Breathitt County travels to Fort Mitchell to square off against Beechwood in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Beechwood defeated Danville 49-0 in the 1st round while Breathitt County defeated Bracken County 46-26. Beechwood is #4 in 2A according to RPI and Breathitt County is #18 in 2A. Since 1998 Beechwood is 2-0 against Breathitt County (37-8 in 2001 and 52-7 in 2020). Who wins and why?????? 

In round 2 of the KHSAA 2A football tournament, Beechwood will host Breathitt County. In round 1, Beechwood shut out Danville 49-0. Breathitt County defeated Bracken County 46-26. Beechwood and Breathitt County have played twice in the last 25 years with Beechwood winning both games; 37-8 in 2001 and 52-7 in the 2020 tournament. 

Breathitt County is 6-5 on the season. Breathitt County has a balanced offensive attack with 1,771 yards rushing and 1,336 yards passing on the season. Sr. Dillon Stacy has thrown 11 TD's against just 2 INT's. Jr. RB Jayden Gibson is the leading rusher with 693 yards and 11 TD's. Sr. WR Isaac Turner has 30 catches for over 500 yards. The leading tacklers on the defense are freshman Kylan Combs and junior Kory Combs.

Beechwood is 10-1 on the year. Jr. QB Clay Hayden is one of the leading passers in the entire state. He went over 3,000 yards passing for the year in last night's game. His 73.7% completion percent would be tied for the 4th best completion percent in a season in KHSAA history and his career percent of 70.8% is 2nd in KHSAA history. Hayden has 38 TD's and 5 INT's this season. Hayden throws to a trio of blazing fast underclass receivers - Jr. Luke Erdman, Jr. James Cusick and Fr. Tyler Fryman. Those three are all in the class 2A leaders in receiving. Jr. RB Chase Flaherty is a multi purpose back, closing in on 1,000 yards combined rushing and receiving. Sr. LB Xavier Campbell, Sr. DL Nick Alexander, Sr. CB Shawn Sowder (3 INT's) and Sr. DB Talon Linder (4 INT's) are leaders on the Beechwood defense. Beechwood's defense has not allowed a touchdown to a 2A team this year - 5 shutouts and 1 field goal.

How does Breathitt County stop this dominant 2A streak by the Beechwood Tigers?

 

Beechwood 60

Breathitt Co 0

Running clock here, Breathitt Co. can’t compete.

Beechwood running clock by half. Breathitt's only chance not to get to a running clock by half, is they will need to control the ball on offense and eat a lot of clock. Personally, I don't think that will happen. Beechwood is just too good. 

Good luck Beechwood! 

The poll is 34 to 1 for Beechwood.

1 hour ago, theguru said:

The poll is 34 to 1 for Beechwood.

Smart people. 

Best of Luck to both teams this week.  I hope everyone stays healthy on each side of the ball.

Also, Hayden’s stats are impressive, especially when half of his season he’s only played about 2 quarters per game.  Does anyone have stats how his minutes and quarters match up to the other top QB’s in the State? 

1 hour ago, The_Bull44 said:

Best of Luck to both teams this week.  I hope everyone stays healthy on each side of the ball.

Also, Hayden’s stats are impressive, especially when half of his season he’s only played about 2 quarters per game.  Does anyone have stats how his minutes and quarters match up to the other top QB’s in the State? 

Don't know how minutes played match up, but here are your top 10 QB's in the state (all classes):

Top 50 Passing
(playing a minimum of 2 games)(ranked by net yards passing average)
Rank    Player            School                Gms    Cmp    Att    Cmp%    Yds    TD    Int    Avg
1    Berry, Blaze        Eminence                10    189    293    64.5    3344    40    10    334
2    Atwell, Brady    Owensboro Catholic 11    219    302    72.5    3328    51    5    303
3    James, Jack     Paducah Tilghman    11    196    288    68.1    3226    46    3    293
4    Hayden, Clay    Beechwood               11    161    219    73.5    3077    38    5    280
5    Hodge, Cole      CAL                            11    212    295    71.9    3031    42    7    276
6    Button, Bryce    South Warren            11    168    260    64.6    3000    36    5    273
7    Verax, Logan      Ryle                           11    239    348    68.7    2808    24    8    255
8    Bailey, Deuce     Bowling Green          11    186    269    69.1    2802    33    4    255
9    OHara, Cam        Cooper                     10    168    244    68.9    2531    35    5    253
10    Osborne, Russ    Shelby Valley          11    150    210    71.4    2690    28    11    245

 

Hayden has the second fewest pass attempts of the top 10 but the 4th most yards. He also has the highest completion percent. If the season ended today, that completion percent would be #5 all time in KHSAA history.

I wonder if anyone will be streaming this game?

On 11/7/2023 at 12:54 PM, Keith the old guy said:

I wonder if anyone will be streaming this game?

Beechwood always streams audio. I don't know about video.

Beechwood quickly! I don't see this one being close. 

6 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Beechwood always streams audio. I don't know about video.

They streamed video in the regular season but said during a broadcast that the playoffs would be audio only on the Mixlr app. Not sure why as other schools are streaming their games.

Stole this write up from QB coach Greg Hergott:

Stats update heading into this game:

Passing

Clay Hayden

3077 Yds-4th in the entire state

73.5% Completion Percentage-1st in the entire state

38 TDs-7th in the entire state

280 Yds per game-4th in the entire state

 

Rushing 

Chase Flaherty 467 Yds 13 TDs

Luke Erdman 266 Yds 4 TDs

Tyler Fryman 132 Yds 6 TDs

 

Receiving 

Luke Erdman 38 Rec 859 Yds 14 TDs

Tyler Fryman 36 Rec 798 Yds 7 TDs

James Cusick 34 Rec 585 Yds 10 TDs

Talon Linder 17 Rec 334 Yds 4 TDs 

Chase Flaherty 26 Rec 305 Yds 1 TD 

Luke Sleet 7 Rec 138 1 TD 

 

Scoring

Luke Erdman 18 TDs

Chase Flaherty 14 TDs

Tyler Fryman 13 TDs

James Cusick 10 TDs 

14 Different Players have scored TDs

 

Tigers are averaging 49.2 PTs per game, good for #3 in the entire state

 

Kicking 

Colson Lair

64/65 PATs

3/4 FGs

 

Defense 

18 Interceptions are 5th most in the entire state 

Talon Linder 4

Shawn Sowder 3

Xavier Campbell 2

Tyler Fryman 2

James Cusick 2

 

*Clay Hayden’s 3077 Yds passing are the most in a single season by a Beechwood QB since at least 1991 and I’m pretty certain it is the most ever in a single season in school history.

His 38 TD passes are 2 behind Kyle Fieger’s 40 TDs in 2015, which I also believe is the most in a single season by a Beechwood QB.