Congratulations to the Coach Jaggers and to the Titans Players! Hard fought win! Congratulations to The coaches at Russell And to the Players! When it comes down to the Final 8 there are no losers! You have winners and then you have the runner up! Any team that gets this far is a winner!Im proud to know that all of these Kids,Coaches and fans live in my home state of Kentucky!:thumb:

Mercer's D stepped up and won this game for them today. They made a bunch of big stops/turnovers at the end. Russel D also did very good today.

 

I also thought it was a very classy move by Marty and Josh Jaggers going straight to Kasey Clark when the game was over.

Congrats to both teams. The game was very enjoyable to witness. Congrats to the Titans for bringing home the hardware.

 

I must say I really underestimated Russell. They were a very athletic team that played solid defense and held Mercer's speed in check for much of the game. However, on the other side of the ball, turnovers did them in.

 

Observation: #24 for Russell is a STUD, an incredible athlete who performed well on both sides of the ball.

Russell Mercer

1st downs 14 7

Rush yards 160 196

Pass yards 145 0

Total offense 305 196

Penalties 4-20 6-35

Turnovers 5 0

 

RUSSELL (13-2)

 

PASSING C-A-I Yards TD Long

TYLER JONES 9-18-2 145 0 54

JACOB SIZEMORE 0-1-1 0 0 0

Totals... 9-19-3 145 0 54

 

RUSHING Att Yards TD Long Avg.

KASEY CLARK 22 78 1 28 3.5

AARON BEEKMAN 8 56 1 16 7.0

DARYL WELLS 5 17 0 6 3.4

TYLER JONES 8 8 0 10 1.0

NICK LEWIS 1 1 0 1 1.0

Totals... 44 160 2 28 3.6

 

RECEPTIONS No. Yards TD Long Avg.

KASEY CLARK 6 114 0 54 19.0

MARCUS FRAZIER 1 18 0 18 18.0

COREY HALL 1 9 0 9 9.0

AARON BEEKMAN 1 4 0 4 4.0

Totals... 9 145 0 54 16.1

 

 

MERCER (15-0)

 

PASSING C-A-I Yards TD Long

JUSTIN MORGAN 0-1-0 0 0 0

Totals... 0-1-0 0 0 0

 

RUSHING Att Yards TD Long Avg.

CORY JACKSON 12 140 1 53 11.7

BRANDON FORD 18 28 0 21 1.6

NATHAN GRIFFITH 6 25 0 9 4.2

DARYL SMITH 1 7 0 7 7.0

DONALD WALKER 1 3 0 3 3.0

TEAM 1 0 0 0 0.0

JUSTIN MORGAN 2 -7 0 0 -3.5

DEVIN PATTON 0 0 1 0 0.0

Totals... 41 196 2 53 4.8

 

RECEPTIONS No. Yards TD Long Avg.

Totals... 0 0 0 0 0.0

Date: Dec 01, 2006

Site: Louisville, KY

Stadium: Papa Johns Cardinal

 

 

Temp: 34/FL24

Wind: WSW 18

Weather: WINDY, CLOUDY

 

 

Time: 2:24

Attendance: 6814

He was stopped short. He was hit a yard and a half behind the line where his forward progress was stopped. The play should have been blown dead right then but it wasn't. Mercer player seemed to fumble on purpose and it worked, he pulled one pass the officials. But the facts are that the initial forward progress was stopped short, should've been 1st and 10 Russell on the 1. Congrats to Mercer on the win.

I just saw the highlight of that play on wsaz news, you are correct, he was definately stopped short "before" the fumble. I don't know if the fumble was on purpose or not but if so it was really a pretty smart move on his (runners) part. You know that you are stopped.....fumble the ball in the endzone and take a chance on what happens ( a win-win situation). At worse, Russell recovers and they would have had the ball over on downs anyway - at best was excatly what transpired - ball wasn't blown dead on foward progress being stopped and your guy recovers for a TD.

I also just saw a interview after the game with Kasey Clark on the WSAZ news. That kid showed a lot of class when you know he was hurting bad inside. He stated that Mercer made the plays and that they (Russell) didn't. He wasn't making excuses or crying. Clark also said that they didn't have anything to be ashamed of and that Mercer just outplayed them. That showed me a lot of maturity from the young man. Good luck to him at the next level.

Here are a couple more photos.

Why not?

Once he was clearly stopped it was a smart play to fumble it forward.

Get a clue.

:thumb: It was also 4th down and the ball was going over to Russell on downs anyway. I would say he (runner) was very well in his right mind...smart play if was on purpose.

Congratulations to Mercer Co on their 1st State Championship !!

What a game. Both defenses deserve all the credit in the world. I KNEW this game was not going to be a blowout. The Devils should not hang their heads. What an effort by Kasey Clark and Wills for Russell and the same for Corey Jackson and Blake Arnold from Mercer.

 

My game ball goes to Arnold for Mercer. His three picks were huge. Game ball for Russell goes to Clark. 22 carries for 78 yards, 6 catches for 114 yards. Not sure how many tackles but he had two stops behind the line and I think 1 sack.

 

Congrats to the Mighty Mercer Titans! Great year for you guys and good luck next year. As for Russell, what a run guys. You guys represented us well and we could not be more proud of our Devils for hanging with the Titans. Congrats.

 

And now I can go take a breath!

 

 

hey rambler just wanted to let you know that he had 87 yards on 22 carries,and yes 6 catches 114,and thank you for the congrats,we played our harts out,and i just want to say a good game to mercer.

Obviously we have differing opinions on the subject but do you honestly think the QB had enough time to think in his head during the play, ok, try for the first down, oh ok, im stopped, I think I should fumble the ball on purpose, maybe that will work? I dont quite think so, but you can keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better.

 

 

Yes, I do. What game were you watching. The officials never blew the whistle. He had plenty of time to do that and a few other things. You're acting as though it's absurd to think it would happen. I'm telling you it does and often. If you don't believe me, I'm sorry but it happens. It happens enough for the KHSAA to make a rule change. The whistle never blew, the officials came digging into the pile and thinking there wasn't plenty of time for several different things to happen is ignorance. It was a smart play on his part, it got the 6 points instead of a TOD. But in your so original words, whatever makes you feel better.

If you had to listen to Russell's radio announcers, you would have thought the KHSAA announcers were the world's best. I had to quit listening to the Russell broadcast when one of their announcers got upset because he thought Russell had gotten a bad spot on one particular play. He thought Russell should have had the ball on the one yard line, and even when down to the field to the sideline reporter to ask him what he thought of the spot. The sideline reporter said "I'm not sure what you're wanting, but that was the two point conversion". :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Those guys were just brutal.

 

 

Well frist off when mercer had the ball 4th and 1 get ready to score we did stop them,cause when you stop someones movement the plat is over with,and they gave them the td,but anyways its over and done with so move on.

First of all, great game by both teams. I am always going to pull for a local team and have become quite the Russell fan in the past few years with their deep playoff runs. I have one question about the game.

 

On Mercer's first score, they went for it on 4th down, and scored off of a recovered fumble in the endzone. Am I wrong by saying that the score shouldn't have been granted? I thought on forth down the only person offense eligible to advance a fumble was the person who fumbled?

 

Anyway, that was it.

 

I want to congratulate both teams on a great game and great seasons. The game was fun to listen to.

 

Mike

 

T Cat Fan77 hey there you are right the only one that can do that is the one that fumbles the ball if it is someone else than it be comes a touchback, but any ways talk to ya later.thanks for your support

First of all, great game by both teams. I am always going to pull for a local team and have become quite the Russell fan in the past few years with their deep playoff runs. I have one question about the game.

 

On Mercer's first score, they went for it on 4th down, and scored off of a recovered fumble in the endzone. Am I wrong by saying that the score shouldn't have been granted? I thought on forth down the only person offense eligible to advance a fumble was the person who fumbled?

 

Anyway, that was it.

 

I want to congratulate both teams on a great game and great seasons. The game was fun to listen to.

 

Mike

 

That's the college rule, not high school.

Congratulations to the Titans and the Red Devils for a tremendous effort today. Mercer Co. has a great team and RHS has a great program. Coach Jaggers will probably build a great program if he sticks around. He seems to be a very good coach with regard to both football knowledge and relating to high school athletes as evidenced by his excellent management of players from different schools. Certainly, the merger has helped to jump start his efforts.

 

Programs do not settle for moral victories, as RHS got today. We do however, take tremendous pride in the awesome effort our players and coaches put forth this week, culminating in Friday's battle. I am admittedly biased, but I feel the Red Devils outplayed the Titans. But I must give the Titans credit for hanging on down the stretch and making big plays on defense.

 

Also, I feel compelled to address a few other topics.

#1- The previous question of how much did the merger improve Mercer Co.??

They were beating teams so bad that I thought perhaps Mercer Co. would have been awesome without the HHS influence, but I have definitely changed my mind. I cannot imagine Mercer Co. alone beating the Devils. I do not say this to take anything away from the Titans achievements.

#2- I was in the end zone during the phantom TD and was shocked at the officials call and the length of time it took to make it. Although we will never know how this might have effected the outcome of the game, as a RHS fan I would like to have found out. If I were a Titan fan I would probably feel the same way in that my team had the opponent pinned on the 1 yard line and that is usually not good (unless you are RHS vs Estill Co. in 2004). Most likely, Titan fans would rather their players make a big play than the officials give them one. That way, instead of old guys like me complaining about the officiating I could be commending a Titan linebacker on a blitzing 2 point safety or perhaps a 99 yard run by Beekman for a TD.

#3- I think we did not ride the running game with Clark because he was not playing at full strength. I am not making excuses- programs do not make excuses, they find solutions.

#4- The Red Devils proved that sometimes playing a weak schedule that you cannot control (in Russell's case with an 8 team district), doesn't always mean you are over-rated. Either RHS was significantly under-rated or the Titans were over-rated. I would like to think we were under estimated.

 

Finally, both communities should be very proud of their teams for a great season and a lot of fun and good memories. Thanks to all the coaches, players, administration, and support staff from both teams for a trmendous effort all year long.