South Warren (5-5) at Graves County (6-4)

 

South Warren travels about 2.5 hours west to tangle with the Graves County Eagles.  As @DragonFire said earlier, this is just the second time in school history (2011) that South Warren will start out on the road in the playoffs.  These 2 have only met once before and that was back in the first round of the 2017 playoffs.  South won 38-12 at home behind strong games from QB Gavin Spurrier and RB Christian Winn.  South rushed for almost 250 yards in that game to just 100 for the Eagles.

 

Graves County is led by QB Kaden Gregory who has over a 60% completion rate with roughly 1,400 yards on the season with 15 TDs vs 4 INTs.  The Eagles feature 2 primary RBs in Cole Katzman and Denis Marrs both with about 320 yards on the year and 9 combined TDs.  The primary pass catcher is Cade Goatley with 40 catches on the year for 475 yards and 6 TDs.  Defensively Jack Cope leads the team with 45 tackles; 4 tackles for loss and 3 sacks.

South Warren has struggled the last few weeks and hasn’t played with the same consistency since the Bowling Green game.  Again, I assume they are dealing with injuries.  I watched a lot of the Greenwood game and Christian Conyers only took defensive snaps.  That’s not typically how the Spartans roll.  I noticed a few others out for them as well.  That’s the way it goes in football unfortunately there are injuries and it would appear South is managing those now.  I didn't get to watch the Logan County game, but do know South was up 17-0 in that game early in the 2nd quarter and then it was all Logan County from there.  RB Rayno had 155 yards on the ground on 33 carries.  Logan County usually doesn't have that kind of success on South Warren.  The yardage was nearly even, but South had another 3 turnover night.

So what about this game?  To me it comes down to rushing the ball and stopping the run.  In the 4 games Graves has lost, Graves County has rushed for 440 yards or about 110 yards a game to their opponents 1,025 or 250 yards a game.  Now that is against Mayfield, Tilghman, Bullitt East and Owensboro.  Is South Warren that good?  They were; the question is are they still?  The answer should be yes, but since the Bowling Green game, South Warren simply has not been playing at that same level.  Graves County is a tough place to play.  So South will have to come prepared to give a 4 Quarter effort with whoever is on the bus. 

I said in the Logan County/South Warren game thread I was picking Graves County in this game.  And I'm standing by that.  At some point you have to question South's mental stamina.  If Graves County gets the lead, I think South is in some trouble.

Who wins and why?

I would say no one in 5A can take South lightly... I would also say South very well might lose this game. 

South Warren wins this one, and I don't think it will be close.

I'll take South Warren. I think after losing to Logan County they will come out hungry.

SW will crush Graves.  
 

SW 42-7

SW wins comfortably by at least 3 scores.

2 hours ago, GBR said:

South Warren wins this one, and I don't think it will be close.

I agree with this. South Warren wins solidly. 

We are the underdog at home. Our Sophomores went through a very tough schedule early. I think Owensboro had them shell shocked from the get go. If we come out and play like we can and Gregory has a good game delivering the ball, then we can pull this upset.

1 hour ago, gcbleedblue said:

We are the underdog at home. Our Sophomores went through a very tough schedule early. I think Owensboro had them shell shocked from the get go. If we come out and play like we can and Gregory has a good game delivering the ball, then we can pull this upset.

I like the confidence!  Graves will come out with effort no doubt!

13 hours ago, gcbleedblue said:

We are the underdog at home. Our Sophomores went through a very tough schedule early. I think Owensboro had them shell shocked from the get go. If we come out and play like we can and Gregory has a good game delivering the ball, then we can pull this upset.

I thought Denis Marrs was a good back, but don't think he's played since the Bullitt East game.  Is he out for the year?  I know he took a good shot in the 1st series of the 2nd half of the BE game, so was just wondering.  I know Graves will play hard, especially being at home, but having seen both teams in person this year, I think South Warren will have just a little too much for the young Graves team.  I'll take South Warren by 3 TDs.

2 hours ago, Unrivaled97 said:

I thought Denis Marrs was a good back, but don't think he's played since the Bullitt East game.  Is he out for the year?  I know he took a good shot in the 1st series of the 2nd half of the BE game, so was just wondering.  I know Graves will play hard, especially being at home, but having seen both teams in person this year, I think South Warren will have just a little too much for the young Graves team.  I'll take South Warren by 3 TDs.

That is accurate. He hasn't played since that game and was the workhorse. Him playing is not injury related. Personal issues. He’s a good kid, but he's a kid, and feel we should leave it at that.
 

Graves has developed a 1-2 punch with Katzman and Goodman running the ball. Goodman plays wr and then will move inside to run it some. The offense almost had to restart when it lost him. A lot of adversity for our team this year, but they have handled it well and I hope it pays off this week. 

4 hours ago, gcbleedblue said:

That is accurate. He hasn't played since that game and was the workhorse. Him playing is not injury related. Personal issues. He’s a good kid, but he's a kid, and feel we should leave it at that.
 

Graves has developed a 1-2 punch with Katzman and Goodman running the ball. Goodman plays wr and then will move inside to run it some. The offense almost had to restart when it lost him. A lot of adversity for our team this year, but they have handled it well and I hope it pays off this week. 

GC, how would you describe Graves Oline and Dline?

On 10/31/2022 at 5:29 PM, Purple88 said:

GC, how would you describe Graves Oline and Dline?

Oline is young, (4 sophomores) but decent size. They seem to be getting better each week. Its hard to say how far they have came, because the schedule is pretty weak throughout the district games. Owensboro game was rough, but I don't think we played to our potential at all.

Defensively we are quick up front. Similar to offense not huge, but decent size. Much more experience on that side and I would say very athletic for a D-Line. 

We have shown flashes of what we could be. We played with Bullit East for a quarter and a half, we played with Mayfield for almost 3 quarters, and we gave Paducah a scare. This is before Paducah completely fell apart. I'm not saying in anyway do we beat those teams or had a realistic chance of winning against Mayfield or Bullit, but at times we held our own. We just have to do that for four quarters. Might be my blue glasses I’m looking through, but I believe these boys can.

Pay to watch:

https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/khsaa/gam98892285f9

4 minutes ago, theguru said:

Pay to watch:

https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/khsaa/gam98892285f9

Playoff time means higher gate tickets at most places and the end of free broadcasts.