October 12, 2013

Ashland rolls over Sheldon Clark

 

Joshua Ball

The Independent

INEZ — It took Ashland a while to get going, but when it did, it got ugly in a hurry.

 

Sophomore Quinton Baker scored four times and rushed for 249 yards on just nine carries as the Tomcats extended their win streak to five games with a lopsided 50-8 victory at Sheldon Clark on Friday night.

 

Baker, who averaged 28 yards per carry, scored on runs of 64, 39, 20 and 12 yards, respectfully, and single-handedly shredded Sheldon Clark’s defense.

 

Still, Ashland (6-2) was slow out of the gate. Sheldon Clark (0-7) scored on its first possession — a 31-yard run from Chase Muncy. The conversion run by Brandon Belcher made it 8-0 with 10:08 left in the opening quarter.

Link

I wish the TOMCATS all the best the rest of the way out. :thumb:

It is a shame that Ashland dropped Belfry in order to pick up Sheldon Clark so they could get an easy win. This game won't do much to help them get ready for Johnson Central or the NKY team that awaits them in the playoffs.

It is a shame that Ashland dropped Belfry in order to pick up Sheldon Clark so they could get an easy win. This game won't do much to help them get ready for Johnson Central or the NKY team that awaits them in the playoffs.

Ashland has had a knack for avoiding Belfry when their program has been at it's most vulnerable and catching Belfry at Putnam when they the Pirates are at their strongest. Funny how that seems to work out.

It is a shame that Ashland dropped Belfry in order to pick up Sheldon Clark so they could get an easy win. This game won't do much to help them get ready for Johnson Central or the NKY team that awaits them in the playoffs.

 

I understand where you are coming from, I have always enjoyed the Belfry games. But another way of looking at it is that Ashland opened their season with 5 traditionally tough out of district games. Scheduling another tough one two weeks before JC, does not give a team a chance to lick their wounds and get a little rest before the district championship and then the playoffs.

 

You have to look at it from both angles. Unless you have an extremely deep team, playing too tough of a schedule can actually hurt you come playoff time.

Every coach has a right and an obligation to schedule to best suit their team's needs. No question about it. In that regard, scheduling Sheldon Clark in Belfry's place may have been the best thing for Ashland, I can't judge that.

 

My gripe is only with the way it all happened and I am just not objective about this particular case. This has been a sore spot with me because the Tomcats verbally agreed to play Belfry, then in November they backed out of it so that they could schedule somebody they could beat. It really messed up Belfry's scheduling and the Pirates ended up with a game in Knoxville, one with a team from Gallipolis OH, and we had to agree to travel to Southwestern two years in a row just to fill our schedule. All this considering Ashland has an astounding record against Belfry, only losing to us twice in history.

 

I need to let it go, lol.

Sorry to hear that it played out that way, this was the first I had heard of that, but I have been out of the loop for a while now. I've always said verbal agreements aren't worth the sheet of paper they were never written on. That said, I do hate it that it put Belfry in a bind. I have always repected that program.