The district title is on the line Friday in Buckner, KY when the GRC Cardinals travel to play the Colonels of Oldham County.

 

GRC (4-4, 2-0 district) and Oldham County (5-3, 2-0 district) will at least be playing for the first time in a long, long while. I went back as far as I could and could find no prior meetings - but both schools have been around a while. Oldham County was founded in 1953 and GRC in 1962, so there's been a lot of football played...

 

These two find themselves on a collision course thanks to last year's re-districting. Both come in undefeated in district play and will play a home game to start the playoffs....

 

There are similarities between the schools....

- both schools have an enrollment of approximately 1,600

- both schools have struggled a bit of late on the gridiron and are trying to rebound under relatively new coaches. Dr. Oliver Lucas is in his 4th year at GRC, and is 17-23 at the school. After a rough 1-10 record his first season (2016), Lucas went 5-5 in 2017 and had a breakthrough season at 7-4 last year, the first winning season in Winchester since the 2009 team went 8-4. Lucas is now trying to end 9 years of playoff frustration; the Cardinals haven't won a playoff game (0-9) since 2009. In Buckner, Mike Fox turned around an Oldham program pretty quickly. After six consecutive losing seasons - and only four playoff appearances, all first-round exits, during that time - Fox' first team in 2017 went 6-5 for the Colonels' first winning record since 2010. The 2018 team upped the ante, going 10-2 and advancing to the second round of the 5A playoffs. A win against GRC would clinch Oldham's third consecutive winning season and give Fox his first regular season district crown at OC. In 2+ seasons, Fox' record sits at 21-10.

- Both teams feature talented backs ranked in the top 10 in class 6A. Oldham senior Juan Tapia - ranked #9 - rebounded from a shoulder injury to have a big game against Bryan Station last week; he's got 775 yards in 7 games this year, an average of 110.7 yards per game. GRC will counter with the state's #2 back, Azariah Israel, who has rushed for 1,427 yards in 8 games, coupled with 19 touchdowns. Israel's rushed for over 114 yards in 7 of GRC's 8 games (with a high of 346 against Montgomery County) and has only been held under 100 yards once, finishing with a still-respectable 90 yards on 19 carries against #8 Ballard. Not surprisingly, when Israel has rushed for 157 yards or better, GRC is 4-0.

- Oldham appears to have a deeper stable of receivers, but both teams have a clear #1 catching the ball: Oldham's Parker Caudill, last year's starting QB, has 27 catches for 380 yards and 6 TDs. GRC's Dawson Gay boasts similar stats: 26 catches, 434 yards, and 6 scores.

- The two defenses are giving up about the same number of points per game: Oldham surrenders 26.3 ppg, while GRC is giving up 30.4 ppg - but Oldham seems to be the more opportunistic defense. The Colonels have 16 takeaways (4 INT, 12 fumble recoveries) this season, while GRC has just 7 (4 INT, 3 fumble recoveries) Hmm.

- Both quarterbacks are posting solid numbers. GRC signalcaller Jordan Manley is 72-149 on the season for just under 50%, with 12 TDs / 5 INT and 1,109 yards. Oldham sophomore QB Sam Young has shown a maturity far beyond his years so far, posting similar numbers: 78-121 passing, 1,047 yards, 12 TDs / 4 INT. The numbers are very, very similar, but Young has been a bit more accurate, connecting on 64.5% of his passes.

- Oh yeah - on a side note - both schools feature fantastic band programs. I know we're talking football, these are simply two extraordinary musical programs, and they really add to the ambiance of Friday nights. In the future, it'd be great if the two principals arranged for both schools bands to perform at each game, one before the game and one at halftime. That alone would be worth the price of admission! (hint, hint)

 

The setting should be great....weather looks good....district on the line....on paper, this looks to be a good matchup! Looking forward to broadcasting it.

 

Live video coverage of the game begins at 7 pm ET on The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN. (also archived)

 

CM

Absolutely love this write up! Thank you for posting!

Great Job and this should be a fun game to do. #BigThings

I should correct myself a little: I'm so used to the former way of doing things...I stated erroneously that the winner would win the regular season district crown. That isn't correct in the "new world" of doing things. The winner of this game will earn the #1 SEED for the post-season district "tournament", which is the first two rounds of the playoffs. The actual district champions will be crowned in the second round of the playoffs.

 

Oldham County (2-0 district) and GRC (2-0) play Friday, as does Bryan Station (0-2) and Madison Central (0-2), who will be battling for the third and fourth seeds. So...

 

The winner of the OC / GRC game will host the loser of the BS / MC game in the first round of the playoffs, while the loser of the OC / GRC game will host the winner of the BS / MC game in the first round of the playoffs.

 

Sorry for any confusion.

 

CM

Interesting no one thinks GRC will win.

Oldham 7 GRC 0