Tomcats seek to tighten grip on Devils

In the early years of Ashland and Russell's rivalry, the Tomcats exhibited heavy handed domination before the series morphed into NEKY's best from the late 1970s through the mid 2000s. The last twelve years have witnessed a return to the one sided nature of those early years, with Ashland claiming victory thirteen of the last fourteen times the schools have met. 

A competitive first half between top five teams on October 16th quickly unravelled in the third quarter as the Tomcats left the Devils in the dust, 41-7. With Russell currently as healthy as they've been all season, a closer game looks likely, but is health alone enough to close the gap?

 

Tomcats big. They won’t play a close game until round 4.

Ashland Wins.

21 hours ago, Pacman69 said:

Tomcats big. They won’t play a close game until round 4.

Pretty strong words considering a likely matchup with Belfry comes in round 3. 

3 minutes ago, JC Alumni 76 said:

Pretty strong words considering a likely matchup with Belfry comes in round 3. 

Ashland will host the winner of Fleming County and Pendleton County in round 3.

2 hours ago, Pacman69 said:

Ashland will host the winner of Fleming County and Pendleton County in round 3.

I stand corrected. I didn’t think RPI went into effect until semi final pairings. 

Ashland and a running clock...

The sophomores for the Tomcats should get plenty of clock against Russell this weekend.

My heart says Russell but my head says Ashland. I hope Russell can pull off the upset.

Russell/Ashland winner gets Belfry per the Bracket.

If Russell hopes to hang around long enough to have a shot in the fourth quarter, they've got to hold on to the football tonight, in more ways than one - zero turnovers and move the chains to limit Ashland's possessions. When Ashland does have the ball, Russell can't get hit left and right with those haymakers the Tomcats are adept at throwing. Just in the last two years, Russell has really struggled to avoid them. The deep ball to Garrett last year at Russell, Pittman's touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in last year's playoff rematch, Garrett's touchdown pass on the throwback WR pass a few weeks ago, and the first play of the second half by Pittman in that same game. Basically, just keep the ball out of Pittman and Garrett's hands. Should be easy enough, right? ?

Video: https://m.facebook.com/MyTownTV/?refid=52&__tn__=C-R

 

Audio: https://www.iheart.com/live/2609/?cmp=android_share&sc=android_social_share&pr=false

Russell audio-https://streamdb9web.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/WLGCS4

 

The teams traded pointless possessions to start the game. Russell picked up some first downs, but stalled out in Ashland territory. The Tomcats went three and out on the ensuing possession. 

Russell just went three and out. Ashland ball at its own 30.

0-0 after 1.