with Mayfield’s supremely balanced attack.

“We see the spread three or four times a year,” McPeek said, “but not anything the caliber of Mayfield.”

Quarterback Jake Guhy has been splendid in the postseason — in his last three outings, he has completed 73 percent of his passes for 673 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. He was 11-for-18 for 157 yards and two scores in the semifinal win at Beechwood, and had five passes dropped, two for what probably would have been touchdowns.

“If not for the drops, his numbers would have been unbelievable,” Morris said. “He’s just a much better quarterback than he was last year.

“He understands the offense, gets more zip on the ball and his reads are so much quicker.”

 

Read more: The Paducah Sun - Fairview last Class A hurdle for Mayfield

November 30, 2012

MARK MAYNARD: Fairview, Mayfield about as far apart as you can get

Mark Maynard

The Independent

 

ASHLAND — It’s not often that East meets West in Kentucky high school football.

 

It’s no wonder.

 

Geography class, take your seats.

 

Kentucky is 379 miles in length and 140 miles in width. That length makes for impossible regular-season scenarios because it takes longer to get from here to there than it took Gilligan to make his historic journey.

 

Fairview and Mayfield — the counterparts in today’s Class A state championship at noon — are 384 miles apart, according to Google maps. By those calculations, those schools are five miles further than the state is long!

 

Needless to say, these schools are about as far apart as schools could be (maybe even farther?) and still play for the same state championship.

 

Naturally, they have never met. In fact, only three other area schools has ever played Mayfield.

 

Russell defeated Mayfield 33-20 in the 1979 Recreation Bowl in Mt. Sterling. Lawrence County fell 21-18 in the Class AA semifinals in 1991 and Mayfield defeated Prestonsburg 13-12 in the 1993 Class AA championship game.

 

Western Kentucky high school football has a superior attitude about its side of the state.

 

“They don’t think we play as good a brand of football in eastern Kentucky,” said Billy Goldsmith, now a Boyle County assistant but the former head coach at Lawrence County.

 

“They feel like they have more athletes and, to be honest, they do,” Goldsmith said. “In eastern Kentucky, our kids have to work harder. They play harder, too.”

 

Fairview and Belfry will be carrying the eastern Kentucky football banner at the Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl in Bowling Green today (Belfry plays Central at 4 p.m. for the Class 3A title).

 

Goldsmith, who as an assistant coach helped Boyle County to state titles in 2009 and 2010, advices Fairview to play with a sense of urgency.

 

“Don’t be satisfied just getting there, even though it’s a big accomplishment,” he said. “You don’t get this kind of chance very many times.”

 

Goldsmith said he’s still smiling over Boyle County’s 2009 title because his son, Boone, was the quarterback and played a key role in the victory.

 

“You have to believe in yourself,” he said. “When you’re on a run like they are, you have a lot of confidence. They’re already going to be legends in Fairview history. They’re going to talk about this game with anything they do for a lifetime.”

 

As for being an underdog to Mayfield — Dave Cantrall’s Power Ratings have the Cardinals as a 21-point favorite — Goldsmith says don’t believe it.

 

“We were also really big underdogs (in 1991), I want to say it was something like 30 points,” he said. “They knew they were in a game when it was over.”

 

Lawrence County made the eight-hour drive to Mayfield on Thanksgiving Day. They stopped halfway there for a practice.

 

“There’s nothing I like better than to practice on Thanksgiving Day,” he said. “It’s the coolest of all time. Our guys were like me, we hadn’t been to many places. It was like a vacation for us.”

 

Those Bulldogs included Travis Phelps, Webb Roberts, Eric Cantrell, Morgan Cyrus, Chris Hamilton, Shawn Hill and Donnie Reed.

 

“Good, good football players,” Goldsmith said.

 

The Bulldogs shocked Russell 18-15 in the second round of the playoffs on the road. They defeated Mason County 20-14 in a heart-pounding regional final.

 

“Two great playoff wins,” he said. “The win over Russell did a lot for our program. They were the Big Dogs.”

 

The Bulldogs matched Mayfield touchdown for touchdown but failed on all three two-point conversions.

 

“It’s a tough one to relive,” he said. “People were like ‘Why didn’t you kick?’ We made way more points going for two than one that year. The conversion plays we ran all the time successfully but they stopped them.”

 

A long scoring run and a punt return had Mayfield ahead early but the Bulldogs rallied to within 14-12. Mayfield scored again to make it 21-12 and again the Bulldogs answered.

 

Down 21-18, Lawrence County had a successful onside kick and were driving when a quarterback sack thwarted the drive.

 

“I kept thinking, ‘We’re going to score and win!’” he said. “We really thought we were going to win.”

 

It turned out to be a landmark game. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association had been experimenting with the idea of having a blind draw when the four semifinalists were decided. But Lawrence County having to make so long a trip ended that experiment.

 

“They called it the Lawrence County rule for years,” Goldsmith said.

 

Goldsmith said he’s never watched the video replay of the semifinal loss.

 

Danville defeated Mayfield 17-14 in the championship game the following week.

 

Mayfield is no stranger to playing for titles. Today is the 18th time the Cardinals have made it to a state championship.

 

Fairview will have a fan today in Goldsmith, although he won’t be at the game personally because he is having a pre-op prior to knee surgery next week.

 

Goldsmith still follows area football closely.

 

“That’s a little hotbed for single-A football,” he said. “Raceland has always been good and with Bill Mike (Runyon) back at Paintsville, I look for them to get better and better.”

 

Today though belongs to Fairview.

 

Count Billy Goldsmith as another one who “Believes in The Wood.”

 

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at [email protected] or (606) 326-2648.

 

 

 

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“They feel like they have more athletes and, to be honest, they do,” Goldsmith said. “In eastern Kentucky, our kids have to work harder. They play harder, too.”

 

That is the biggest load of crap I have ever read on BGP. Give me a break.

“They feel like they have more athletes and, to be honest, they do,” Goldsmith said. “In eastern Kentucky, our kids have to work harder. They play harder, too.”

 

That is the biggest load of crap I have ever read on BGP. Give me a break.

Amen ...