The Colonels and the Royals football teams will face off for the second time in the schools' history this Friday in Park Hills.

Cov Cath is currently on a six-game win streak after losing their first two games this season to 6A Ryle and 5A Highlands. The (6-2) Colonels are 3-0 in 4A District 5, having outscored Holmes, Grant County and Harrison County by a combined score of 166-6. Mason County has their own four-game win streak, with their only loss this season coming back on Friday the 13th (of September) when the Boyd County Lions beat the Royals in a 3-0 heartbreaker. The (7-1) Royals are also 3-0 in 4A District 5, and they've outscored Holmes, Grant Count and Harrison County by a combined 135-6.

Job One on Friday for Mason County: Figure out how to bottle up the one-two rushing attack of RB Dylan Gaiser and QB Cash Harney. Mason County's defense has been stingy this year, only allowing 10 touchdowns and giving up a mere 1016 yards in 8 games for an average of 127 yards per game. While the Royals may only be four spots behind the Colonels in 4A's RPI ratings, have they yet faced an offense with a rushing combination like Gaiser & Harney? And when it isn't one of those two toting the pigskin for Cov Cath, the Colonels always have RB Andrew Bessler, FB Owen Pitzer, WR Oliver Link, WR Donovan Bradshaw, WR Zach Brooks, TE Tate Kruer, and TE Nick Krallman as more than capable alternatives to run or catch the ball, among others.

Job One on Friday for Cov Cath: Get into the Royals' offensive backfield and give QB Teegin Routt a very uncomfortable night. Mason County's rushing game hasn't been bad, averaging 127 yards per game, but their 223 ypg passing game has been where it's at for the Royals offense this season, with senior WR Cole Horch averaging 80+ yards and 1.2 touchdowns receiving per game this season. Garryon McClain, Jamarion Bluford, and Leonard Avery combine to tack on 11 more touchdowns and another 800 yards receiving for Mason County, so the Cov Cath D, with an average 89 receiving yards allowed this seaseon, will definitely be keying in on those fellas in addition to focusing on keeping rushers in Routt's face all night and making it hard for him to find his receivers.


So who do you think comes away as the regular season champs in 4A District 5?

Mason County managed to give Cov Cath an early first quarter pop in the jaw last year in the game between these two, taking the opening drive down to the goal line before being stopped, and then intercepting the Colonels' opening drive and scoring to have an early lead. Then Cov Cath scored 29 unanswered points before Mason County could score their only other touchdown about halfway through the 3Q. The Colonels won 50-14.

In addition to standing out in my mind as one of the worst officiated games I've seen in recent memory, the clock at Mason County also didn't stop running after a single first down in the first half of the game....so that was a scoreboard error and an officiating error, both. Hoping the stripes crew does a much better job this go 'round ? (Frankly, it would be a challenge for them not to do better.)

Colonels name the score. 

35 minutes ago, mcpapa said:

Colonels name the score. 

Maybe so.  The difference in CovCath’s schedule and Mason’s would seem to support mcpapa’s conclusion.  I will say this (and most NKy football people will recall the quality job Joe Wynn did at Newport) Coach Wynn will have the Royals ready to play their best.  CovCath just has a ton of well-coached talent.

Could be an interesting game.  Last year's game got very chippy.  I expect the same this year.  

On 10/22/2024 at 5:50 PM, Oldercoach said:

Maybe so.  The difference in CovCath’s schedule and Mason’s would seem to support mcpapa’s conclusion.  I will say this (and most NKy football people will recall the quality job Joe Wynn did at Newport) Coach Wynn will have the Royals ready to play their best.  CovCath just has a ton of well-coached talent.

Wynn is a Campbell grad, correct? I think he is a solid coach.

11 hours ago, UKato91 said:

Could be an interesting game.  Last year's game got very chippy.  I expect the same this year.  

It was defintely chippy last year - especially in the first three quarters prior to Cov Cath really stepping on the gas and silencing Mason County via the scoreboard. I honestly think a lot of the chippiness was largely on account of the officiating being so poor. There were a lot of no-calls in the game. It was also very noticeable all game long how late the whistles were coming in from the refs...they were always well after tackles had been made or forward progress had been stopped, so the officialls were effectively giving time for 3 and 4 and 5 more defenders to run into the scrum and all get a lick in on the runner. That was happening on both sides of the ball.

The chippiness got to its worst in the 3Q:

1.) Cov Cath had been given a sideline warning late in the 2Q, then Mason County's head coach had spent most of the 3Q out past the numbers chirping without any acknowlegement from the officials.

2.) There was a really bad miss on what was a very obvious Mason County fumble that was recovered by Cov Cath. The kickoff returner was 2 or 3 yards from the sideline when he fumbled. None of the officials were within 20 yards of the ball carrier, and the nearest two stripes to the play had about a half dozen players, each, between themselves and the play when it happened. The play was whistled dead, and after the officials got together, they decided to call the runner out of bounds prior to the fumble. It was ridiculous. (VIDEO)

3.) The refs failed to call a late hit when Mason County had a defender continue push Cov Cath TE Willie Rodriguez well out of bounds (2+ yards) on the Cov Cath sideline to end a play. No whistle had been blown yet, so then another Royal came running in and gave Willie a shot 3 yards deep into his own sideline. Wille turned around and had "something to say" to player who hit him out of bounds....officials flagged Willie, but nothing was called on Mason County. (VIDEO)

Colonels big!

12 hours ago, UKato91 said:

Could be an interesting game.  Last year's game got very chippy.  I expect the same this year.  

5 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

It was defintely chippy last year - especially in the first three quarters prior to Cov Cath really stepping on the gas and silencing Mason County via the scoreboard. I honestly think a lot of the chippiness was largely on account of the officiating being so poor. There were a lot of no-calls in the game. It was also very noticeable all game long how late the whistles were coming in from the refs...they were always well after tackles had been made or forward progress had been stopped, so the officialls were effectively giving time for 3 and 4 and 5 more defenders to run into the scrum and all get a lick in on the runner. That was happening on both sides of the ball.

The chippiness got to its worst in the 3Q:

1.) Cov Cath had been given a sideline warning late in the 2Q, then Mason County's head coach had spent most of the 3Q out past the numbers chirping without any acknowlegement from the officials.

2.) There was a really bad miss on what was a very obvious Mason County fumble that was recovered by Cov Cath. The kickoff returner was 2 or 3 yards from the sideline when he fumbled. None of the officials were within 20 yards of the ball carrier, and the nearest two stripes to the play had about a half dozen players, each, between themselves and the play when it happened. The play was whistled dead, and after the officials got together, they decided to call the runner out of bounds prior to the fumble. It was ridiculous. (VIDEO)

3.) The refs failed to call a late hit when Mason County had a defender continue push Cov Cath TE Willie Rodriguez well out of bounds (2+ yards) on the Cov Cath sideline to end a play. No whistle had been blown yet, so then another Royal came running in and gave Willie a shot 3 yards deep into his own sideline. Wille turned around and had "something to say" to player who hit him out of bounds....officials flagged Willie, but nothing was called on Mason County. (VIDEO)

Yeesh....just thinking back through how everyrthing went with the officiating in last year's game got *me* feeling kinda chippy, lol.

On 10/22/2024 at 5:11 PM, mcpapa said:

Colonels name the score. 

Especially with Mason not getting all that home cooking this time around that held CC to a mere 50 points. 

6 hours ago, mcpapa said:

Especially with Mason not getting all that home cooking this time around that held CC to a mere 50 points. 

Honestly as I remember it, the only call that had a potential change in the score was really just the fumble that was called back. That would have been a turnover to give Cov Cath the ball in the red zone. But otherwise I don't think anything directly impacted the outcome of the game so much as I felt like it was making the game less safe and lending to the players getting a little more stroppy with each other.

5 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Honestly as I remember it, the only call that had a potential change in the score was really just the fumble that was called back. That would have been a turnover to give Cov Cath the ball in the red zone. But otherwise I don't think anything directly impacted the outcome of the game so much as I felt like it was making the game less safe and lending to the players getting a little more stroppy with each other.

 

On 10/22/2024 at 4:13 PM, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

The Colonels and the Royals football teams will face off for the second time in the schools' history this Friday in Park Hills.

Cov Cath is currently on a six-game win streak after losing their first two games this season to 6A Ryle and 5A Highlands. The (6-2) Colonels are 3-0 in 4A District 5, having outscored Holmes, Grant County and Harrison County by a combined score of 166-6. Mason County has their own four-game win streak, with their only loss this season coming back on Friday the 13th (of September) when the Boyd County Lions beat the Royals in a 3-0 heartbreaker. The (7-1) Royals are also 3-0 in 4A District 5, and they've outscored Holmes, Grant Count and Harrison County by a combined 135-6.

Job One on Friday for Mason County: Figure out how to bottle up the one-two rushing attack of RB Dylan Gaiser and QB Cash Harney. Mason County's defense has been stingy this year, only allowing 10 touchdowns and giving up a mere 1016 yards in 8 games for an average of 127 yards per game. While the Royals may only be four spots behind the Colonels in 4A's RPI ratings, have they yet faced an offense with a rushing combination like Gaiser & Harney? And when it isn't one of those two toting the pigskin for Cov Cath, the Colonels always have RB Andrew Bessler, FB Owen Pitzer, WR Oliver Link, WR Donovan Bradshaw, WR Zach Brooks, TE Tate Kruer, and TE Nick Krallman as more than capable alternatives to run or catch the ball, among others.

Job One on Friday for Cov Cath: Get into the Royals' offensive backfield and give QB Teegin Routt a very uncomfortable night. Mason County's rushing game hasn't been bad, averaging 127 yards per game, but their 223 ypg passing game has been where it's at for the Royals offense this season, with senior WR Cole Horch averaging 80+ yards and 1.2 touchdowns receiving per game this season. Garryon McClain, Jamarion Bluford, and Leonard Avery combine to tack on 11 more touchdowns and another 800 yards receiving for Mason County, so the Cov Cath D, with an average 89 receiving yards allowed this seaseon, will definitely be keying in on those fellas in addition to focusing on keeping rushers in Routt's face all night and making it hard for him to find his receivers.


So who do you think comes away as the regular season champs in 4A District 5?

Will we see Dylan Gaiser and Cash Harney reach 1000 rushing yards?  They are so close. 

3 hours ago, Momofboyz said:

Will we see Dylan Gaiser and Cash Harney reach 1000 rushing yards?  They are so close. 

My gut says it's not likely to happen tomorrow night, and more likely will next Friday against Campbell County. Harney would have to basically tie or beat his season high for rushing in a game to hit 1000 yards this week. And although Gaiser has had two 200+ yard games rushing, I think it's more than likely that the Colonels will have the win in-hand before we see him getting near the 183 yards he needs to hit 1000 yards...and I just don't see the coaches keeping him in long enough this week for that.

Honestly our district schedule has probably decreased the yards that Harney and Gaiser have had this season compared to what they could have had against more stout district opponents. Our scoring drives in the district games have oftentimes been less than 50 yards, start to finish. And we've been starting to sub in backups well before the half in the Holmes, Grant County and Harrison County games. Like if you subtract the Holmes game alone - where Harney had 14 yards rushing and Gaiser had 19 yards rushing - that game alone lowered both of their per-game rushing averages significantly. Harney's dropped by almost 13 yards per game, and Gaiser's dropped by just over 12 yards per game just because we were steamrolling Holmes and subbing in for starters so early.
 

	Games Played	Rush Attempts	Yards Rushing	Avg Yards Per Carry	Avg Yards Per Game	Low Game Yards Rushing	High Game Yards Rushing
Cash Harney	8	69	828	12.00	103.50	14	173
Dylan Gaiser	8	80	817	10.21	102.13	19	241
Andrew Bessler	7	17	148	8.71	21.14	0	70

I do think we can probably expect to see Gaiser roll over his 100th career point tomorrow night. He only needs one more touchdown to do that.
 

	Bessler, Andrew				Gaiser, Dylan				Harney, Cash				Link, Oliver				Pitzer, Owen				Urti, Ryan				Weitzel, Andrew
	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt	TD	FG	PAT	2-pt
2022	0	0	0	0									2	0	0	0									0	1	38	0
2023	6	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	4	0	0	0									0	2	71	0
2024	5	0	0	0	11	0	0	0	13	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	4	0	0	1	0	0	32	1	0	0	4	0
TOTALS	11	0	0	0	16	0	0	0	16	0	0	1	8	0	0	0	4	0	0	1	0	0	32	1	0	3	113	0
POINTS	66				96				100				48				26				34				122

I’m thinking Mason brings some fight in this one. If they can move the ball on the ground, there won’t be a lot of possessions for either team.