There are rivalries that go way back, and then there are rivalries like Danville-Somerset.

 

The Admirals and Briar Jumpers don’t play every year, but they have played often enough and long enough to develop a history that few regular rivalries can equal. But kids don’t care about a hundred years of history, so we’ll talk about that later.

 

In the here and now, both teams badly need a win in their showdown Friday at Somerset’s Clark Field. There is zero margin for error in a four-team district, and the winner of this game will be one of only two teams left with a realistic shot at winning the difficult District 2A-7.

 

The Admirals and Jumpers aren’t the only dogs in this fight, as a much-improved Middlesboro team is also taking dead aim at a district title, and struggling Lexington Christian can revive its season and entertain its own title hopes with a win in Middlesboro tonight.

 

Beyond the championship implications, Both of these teams also have something to prove as they meet for the 65th time in 105 years.

 

Danville has lost six games to Somerset over the last four years, and the Jumpers have ended the Admirals’ season with postseason wins in each of the last two years. That 0-6 run against an old rival has been one of the most tangible signs that Danville hasn’t been Danville in recent years.

 

First-year coach Clay Clevenger has been trying to stop that slippage and has placed a priority on restoring the Admirals to prominence. Neither he nor anyone else expected that to happen easily or overnight, and it has not. The Admirals were optimistic after opening with a win, then in chaos after three straight losses, including two blowouts.

 

Now they are on an uptick again following some soul-searching and consecutive wins over Green County and Campbellsville. But with due respect to Green and Campbellsville, neither of those teams bears any resemblance to Somerset. Campbellsville hasn’t won a game, and Green has three wins over teams that have combined for just two wins.

 

Danville needed those wins and did what it should have done in those games, but Somerset is another matter. The Jumpers have a passing attack that won’t be easy to stop, a defense that has shown improvement and plenty of players who are used to winning.

 

A win in this game would be one the Admirals could hang their hats on, a signature victory that would not only serve them well this season but also be valuable as they move toward 2014 and beyond.

Somerset has enjoyed a renaissance under coach Robbie Lucas that saw the Jumpers reach the Class 3A finals in 2009 and reach the state semifinals in each of the three seasons since. Lucas is 50-13 in 4 1/2 seasons, with a school-record 14 wins in 2009 and 13 in 2010.

 

But the Jumpers are just 3-3 this year, and that’s only after beating Glasgow and Letcher County Central in their last two games. They have lost to good teams, to be sure — Pulaski County, Belfry and Hazard have a combined record of 17-2 — but they are not scoring points or stopping teams in the same manner they did even a year ago.

 

Like Danville, Somerset is on an uptick again, following a close loss to Hazard with those two wins before an open date last week. Now they will try to once again contain the Admirals’ big-play threats and shut down their offense as they have done during their four-year run of success.

 

A win in this game would indicate that the Jumpers’ setbacks were more likely a product of their strength of schedule than that their latest golden age might be winding down and would cement their status as the favorite in their district and one of the top 2A teams in the state.

 

Now back to our history lesson.

 

The (Somerset) Commonwealth Journal reported in 2009 that the first Danville-Somerset game took place in 1909, and that the Admirals won that first meeting 21-5.

 

The two teams didn’t meet again until 1922, and they started playing regularly in a series in which the Southern Railway, which had operations in both cities along its Cincinnati-to-Chattanooga line (and still does as Norfolk Southern) began awarding a trophy to the winning team.

 

“That’s when the rivalry got started,” the late William M. Clark, who coached Somerset from 1938-57, told the Somerset newspaper in a 1985 interview. “Before long, it turned into quite a festival. We always had capacity crowds.”

 

There are stories of Danville fans taking the train south for the game — how much fun would it be to ride in a passenger car packed with fellow fans? — and Somerset fans surely took the train as well when the game was played in Danville.

 

There are also stories of bitter battles between fans and players on the two sides that twice shut the series down for a number of years. According to that 2009 story, a fight between fans at a Science Hill restaurant following Danville’s 7-6 win at Somerset in 1946 made that the last game in the series until 1958. And a pregame fight before Somerset’s 29-28 win in an epic 1974 battle between unbeaten teams at the then-new Admiral Stadium put the series on ice again until 1985.

 

Many of the games between the Admirals and Jumpers have decided district and regional championships, paved the way for the winners to move on in the state playoffs and led to a long winter for the losers.

Danville has dominated the series overall, leading 43-19-2, but Somerset has pushed the Admirals around over the last four years, holding them to a single touchdown in four of their six meetings and to two touchdowns in another and winning by an average score of 33-11.

 

Danville’s last win in the Jumpers came in 2006, when the Admirals won 48-14 at Somerset.

Nice writeup!