Waggener (4-1) and North Oldham (1-4) open up district play tonight in Louisville.

 

Amazingly difficult district.....#5-ranked Franklin County (5-0), Waggener (4-1), Shelby County (3-2), #9-ranked Central (1-4, but has played a BRUTAL schedule, including 6A top 10 Manual, 6A top 10 Fern Creek, and 5A top 10 South Warren....) and North Oldham (1-4).

 

Only four teams advance. District wins are crucial.

 

Waggener comes in riding a four game winning streak. The Wildcats have not lost since falling to 6A power North Hardin in game one. The schedule has been very light since for Waggener, but to the Wildcats' credit, they've taken care of business, winning all four games easily, and holding three of the four opponents to under 200 yards of offense. Valley managed only 23 yards of offense against the Cats, and Jeffersontown had only 107 yards last week. QB Alijah Sickles is a legitimate dual threat, having thrown for 848 yards (10 TDs / 3 INT) and leading the team in rushing with 304 yards and 4 more TDs. Waggener is almost 50-50 run-pass, with two other running backs averaging over 40 yards a game rushing and Meleick Coleman heading up the passing attack with 15 catches for 323 yards and 4 TDs. Jamikel James leads the defense with 49 total tackles.

 

Terrance Crawford has forced 5 fumbles already this year, recovering three, and returning two for TDs....

 

Tye Lawson is in his first year as head coach at Waggener, and his first team is off to a great start.

 

North Oldham got its first win of the season last week, a convincing 44-12 victory over Louisville Western. The result bodes well for North, which needed to show it could be competitive against a "speed" team. Western and Waggener both boast a lot of team speed, so that should give the Mustangs some renewed confidence going into tonight's game. The North offense finally got rolling as well against the Warriors; North's 44 points was more than the Mustangs had scored in their four previous games combined (43 points). Of course, their four previous games had been against a murderer's row of opponents: 6A Oldham County, 5A top 10 South Oldham, and the high-scoring North Bullitt Eagles. North also brings a dual-threat QB to the game in senior Blake McAfee, who threw for 161 yards and 2 TDs (0 INT), while running for 88 yards on just 10 carries, with one TD, against Western last week. McAfee is a dangerous open-field threat, capable of turning busted plays into 30 yard TD scampers.

 

North - which started the season with a number of injuries to key players - seems pretty healthy coming into this one, and will try to feature more of their talented skill kids, many of whom are just sophomores. Sophomore RB Ben Becerra and sophomore WR Jake Bielinski will need to have good games tonight if North is to pull the upset.

 

Kickoff is at 7:30 pm. Pegasus Sports will broadcast live video coverage over the internet, beginning at 7 pm ET, at The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN

 

CM

I think Waggener wins big in this one.