Henderson County at Paducah Tilghman Predictions/Updates

[Purple88]

6A Henderson County (2-1) at 4A Paducah Tilghman (3-0) 

The Colonels take the 2-hour bus trip southwest to the City of Paducah founded in 1827 by William Clark at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.  Our main Tornado @TilghmanPride asked me to fill in for him while he is recharging his batteries “in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico”!  So, hope I don’t mess it up too much!

According to the Riherds KHSAA webpage (data back to 1998), these 2 teams have only played 7 times (2005 and 2006, 2013 and 2014 and 2021, 2022 and 2023) with the Colonels winning 5 of those 7.  But one of those 2 Blue Tornado wins was last season.  A 42-27 win in Henderson. 

This is a good matchup for both teams, but especially Tilghman due to the RPI points on the table from their 6A opponent. 

Henderson County Colonels Information

Colonels Coach Josh Boston signed on as Henderson County’s Coach in 2016 taking over from
Tony Lewis, SR. (4-7 in Coach Lewis’ final season in Henderson in 2015).  This is Coach Boston’s 9^th year at the helm.  He struggled out of the gate going 3-8 in that rookie year 2016.  But since that time, he has pushed the Colonels upward going 7 and 5 3 times; a heartbreaking 7 and 2 ending the 2020 Covid year with a Covid Cancellation; 8 and 4 in 2019 and a stellar year in 2022 going 10-3 and losing at Male very respectably 23-10.  They did have a somewhat down year in 2023 going 5-7, but lost a lot of Real Dudes off that 2022 team. 

So, Coach Boston shows up here with a real upgraded schedule (started in 2023, which also explains some of the leaner results) adding South Warren and Mayfield and looking to “shock the world” and knock off a championship contending squad in Paducah Tilghman.

Through 2 games, SR leader and QB Trajdon Davis has 310 yard passing and 106 yards rushing with 4 TDs through the air and 3 more via the run.  His SR running mate is RB/WR Anthony Burrus who has 186 yards and 1 TD rushing and 3 catches for 113 yards and 1 TD receiving.   SR Wideout Maxton Meadows has 5 catches for 97 yards and 3 TDs on the year.  JRs Jack Reusch and Myron Wright have 50 tackles collectively and set the tone for the Colonels defense.

Paducah Tilghman Blue Tornados Information

The Blue Tornados have been building for a few seasons now.  With some stability at the Coaching Position, Coach Sean Thompson’s tenure taking over from Jonathan Smith (4-4 in his final year the 2020 Covid year) in 2021 has seen improvement from the team off Washington Street.  In Coach Thompson’s first year, they had a hard row to hoe and finished the regular season 4-6.  But they would circle the wagons and find grit and traction in the playoffs on their path all the way to Kroger Field.  They met a strong Belfry team and ultimately fell 33-28 when they were still in 3A.  But to me, this was a corner turning post-season for the Blue Tornados, as they easily could have folded the tents there, but instead fought through 4 tough games including on the road at Union County, CAL and Glasgow, which are tough places to play.  In 2022, they mirrored their regular season record and again found grit to battle to the Regional Final Round on the road at eventual Champion CAL falling 30-24, but it was easily CALs most difficult playoff game.  Then last season, putting it together and finally overcoming strong rival Mayfield 35-28 and powering all the way to the State Semi-Final game and losing the RPI coin flip and having to travel the roughly 5-hour bus trip and fall at a very tough place to play CovCath 22-14.

I go through ALL THAT because to me it’s not just about this season.  It’s about your programs path and I feel Tilghman is on a march to face Boyle County for the State Championship in what would be a whale of a game.  But A LOT more water to come under the bridge!

Tilghman is led by SR QB Jack James and SR WR/DB and highly regarded Martels Carter.  Through 2 games James has 730 yards passing and 8 TDs vs 2 INTs.  The Tilghman WR stable is DEEP with 7 WRs with over 50 yards on the season accounting for those 8 TDs.  Defensively, SR LBs Julian Omalley and Michael Hinton lead the way with 10 tackles each.  And both Oline and Dline are big, agile and a real problem for most teams.  And the Blue Tornados come off of a second straight win against archrival Mayfield as one of the toughest places in the state to win War Memorial Stadium.  But this Tilghman team is blessed with athletes all over the field.  Trick will be to keep their focus level high in order to take care of business to play at home in the playoffs and not have to travel from here to WVirginia to play the day after Thanksgiving.  So this is an important game for Big Blue as well.

Game Preview

With “The Game” (Mayfield vs Tilghman) in the Purchase Area behind them, the Blue Tornados need to avoid a let down, as Henderson County is a formidable team.  They led South Warren 23-18 at halftime a few weeks ago.  With that said, I look for Tilghman to be too strong for a Colonels team that doesn’t have near the fire power Tilghman has.  I look for Tilghman to be able to move the ball and slow the Colonels down, but not 100%.  My prediction for this game:

Tilghman 42

Henderson Co 14

Good luck to both teams!

[snakesnot_2000]

I think this could be a good matchup. This could be closer than you think. 

[TheBallCoach]

Great write up, enjoyed that read! I’d say 42-14 sounds about right. Toughest test PT will have for the next couple of months and it more than likely won’t even be a competitive game.

[Purple88]

52 minutes ago, snakesnot_2000 said:

I think this could be a good matchup. This could be closer than you think. 

The Henderson v South Warren game was closer than I thought and this could be to.  But I just think since Henderson has to come to Paducah that the travel has to be at least a small factor in the game.

But you could be right.

[BigBlue92]

Great write up!

[TilghmanPride]

@Purple88, I hereby resign doing any more PT game threads, you are  officialy the man when it comes to this. 

I appreciate it so much!

I think this has potential to be closer than expected, Henderson has a really good team. 

The remnants of this tropical Gulf system will potentially be right on top of us the day before and after the game. This could play a big factor the way PT throws the ball. 

Again, amazing write up!

 

[Phoenix Kid]

Should be a good game Henderson is playing well right now and Tilghman is balling as well every single week. I feel as if it could be competitive but PT is gonna win here. 

[zoneblitz24]

If the rain forecast holds true and PT struggles to throw the ball because of it this game could be closer than what most people think.  Upsets happen all the time when the weather gets bad.  The turf field will help but the ball will still be a little slick.

[BargeRunner]

That was an excellent write up. I think Henderson keeps it close for a half, but PT runs away with it in the 2nd half. PT just too much right now...

[theguru]

On 9/7/2024 at 7:57 PM, BigBlue92 said:

Great write up!

22 hours ago, TilghmanPride said:

@Purple88, I hereby resign doing any more PT game threads, you are  officialy the man when it comes to this. 

I appreciate it so much!

I think this has potential to be closer than expected, Henderson has a really good team. 

The remnants of this tropical Gulf system will potentially be right on top of us the day before and after the game. This could play a big factor the way PT throws the ball. 

Again, amazing write up!

 

9 minutes ago, BargeRunner said:

That was an excellent write up. I think Henderson keeps it close for a half, but PT runs away with it in the 2nd half. PT just too much right now...

@Purple88 is the Platinum Standard when it comes to write ups.  Thanks 88.

And everyone, as good as his Kentucky High School Football write ups are, they don't even compare to his Formula 1 writes ups, wowzer!!

 

[TilghmanPride]

I'm still thinking this game could be somewhat closer than expected, especially if Tilghman can't pass the ball as well as usual tonight. 

Henderson standing toe to toe with South Warren a few weeks back shows you they can play. Henderson is super balanced on offense, averaging pretty close in yardage passing and rushing. Defense is the same, they give up yards at nearly the same rate. They've got a couple guys on defense that have 30+ tackles already. 

I expect Tilghman to win at home, but won't be shocked at all if it's not running away. Tilghman's defense to me is just as good as the offense, they've bailed the offense out several times putting them with their back against the wall. 

Maybe the rain keeps at a minimum, we've have pretty good luck so far today and looks like it will be scattered when it does happen. 

[D Wolf]

I think PT really missed RB DJ Wilson last week although the Hintons did a very good job in relief.  I hope he’s healthy tonight, but I’m not sure if he is.  

[snakesnot_2000]

PT has a  good defense.

[KYprep]

I agree the PT defense is vastly underrated, at least to the casual fan. I think they'll contain Henderson's QB and ultimately win going away.

[theguru]