Pikeville 20 Belfry 14

[ATLCat]

In a game that didn't exactly play out as most expected, Pikeville rides their Defense and interior run game to a hard fought victory.

Blake Birchfield announced his presence as a star.

Birchfield ran the ball for over 100 yards including a pair of key 1st Down conversions to ice the game, but it was two defensive plays that changed the game. In the 1st Half with momentum on Belfry's side leading 14-6 having just stopped a Pikeville drive on a turnover on downs, Isaac Dixon had a nice carry but fumbled on his second effort. Birchfield scooped and scored to ultimately tie the game. Belfry drove the ball inside the Panther 25, facing a 4th and 4 with the game on the line Birchfield made a one on one tackle of Dixon to keep him from getting to the sticks.

Ultimately this game came down to making the plays on 3rd and 4th Down and the Panthers got more of them. Excellent win as Pikeville cements their perch at the top of 1A.

[16thBBall Fan]

#1 in 1A makes a big statement that they are for real win this win over #1 in 3A Belfry.

[theguru]

 

[theguru]

20 minutes ago, ATLCat said:

In a game that didn't exactly play out as most expected, Pikeville rides their Defense and interior run game to a hard fought victory.

Blake Birchfield announced his presence as a star.

Birchfield ran the ball for over 100 yards including a pair of key 1st Down conversions to ice the game, but it was two defensive plays that changed the game. In the 1st Half with momentum on Belfry's side leading 14-6 having just stopped a Pikeville drive on a turnover on downs, Isaac Dixon had a nice carry but fumbled on his second effort. Birchfield scooped and scored to ultimately tie the game. Belfry drove the ball inside the Panther 25, facing a 4th and 4 with the game on the line Birchfield made a one on one tackle of Dixon to keep him from getting to the sticks.

Ultimately this game came down to making the plays on 3rd and 4th Down and the Panthers got more of them. Excellent win as Pikeville cements their perch at the top of 1A.

Nice, thanks @ATLCat

[ATLCat]

Takeaways:

Pikeville

1. This is only the beginning for Pikeville. The Panthers have a really young but crazy talented team. Their Oline is going to be sensational and no other 1A team should be able to go toe to toe with them on the LOS. 
2. The Panthers’ depth can it be understated as well and on Defense they are extremely sound tacklers. 
3. Where Pikeville still needs to improve is in the WR department. They lack big play explosion and this is the one glaring place a team could exploit on the right night.

 

Belfry

1. On the slip side, tonight shows that Belfry’s lack of depth is a big problem. The Rash brothers ran hard but Belfry simply doesn’t have that guy at FB or the other HB spot that Defenses have to pay homage to. Pikeville focused their D on Dixon and didn’t overly fear the FB. This was never more obvious than a key option stop on 2nd down on Belfry’s final drive.

2. Belfry needs Seth Mounts and Rudy Blackwell healthy or their D is not a Championship caliber unit. The Pirate LBs got manhandled all night and could not get off blocks and could not get stops in the Pikeville interior run game. 
 

3. Belfry had a 14 play drive that yielded no points and probably a 12 or 13 play drive at the end that did not give fruit as well. That is killer.

4. It may be time for Belfry to develop some wrinkles on offense for down the road. This won’t be the last time a team follows this blueprint. Belfry needs to find different creative ways to get Dixon the ball in space and also need some looks that exploits when a team sells out to stop Dixon and dare the ensemble to beat you.

[BEChargers]

Wow.  Thought it would be competitive but didn't think Pikeville could upend them.  Congrats Pikeville Panthers !!

[snakesnot_2000]

Sounds like Pikeville is going Krogering.