Martin County will make the 3 hour drive from the West Virginia border to play Beechwood in round 3 of the 2A tournament. Martin County is 7-5 on the season and defeated 10-1 Betsy Layne 35-6 in round 2. Beechwood is 11-1 and defeated Breathitt County 42-12 in round 2.

Contrast in styles in this one. Martin County will be running the ball all night. Their QB Jackson Miller has thrown for 551 yards on the season. Beechwood QB Clay Hayden almost equaled that in one game with 479 yards passing against Dixie Heights earlier this year. There have been several games this year where Martin County threw 3 or less passes in the game. The Cardinals run it and they spread that running among multiple players. They have 3 players with more than 600 yards rushing. Sr. RB Brock Messer leads the way with over 1,100 yards rushing. Sr. Madden Miller and Jr. Aiden Horn are the other two backs with over 600 yards on the season. When Martin County does throw the ball, look for So. WR Devan Maynard to be on the receiving end. He has half the receptions and more than half the receiving yards Martin County has amassed over the season. On defense, Madden Miller leads the team in tackles. Sr. Rafe Price is in the top 10 in 2A in sacks. Jr. Julian Stafford is tied for the lead in 2A in interceptions with 9 picks this season. Martin County is #2 in 2A in points allowed on the season, giving up an average of 12.7 points per game.

The opposite side of that offensive story is Beechwood. Jr. QB Clay Hayden is one of the leaders in the entire state all classes in passing. Hayden is close to 3,200 yards passing completing a statewide leading 73.5% of his passes with 40 TD's against 5 INT's. The Tigers wideouts are explosive. Jr. Luke Erdman and Fr. Tyler Fryman are in the top 5 in the state, all classes, in average yards per catch at 22+ yards per reception. It doesn't stop there as Jr. James Cusick has 605 yards receiving and 10 TD receptions. Jr. RB Chase Flaherty is also a receiving weapon and is close to 1,100 yards rushing and receiving combined. The Beechwood defense has been dominating in its 2A contests. Breathitt County last week was the first 2A team to score a TD against the Beechwood defense. 

The game plan for teams playing Beechwood has been to slow the game down, run the ball, control clock and try to keep the Beechwood offense off the field. Beechwood's last few opponents took that to the extreme and went for it on 4th down on nearly every possession. They also use clock by letting the 40 second play clock run down inside 10 seconds before snapping the ball. Despite those efforts, the Beechwood offense has gone over 40 points in all three of those games.

Will Martin County bring that same game plan to Ft. Mitchell? Can the Cardinals get the first downs they need to control the clock and not give Beechwood short fields by getting stopped on 4th down? How do you see this game going?

 

I see this game being ugly.  Martin County was ranked 13th in the final BGP poll and the TP94 Power Ratings are not close for these two teams:

Beechwood    67.63
Martin County    19.27

32 minutes ago, theguru said:

I see this game being ugly.  Martin County was ranked 13th in the final BGP poll and the TP94 Power Ratings are not close for these two teams:

Beechwood    67.63
Martin County    19.27

Likely a running clock in 2nd quarter.

The fact that I had to scroll halfway down page two to find this thread and it's been dormant since Saturday tells you all you need to know.

If you're Beechwood, you're looking for focus and fine tuning before things get real in the semis.

What I need to see this week from the Tigers is 2 things:

1- Can they continue to improve their run defense and get the other teams offense off the field so their offense can get in a rhythm and continue humming at the pace they have been. The rush defense has been the biggest struggle all year and this is the last game to get it fine tuned before facing LCA or Mayfield who have very very good running backs in the next round. 
2- I need to see better discipline and not getting silly personal foul penalties that essentially gave Breathitt County one of their Touchdowns last week. When you have 2-3 on 1 drive and one of those after Breathitt had punted and gave them a first down is a killer. 
 

Coach Volker is a defensive minded coach and we are far enough into the year that the defense needs to start showing improvement and that we can compete with the other top 3 teams in the class and make a title run. 

Go Tigers!

Beechwood will most definitely see the run game in this one. Martin County will throw it probably about 10-12 times as well. They have a big receiver in Maynard who’s a big tall kid who can go get the ball. But I don’t see Martin County stopping Beechwood though.

Big game for Martin Co tonight. Can any of you Cardinal fans offer some perspective on how big this game is for the community? Hearing a ton of people are coming tonight to Ft. Mitchell from Inez. 

Is Martin County a newer high school? Seems we don't hear much about them in NKY.

4 minutes ago, colonel-fan said:

Is Martin County a newer high school? Seems we don't hear much about them in NKY.

Used to be Sheldon Clark.

I definitely remember Sheldon Clark. They had some solid teams.

I take it that this one is an audio only broadcast? I'd like to tune in for at least the 1st Qtr ?

MC has some really big boys in the trenches. 

7-0 Beechwood.

Beechwood received the kick and recovered an onside kick. 1st play 52 yard TD pass Hayden to Fryman 52 yards. XP is good 7-0 Tigers