Raceland at Highlands Predictions/Updates

[FrankNicodemus]

Well I wake up today stunned that my Birds lost last night BUT as Coach Belichick so eloquently said "We onto Raceland"!

Raceland loads up the buses to take the 2 hour drive north to Fort Thomas to take on the Birds for the 3rd straight year.  In 2022 the game was somewhat close 24-14 Birds win but last year it was total domination with the Birds running the clock on the Rams with a 40-0 score down at Raceland.

The Birds need to wake up in the OC room and do better in regards to play calling, WHY turn your head on your strength of RUNNING??  It bewilders me that you take the ball out of the hands of Jack White running behind such a huge strength of yours the OLINE. 

I wish I could say that the Birds will run run run all over the Rams but after last night, your guess is as good as mine.

The nice part of this week is the Birds get to stay at home finally after going on the road for the last 3 weeks.

I really hope the Birds can clean up their issues because after this week, guess whose coming to town, that's right COOPER!

I get that Raceland is a Top tier team in 1A and Highlands has some things to work the kinks out of but I see this once again being a lopsided win for the Birds.

@TCR - what you got for us on the Rams side of the coin??  After going toe to toe with Pikeville last night you have to be feeling good, even with the loss.

Gametime:  7:30PM

I am sure you can catch the game livestreaming on Highlands Broadcasting channel or bluebirdsradio.com with @Brennan_Bucher, but he can confirm.

 

[StraightShooter]

Running clock. Highlands will be 9-1 or 8-2 for the regular season. I only see Cooper as a battle royale. Many running clocks the rest of the regular season for the Birds. 

[FrankNicodemus]

3 minutes ago, StraightShooter said:

Running clock. Highlands will be 9-1 or 8-2 for the regular season. I only see Cooper as a battle royale. Many running clocks the rest of the regular season for the Birds. 

Totally agree, I think Highlands biggest opponent (other than Cooper next week) will be themselves. 

[Ram]

I doubt this is the year Raceland gets a win over Highlands. Raceland’s defense is ahead of its offense. I think Raceland’s defense will be respectable against Highlands, even though they do give up the big play. But the real bad thing for the Rams, they have trouble moving the ball.  The Rams won’t win too many high scoring games this year, they will have to lean on their defense and put a few scores on the board. 

[TCR]

12 hours ago, FrankNicodemus said:

Well I wake up today stunned that my Birds lost last night BUT as Coach Belichick so eloquently said "We onto Raceland"!

Raceland loads up the buses to take the 2 hour drive north to Fort Thomas to take on the Birds for the 3rd straight year.  In 2022 the game was somewhat close 24-14 Birds win but last year it was total domination with the Birds running the clock on the Rams with a 40-0 score down at Raceland.

The Birds need to wake up in the OC room and do better in regards to play calling, WHY turn your head on your strength of RUNNING??  It bewilders me that you take the ball out of the hands of Jack White running behind such a huge strength of yours the OLINE. 

I wish I could say that the Birds will run run run all over the Rams but after last night, your guess is as good as mine.

The nice part of this week is the Birds get to stay at home finally after going on the road for the last 3 weeks.

I really hope the Birds can clean up their issues because after this week, guess whose coming to town, that's right COOPER!

I get that Raceland is a Top tier team in 1A and Highlands has some things to work the kinks out of but I see this once again being a lopsided win for the Birds.

@TCR - what you got for us on the Rams side of the coin??  After going toe to toe with Pikeville last night you have to be feeling good, even with the loss.

Gametime:  7:30PM

I am sure you can catch the game livestreaming on Highlands Broadcasting channel or bluebirdsradio.com with @Brennan_Bucher, but he can confirm.

 

This is a Raceland team that relies heavily on the power running game that has been primarily anchored by sophomore Landen Stiltner and junior Parker Ison. The defense is improving but it is always a challenge trying to integrate several sophomore players, especially early in the season. Raceland lost possibly the most talented senior class to ever come through the school last year but you can expect they will still have plenty of talent on the field. I do think, as you mentioned @FrankNicodemus, Raceland fans are feeling good after this Pikeville loss. I personally think Raceland figured out more in the passing game and made substantial growth in that area against the defending 1A state champion. As talented as they are, this will be a big challenge for the Rams. Even with the senior class that reached two consecutive state finals, Highlands was still able to travel to Raceland and pick up a 40-0 win last year.

One thing to understand about Raceland and I can say this from experience many times. This is a community that thrives on being the underdog and this is across all sports. In fact this week I called a volleyball game Raceland played on the road against Greenup County, who some have ranked as the top team in the 16th region. A 5-9 Raceland team that returned few players from last season came in and scrapped to pull a major upset against Greenup County in five sets. I expect we will see this same gritty mentality from their football team.

A historical reference from Highlands' 2008 season will illustrate how I feel about this one. In 2008 Highlands had a dominating 14-1 team that won the state title but had teams with two completely different mentalities on the field in the first two games of the playoffs. The first, came in against a 5-5 Lexington Bryan Station that was prepared and expecting to win. Highlands happened to be caught off guard with Bryan Station nearly pulling out what would have been a massive upset, but Highlands came through in the final seconds with a touchdown to win. The next round against Ashland, they came in heavily focused determined not to be caught off guard again and won 53-6.

I say this because it connects to this game in a way. Highlands has Cooper coming up and I'm sure will be eager to get revenge on the team that ended their season in the state semifinals. With Raceland not being a big rival, this is the type of game that could be a trap for them. Mentioning the 2008 Highlands team's mentality, we could possibly see the team that came in against Bryan Station that could potentially overlook Raceland or we could see Highlands make some nice adjustments after that loss to Ryle this week and come in with the mentality that the 2008 had in their win against Ashland.

All this being said, this Highlands team has lofty expectations and I am sure will be looking to take out their frustrations from the Ryle game on Raceland. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Bob Sphire has accomplished from his time at Lexington Catholic, to his years at North Gwinnett in Georgia. Now he has Highlands trying to bust the doors down and win the state championship for the first time since 2014. It will be a great experience for both teams as they look to improve and make a deep playoff run in their respective classes.  

[9068]

A really good 5a against a really good 1a..... should be a piece of cake (how about that one?). Just a thought.....if you run 70 plays on offense, run it 69 times. One pass to the end zone right before half time is enough.

[Oldercoach]

Love the Rams program, fans, and tradition.  Have no clue why Highlands would schedule any 1A team.  RPI killer to schedule down 4 levels, even with a lop-sided victory.  All risk with minimal reward for the Birds.  On the other hand, the reward for the Rams is huge if they can escape with a W.  Go Rams…..going to be tough.

[theguru]

I have mad respect for Raceland playing games like this but I like the Birds with a second half running clock. 

[Bac2369]

Raceland needs to get out of this game injury free. Because they will make a second trip back to Northern Kentucky next week against the Breds for a 1A showdown. 

[Brennan_Bucher]

Live broadcast of this game will be on https://www.youtube.com/@HHSFilmAndBroadcast . No radio broadcast this week. 

[Carlito]

This will be an interesting game, but the Rams will be outmanned in this one. Birds take this one.

[theguru]

Just now, Carlito said:

This will be an interesting game, but the Rams will be outmanned in this one. Birds take this one.

I don't think it will be interesting at all.  I think the Birds will roll. 

[theguru]

Bump.

[mcpapa]

On 9/14/2024 at 8:10 PM, TCR said:

This is a Raceland team that relies heavily on the power running game that has been primarily anchored by sophomore Landen Stiltner and junior Parker Ison. The defense is improving but it is always a challenge trying to integrate several sophomore players, especially early in the season. Raceland lost possibly the most talented senior class to ever come through the school last year but you can expect they will still have plenty of talent on the field. I do think, as you mentioned @FrankNicodemus, Raceland fans are feeling good after this Pikeville loss. I personally think Raceland figured out more in the passing game and made substantial growth in that area against the defending 1A state champion. As talented as they are, this will be a big challenge for the Rams. Even with the senior class that reached two consecutive state finals, Highlands was still able to travel to Raceland and pick up a 40-0 win last year.

One thing to understand about Raceland and I can say this from experience many times. This is a community that thrives on being the underdog and this is across all sports. In fact this week I called a volleyball game Raceland played on the road against Greenup County, who some have ranked as the top team in the 16th region. A 5-9 Raceland team that returned few players from last season came in and scrapped to pull a major upset against Greenup County in five sets. I expect we will see this same gritty mentality from their football team.

A historical reference from Highlands' 2008 season will illustrate how I feel about this one. In 2008 Highlands had a dominating 14-1 team that won the state title but had teams with two completely different mentalities on the field in the first two games of the playoffs. The first, came in against a 5-5 Lexington Bryan Station that was prepared and expecting to win. Highlands happened to be caught off guard with Bryan Station nearly pulling out what would have been a massive upset, but Highlands came through in the final seconds with a touchdown to win. The next round against Ashland, they came in heavily focused determined not to be caught off guard again and won 53-6.

I say this because it connects to this game in a way. Highlands has Cooper coming up and I'm sure will be eager to get revenge on the team that ended their season in the state semifinals. With Raceland not being a big rival, this is the type of game that could be a trap for them. Mentioning the 2008 Highlands team's mentality, we could possibly see the team that came in against Bryan Station that could potentially overlook Raceland or we could see Highlands make some nice adjustments after that loss to Ryle this week and come in with the mentality that the 2008 had in their win against Ashland.

All this being said, this Highlands team has lofty expectations and I am sure will be looking to take out their frustrations from the Ryle game on Raceland. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Bob Sphire has accomplished from his time at Lexington Catholic, to his years at North Gwinnett in Georgia. Now he has Highlands trying to bust the doors down and win the state championship for the first time since 2014. It will be a great experience for both teams as they look to improve and make a deep playoff run in their respective classes.  

Appreciate the info and the history.   What you’re saying is that this is a trap game.  Much like Georgia at Kentucky last Saturday. 
 

That being said, this probably won’t be close.  With apologies to long-time friend @Ram41-10 Birds. 

[QBH]

Are we going to see another celebration before the end zone this week? There should’ve been a unsportsmanlike penalty for that taunting ! it would be a shame that an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty would keep them from winning a game. With as many coaches that they have someone should have said something or maybe they did. Act like you’ve been there before.