North Oldham and Shelby County meet in a district matchup in Goshen on Friday....who wins?

 

The NO Mustangs started the season 0-4 and didn't look very competitive in the process. But Joe Gamsky's bunch kept their heads down, worked at it, and ignored the nay-sayers as the losing streak extended to a school-record 17 consecutive wins dating back to 2015. As a result, they've won two in a row and now are sitting at 1-0 in district play after last week's 20 point win over Spencer County. North Oldham may or may not finish with a winning record - their remaining four games are against 4A #9 Shelby County, 4A #3 Collins, a 3-3 Franklin County squad that beat Shelby by 27 last week, and 5A top-10 ranked Anderson County. That's a really, really rugged road - but North's 1-0 mark in the district means that the Mustangs are most likely headed to the playoffs in Gamsky's second season as head coach, and they are looking immensely better. Adam Berry is one of the premier kickers in the state, punting for ridiculous hang time and distance, and he's a kicker with 40+ yard range, and was the star of the 16-13 OT win over Bullitt Central, hitting 3 field goals, including one to send the game into OT and one to win it in OT. Brandon Rose is one of the best WRs I've seen this year, with superb hands and route-running skills. He's fast enough to beat secondaries deep and a load in man-to-man coverage. QB Tanner McCoy is a threat to run, but it's his arm that makes him a threat, if he has time to throw. North's biggest issue has been their two lines, both of which are on the smallish side and have struggled at times to establish the run on offense or stop the run on defense. (that said, they exploded for over 170 yards rushing as a team after halftime last week against Spencer).

 

On the other side, #9 - ranked Shelby County was stunned last week by Franklin County, 30-3. The Rockets, coached by veteran Todd Shipley, come into the game 0-1 in district play. Shipley, in his 18th season in Shelbyville, is one of the unsung heroes on the sidelines, a true "good guy" who's also a great coach and who has excelled after following in the footsteps of a legend, Tom Becherer. Shelby is averaging over 240 yards rushing per game, led by Caleb Morehead, who had rushed for 701 yards through the first five games, an average of 140 /game. Colin O'Hare doesn't throw the ball often - only about 9 attempts per game - but he's been brutally efficient, completing 55.3% of his passes for 362 yards and 6 TDs against only 1 pick in the first five games.

 

Hard to look at comparative scores, if you like to do that....Shelby beat Bullitt East by just one at 22-21, and BE defeated Bullitt Central, 19-13 - a very similar score to the North Oldham 16-13 score in their win over Bullitt Central. Those scores would tend to indicate that this could be a very competitive game, but this logic starts to get a little strained - and we all know that comparative scoring is risky business, anyway.

 

Who wins this one? Can the Mustangs resurgence give them a third straight victory? Or will the Rockets show that they deserve their ranking and claim the win?

 

CM

Great post CM.

I think the running game of Morehead and company might be too much for NO.

Turnovers were huge in the loss to Franklin.

Don't look for the Rockets to give the ball up this week.

ColonelMike, do you know if this game will be broadcast on Pegasus sports?