List Your Final Class AAA Top 5 for 2006

[75center]

Not sure why so many have Johnson Central rated so highly when they were beaten worse than Highlands, Lex Cath, and BG by Cov Cath.

 

1 Cov Cath - The best team in 3A.

2 Lex Cath - Lost to Cov Cath in a shootout 56-49

3 Highlands - Lost twice to Cov Cath. One was close, the other was by 10

4 Bowling Green - Lost to Cov Cath by 19 in State Championship

5 Johnson Central - Lost to Cov Cath by 24 on their home field.

 

Works for me. :thumb:

[freshstart]

Cov Cath

Highlands

Lex Cath

Mercer

John Cent

Mercer was 2A. Should have been 3A.

[westsider]

I don't think Mercer would have been a top-five team in 3A ... probably about sixth or seventh.

[JC Alumni 76]

Not sure why so many have Johnson Central rated so highly when they were beaten worse than Highlands, Lex Cath, and BG by Cov Cath.

 

1 Cov Cath - The best team in 3A.

2 Lex Cath - Lost to Cov Cath in a shootout 56-49

3 Highlands - Lost twice to Cov Cath. One was close, the other was by 10

4 Bowling Green - Lost to Cov Cath by 19 in State Championship

5 Johnson Central - Lost to Cov Cath by 24 on their home field.

 

Im not sure why some have JC ranked above Highlands but I do believe that JC is even with LC and better than BG. The final score of the JC/CC game does not do JC justice. This game was close until Blake Johnson went down early in the 3rd with a knee injury. From that point on JC lost its ability to grind the game out with its smashmouth style of play that kept the powerful CC offense off the field. He also was a vital part of the JC run defense that surrendered over 100 yds in the 2nd half after he went down.

[Junior03]

I'm sure I'll catch heck from my CovCath friends, and I believe there are many (honestly I do), but I don't think there is much if any separation between Highlands and CovCath this past season. Looking as objectively as I can at the two games this year, I see it this way: the first game, Highlands outplayed CovCath. While CovCath won on the scoreboard (and I realize that some will argue that's all that mattered) take away a near miraculous last 51 second drive and a miraculous pass that isn't successful 99 times out of a 100 in high school (and by the way, was unsuccessful the prior times CovCath ran that play in that game) Highlands out played them in the first game. Did they dominate CovCath in the first game? Of course not, or else CovCath wouldn't have been in position to win that game at all. But, looking at the game tape, and the field position given to CovCath with the squibs, Highlands outplayed them in the first game.

 

In the second game, CovCath's D played a better game than they did the first and that undeniable. But the CovCath O in the second game was not near as productive and Highlands D also played a much better game. Sure CovCath scored 25 points in the second game, but that is very misleading. When you look at what happened in that game, the field position given to the CovCath offense was even better than it was in the first game. Of the 14 offensive drives started by CovCath, 4 or 5 of them were started in Highlands territory. Some like the first one of the second half (which started at the 15) were started deep in Highlands territory. In addition to the one on the 15, two were started at about Highlands 30 due to poor punts. Two CovCath drives started at their own 40 or better. The only score CovCath made where it started deep in CovCath territory was the 70 yd touch down catch and run by Sutton. And if we make that tackle at the CovCath 30 where Peter caught the ball, who knows if CovCath scores at all on that drive, as the CovCath offense did not move the ball effectively in the second game. While the score says CovCath by 10, but for the unforced errors (the bad punts and the fumble), I'm not sure CovCath wins the second game. And if they do, its a 3 point or less margin. To argue that CovCath's win was not largely due to unforced errors by Highlands is an argument that I do not agree with.

 

And I'm not taking anything away from CovCath's team. The senior class was extremely talented and committed and I'm glad they won the championship. While I'm probably in the minority of Highlands fans, I believe if we can't win it, I'm glad that they did. But the point of this post is to point out my opinion that CovCath, if they were better than Highlands this past season and I don't really think they were, it was by the slimmest of margins.

 

Some will assuredly disagree with my opinion, but heck its my opinion. Since CovCath won the title, they deserve a 1A ranking, but I truly believe Highlands deserves a 1B ranking.

 

I understand you pure devotion to your school, and I respect that. But sometimes you have to accept the fact that maybe another school had the edge this year. But hey, if I were in your position I would probably be doing the same thing

[h.s.sportsrbest]

Not sure why so many have Johnson Central rated so highly when they were beaten worse than Highlands, Lex Cath, and BG by Cov Cath.

 

 

Speaking for myself, I saw each of the games you reference, and the score in a box score isn't always indication of team strength. I'm sure you agree that comparative scores isn't always a great indication of how teams would do against one another.

[BIGBLUE63]

I understand you pure devotion to your school, and I respect that. But sometimes you have to accept the fact that maybe another school had the edge this year. But hey, if I were in your position I would probably be doing the same thing

 

This is so true.

[UKFan16]

1-Covington Catholic

2-Lexington Catholic

3-Highlands

4-Johnson Central

5-Bowling Green

[In the Game]

I understand you pure devotion to your school, and I respect that. But sometimes you have to accept the fact that maybe another school had the edge this year. But hey, if I were in your position I would probably be doing the same thing

:dancingpa

[BIGBLUE63]

Leatherneak, the evidence is undeniable. I don't care if you lost the game because of bad special teams like shanking punts and squib kicks. Special team play is a part of football and CCH had some great special teams which helped them win state.

[ochenta siete]

Leatherneak, the evidence is undeniable. I don't care if you lost the game because of bad special teams like shanking punts and squib kicks. Special team play is a part of football and CCH had some great special teams which helped them win state.

I agree, you cant start making excuses because your punter or kicker had a bad game. It's a team effort.

[mcpapa]

CovCath

LexCath

Highlands

Johnson Central

Bowling Green

[leatherneck]

Leatherneak, the evidence is undeniable. I don't care if you lost the game because of bad special teams like shanking punts and squib kicks. Special team play is a part of football and CCH had some great special teams which helped them win state.

 

 

I don't disagree with your point that special teams are a very important part of the game. Of course they are. I guess the point I was trying to make in my prior posts, and obviously did not do very well, was that in the second game our special teams (specifically the punting team) did not perform at the level that they had throughout the season, and that had a whole lot to do with our loss. Hopefully you'll agree with that. If our punting game had been poor all season, I might feel differently about the Highlands being close to CovCath, but that was not the case. And don't get me wrong, at its best, Highlands punting and kicking game was not equal to CovCath's. Bleser was an exceptional punter and Popham was an exceptional kicker. But our punting game was a whole lot better than what happened in the second game and the Highlands regular season punting average proves that. I don't remember and cannot find the statistics on line, but our punting team was generally towards the top in N. Ky and a whole lot better than the performance in the second game.

 

In my opinion, the field position you got was the difference in the game, and but for it, the game is another toss up. I really think CovCath and Highlands were about even in talent this year, and had we not had difficulties punting the ball in the second game (again difficulties we had not experienced all season) the second game would have ended as close to the first one. If I'm correct in that belief, then it would have been difficult for one to argue that CovCath was significantly better than Highlands. It would be similar to what you would have felt if Bleser, a good quarterback all season long throwing the football, had thrown the football terribly in the second game, had thrown unforced interceptions a majority of the passes in an uncharacteristically poor game for him and you lost the game by 10 points. You would have felt that if he had played up to his normal game that you would have won or been in a closer game. That's all I was trying to say about our punting woes. If we had punted up to our average, I don't believe you would have gotten such great field position. Without that great field position, I don't believe you would have won, or if you had won, it would have been an extremely close game. I based that belief simply on the fact that the few times that CovCath got the ball reasonably deep in its own territory, if failed to score other than the one 70 yard td pass to Peter. Do I know that for sure, of course not, but logic, common sense, and experience leads me to conclude its a heck of a lot easier to score when you get the ball in the other team's territory.

 

I was not in any way stating that special teams are not important. Not even close, and the fact that I believe CovCath won because of our punting problems that day should have confirmed my belief in that principal. I hope that clarifies my thoughts and posts.

[colonel-fan]

Three cheers for miracle passes and inexplicable punting woes!

 

[Goliath]

1-Covington Catholic

2-Highlands

3-Johnson Central

4-Bowling Green

5-LexCath

6-Franklin County

7-Ashland

8-Rockcastle

9-Central

10-Bell Co.