Inside North-Eastern Kentucky

 

The North-Eastern Kentucky Notebook will look at teams for the North-Eastern Kentucky area, which includes the following teams: Ashland, Boyd County, East Carter, Fairview, Greenup County, Lawrence County, Lewis County, Raceland, Russell, and West Carter.

 

Raceland 40 East Carter 14

In typical Week 1 (I know it’s really Week 0, but who says that) fashion this game was a slow start. I know complaining about scoring 40 points is crazy, but it's more about the manner in which the 40 points were scored then the total. The Rams came out slow, but got the job done. Slow start aside, the Rams had many bright spots. 1. The defense was strong - running between the tackles against the Raceland front is going to be difficult for many teams, the defensive front of Boggs, Johnson, Manis, and Risner is big, strong and fast. 2. The Ram run game is there - Elkins, Litteral and Beach are going to get yards, it’s hard to stop all three. 3. Line play - on both sides of the ball the linemen are going to provide the drive for this team, probably the biggest most athletic line most teams will see all season. East Carter played hard all game. East Carter is much improved and will surprise some teams. Good luck to them in 2013.

 

Newport Central Catholic 37 Ashland 26

The result of the game did not surprise me, but the score did. Ashland made this a game and did it with Quintin Baker. Baker is a young, but an explosive running back and is only going to get better. He will get his yards, and will bust loose from time to time. He’s a great asset, but Ashland is going to have to develop a supporting cast to take some of the attention off of Baker. It won’t take long for teams to learn they have to stop Baker to beat Ashland. Line play for Ashland will improve as the season goes on, after replacing virtually everyone from a year ago. As the the line develops, so will the Ashland offense.

 

Lewis County 26 Greenup County 20

Greenup is trying to end a streak that no teams wants - a loosing streak. After two winless seasons the Musketeers are tying to get that monkey off their backs. They came close this week, and even had an opportunity late in the fourth quarter, but that win will have to wait, again. Lewis County is much improved and after two seasons of program building, believe they can win. The Lions are excited and playing with confidence. Look for Lewis County to win some games that are not expected this season and possibly even get a home playoff game.

 

Lawrence County 56 Boyd County 15

That’s not a typo folks, Lawrence County put up 56 points and won in convincing fashion against Boyd County. Boyd County coming in the season with a new coach, John Gilliam, who coached for quite a few years at the college level at Morehead State University, will have to find themselves. The Lions are trying to build some stability after having three coaches in the past four years. Lawrence County is quite a different path, after being a young team in 2012, they are a much more experienced and older team in 2013. Lawrence will win a lot of games this year, and they will put 50 points on you if you are not ready for them.

 

Russell - Open

 

Fairview - Open

 

West Carter - Open

 

Games this week:

Raceland (1-0) at Ashland (0-1)

Boyd County (0-1) at Mason County (0-0)

Lawrence County (1-0) at Rowan County (0-1)

Fairview (0-0) at East Carter (0-1)

West Carter (0-0) at Bath County (0-1)

Greenup County (0-1) at Russell (0-0)

 

North-Eastern Kentucky Rankings:

The top four remain the same, but but Lewis County, East Carter and Russell move up after a bad performance by Boyd County. The number one team will be decided this week as current number one, Raceland, travels to current number two Ashland which will be the game of the week in the area.

 

1. Raceland
   
2. Ashland
   
3. Fairview
   
4. Lawrence County
   
5. Lewis County
   
6. East Carter
   
7. Russell
   
8. Boyd County
   
9. West Carter
   
10. Greenup County
    

Ram's Predictions:

 

Raceland 28 Ashland 21

Mason County 42 Boyd County 14

Lawrence County 48 Rowan County 14

Fairview 40 East Carter 7

Bath County 14 West Carter 7

Russell 21 Greenup County 7