South Oldham 16 Oldham County 6

[Jumper_Dad]

Final

[ColonelMike]

Despite a somewhat pedestrian score, this was a very entertaining rivalry game that wasn't decided until the final moments. Who says you need a lot of points for an exciting ballgame?

 

Like many rivalry games, this was a little more sloppy than Oldham coach Mike Fox or South coach Jamie Reed would have liked to have seen. Oldham suffered from picks, and the South defense struggled with penalties, including a number of big penalties that gave Oldham County first downs (at least three gave up first downs).

 

The sloppiness extended to the special teams as both teams failed to convert PAT conversions due to bad snaps.

 

But the sloppiness was a result of the intensity level, and the atmosphere was superb. Big crowds there to support both teams. A back-and-forth first half that included both quarterbacks hitting on long passes (Oldham's Erix Edwards hit on a 35 yarder, and South's Drew Zaubi's 42 yarder to Ethan Bednarczyk made it 13-6 at the half.)

 

But the game was ruled by the defenses. The Dragon defense came into the game riding 10 straight quarters of shutout ball...Oldham ended that streak in the first period, but South refused to give the rest of the way, giving up just the one TD and six points. The Dragons did it with strong play in all phases of the defensive game, controlling the interior of the trenches, doing a tremendous job of coverage against a very good stable of Oldham County receivers, and getting pressure on Edwards, thereby preventing him from getting multiple looks downfield. I thought Jr DL Jack Harold, JR LB Mason Bowman, and sophomore DL Tyrell Love all had exceptional games, but really, this was a great team effort by everyone in the green.

 

For their part, the Oldham County defense played very well, too. In the 31 games prior to this matchup, South had been held below 20 points only twice - on 9/11/15 in a 14-0 win over North Oldham and in the opener this year, a 28-14 loss to CAL. Oldham bent but didn't break, and after watching Keaton Martin run all over the field in the first half (we had Martin unofficially with 98 yards rushing for the game), Oldham plugged the holes in the second half.

 

Oldham QB Erix Edwards exited the game for much of the second half with a minor injury, and sophomore Parker Caudill got some valuable reps for the Colonels against a top-tier defense.

 

Oldham RB Daniel Calderon returned to the OC lineup for the first time since an injury in the second game of the season against North Oldham. He split time with Lucas Jones, but showed flashes of the form he was showing to start the year.

 

For South, sophomore fullback Keaton Martin continues to be a workhorse. Oldham largely held him in check in the second half, but he finished with, unofficially, 98 yards rushing.

 

There was some consternation on the Oldham side late in the game with the score 13-3 South. An Oldham County punt was muffed by South and recovered by Oldham County and apparently taken in for a TD. However, the ball was muffed, not fumbled, and therefore could not be advanced by the kicking team.

 

The win is South Oldham's seventh straight over Oldham County, giving them the longest streak of either team against each other. The overall series is still led by Oldham County, 16-14.

 

The win gives South the "leg up" in the district battle, with a road trip to Nelson County (0-5) coming up this week. South will also be favored against North Bullitt (1-5). Bullitt East (2-3) and Bullitt Central (4-1) appear to be the biggest threats to a repeat South Oldham district title although I would think South should be favored against both of them as well.

 

Oldham County, which has missed the playoffs the past two seasons, has firmly stamped itself as a playoff contender this year and has probably as good of a shot as any at grabbing the #2 spot and the resulting home playoff game. Oldham faces North Bullitt (1-4) at home in Buckner next week.

 

(FYI, I may have confused some with a previous post when I posted that both teams owned six-game winning streaks in the series. I apologize for the confusion. Some noted that Oldham's longest streak, as noted on the Trent Digiuro trophy that's awarded to the winner of the regular season matchup, was just 5 straight. However, in 1998, Oldham County defeated South twice, including a 55-34 playoff victory - the only time these two teams have played in the post-season - which was part of a six game Oldham County winning streak over South from 1995-1999. Again, sorry for the confusion....I didn't know so many people actually read my posts! :lol2: )

 

Great game! Congrats to the Dragons, who improve to 4-1 with their fourth straight win of the season. I think Jamie Reed's teams have sometimes been unfairly characterized as needing to score a lot of points to win. This game showed that South can hitch their wagon to a dominating defense to win a game as they held Oldham County to 20 points below their average points per game average.

 

Oldham County falls to 2-3 on the year (but has lost their 3 games by a total of just 23 points, including a 7 point loss to #2 4A Collins and this week's 10 point loss to South) Oldham probably isn't far enough along to simply show up and win - but one could argue that the Colonels should be favored in each of their five remaining games, giving OC a real chance to earn their first winning season since going 7-5 in 2010.

Edited September 23, 2017 by ColonelMike