Two of BGP's highly ranked teams face off in Belfry this Friday night in the ARH Battle of the Mountains Bowl.

 

5A #8 Harlan County Black Bears (1-1) will invade the friendly confines of CAM Stadium to tangle with the 3A #1 Belfry Pirates (1-0)

 

This should be an interesting game between two similar teams with old school coaches. This is only the 2nd meeting between these two titans of mountain football, as a young Belfry team went into Coal Miner's Memorial Field at Harlan County last season and upset the Black Bears 21-12.

 

Many pundits are expecting the Pirates to win again, this time on their own turf. I'm not so sure.

 

Will Belfry repeat it's dominating performance vs Henry Clay or will Harlan County bring the thunder and upset the Pirates?

 

2014 Results: Harlan County; Lost 56-22 @ Bryan Station; Won 51-14 vs Clay County

2014 Results: Belfry; Won 29-7 vs Henry Clay

Belfry 22-14.

I think that Harlan County/Bryan Station score was not a true indicator of who HC is.

 

Bryan Station I think scored 6 TD's on 6 plays and Harlan County aided them with several fumbles and blown assignments. Once HC finally settled down they actually moved the ball at will.

 

I think Harlan County actually matches up to Belfry a little better than Henry Clay. The Bears should be able to hold their own in the trenches and instead of trying to finesse a very fast Belfry defense they will try to grind out drives and grind out the clock limiting possessions.

 

With that said, Belfry has a big advantage from a speed and athleticism standpoint on both sides of the football. Think Belfry will get some big plays on offense and Harlan County will struggle to find yards anywhere outside of the hash marks. If Harlan County can dial up some deception or pass plays to burn Belfry all the while keeping that clock rolling they stand a chance, but as it stands now I like Belfry by 2 TD's in a very physical and competitive game.

Belfry wins 35-14.

Belfry 42-12

Come on guys you can't be serious!!

 

No way either team wins by 4 touchdowns.

Belfry 28- 7

Coach Haywood seems to think we shouldn't be too happy about the win over Henry Clay because we got lucky.

 

Philip Haywood - “We were pleasantly surprised,” Haywood said. “We held on to the ball pretty good. We had been fumbling all over the place in our scrimmages. We felt we could move the ball if we could eliminate some of our mistakes, and, fortunately, we played fairly error free. They have a lot of speed, and we were lucky. The quarterback threw to the wrong guy a couple of times and we slipped off some blocks and made tackles when they had everybody else blocked. I think our kids know after looking at the film that we were fortunate. We played hard, and we were pleased with that, but we certainly have a long way to go.”

 

Coach Speak or Legitimate Concern ???

Come on guys you can't be serious!!

 

No way either team wins by 4 touchdowns.

 

Yes, I am being serious. I think Belfry ROLLS past HC.

Coach Haywood seems to think we shouldn't be too happy about the win over Henry Clay because we got lucky.

 

Philip Haywood - “We were pleasantly surprised,” Haywood said. “We held on to the ball pretty good. We had been fumbling all over the place in our scrimmages. We felt we could move the ball if we could eliminate some of our mistakes, and, fortunately, we played fairly error free. They have a lot of speed, and we were lucky. The quarterback threw to the wrong guy a couple of times and we slipped off some blocks and made tackles when they had everybody else blocked. I think our kids know after looking at the film that we were fortunate. We played hard, and we were pleased with that, but we certainly have a long way to go.”

 

Coach Speak or Legitimate Concern ???

 

I wasn't there and do not know Coach Haywood from Adam, but judging by ATLCat's excellent updates from the game, this is Coach Speak.

Coach Haywood seems to think we shouldn't be too happy about the win over Henry Clay because we got lucky.

 

Philip Haywood - “We were pleasantly surprised,” Haywood said. “We held on to the ball pretty good. We had been fumbling all over the place in our scrimmages. We felt we could move the ball if we could eliminate some of our mistakes, and, fortunately, we played fairly error free. They have a lot of speed, and we were lucky. The quarterback threw to the wrong guy a couple of times and we slipped off some blocks and made tackles when they had everybody else blocked. I think our kids know after looking at the film that we were fortunate. We played hard, and we were pleased with that, but we certainly have a long way to go.”

 

Coach Speak or Legitimate Concern ???

 

Dont think they were "lucky" to win...but probably were lucky to win by the margin they did. Offensively Belfry rolled and there was nothing lucky about Belfry's 4 TD's and FG other than the fact they never turned it over.

 

Belfry did dodge some bullets defensively. Henry Clay had two deep drives where they picked up multiple first downs to come up completely empty.I thought Henry Clay was a bit too cute with their play calling at times as well and it seemed like they had a desire to be balanced even when they were moving it well on the ground.

 

I could have very well seen this game end up 29-21 or even 29-24...but Belfry was simply too strong up front to lose. Then again..Henry Clay's kick return technically could be considered a lucky 7 points as well.

 

I will chalk it up to Coach Haywood's modesty and Coach Speak. I think Belfry was probably 14-17 points the better team as a baseline.

Think Belfry is a one horse town where everyone comes out on Friday night to watch the Pirates?

 

You are probably right. :banana:

 

Check out this Coke display at the local Food City...

 

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^ Awesome!

That is awesome Tusi!

 

See it all the time for college teams and pro teams but that is the first time I have ever seen a High School team get a display like that.

 

The eye patch is my favorite part

Belfry is gonna win this gme by smashing the Bears in the mouth. They wont lose a game this year, no way. Harlan is a good team too, but look at what that got H Clay, a long bus ride back home, thats what. Are boys are ready. Thanks for listening.