Ashland fell in a close one to Lawrence County on Thursday and sit at a 1-2 record. East Jessamine struggled down the stretch and ultimately lost to Dunbar. 

Ashland should have a significant advantage in this one and could use this game to straighten out what has held them back in their two early season losses to Raceland and Lawrence County. I’m interested to see if they can continue to build on the passing game and not just rely on Cameron Davis to generate their offense with the rush.

East Jessamine sits at 2-1 and riding the legs of Jacob Wright, arm of Bryce Bentley, and several key WRs especially Morton and Cummins. They’re loaded on offense. Bentley is a first year starter but has very good field vision and god arm talent. Tough loss vs Dunbar, who threw their chaos defense at Bentley and you could tell he was slightly uncomfortable as several of his passes were long, the offense left at least 3 TDs on the field at Dunbar. Fields will get that squared away and he should be fine. 

Defense is my concern. Constant overpursuit when they collapse the pocket or penetrate. Too many mental lapses left wide open receivers to a Dunbar QB who, as gently as I can put it because he’s a HS kid, has no business being a QB. East needs to get that squared away, along with over reliance on Wright up the middle on power (although he’s VERY good at that and seeing holes to hit along with being tough to bring down). Morton is strong on sweeps and the WRs do a good job of blocking on the boundaries. Fields will get the ball to his big 3 of Wright, Cummins, and Morton but needs to find a way to motivate the right side of the line to block better. I saw some key breakdowns over there last night. Could just be a bad night. But needs tape looked at and fixed. 53 is solid and wins a ton of his battles, so does 75. Center is good and solid, needs to continue to smooth out his snap consistency in the shotgun. 
 

Ideally, they will go more pistol and FB (sniffer) handoffs for the short yardage situations to save Wright some hits. They’ve done it some and nearly always successful. Naylor (28) is a load to bring down and a better athlete than he looks (looks to be about 5’9 or so and around 250). If he would drop 15 pounds he would be nearly unstoppable. Wish I could be there. Putnam is a special environment. 

On 9/6/2025 at 1:11 PM, se7ens said:

Ashland fell in a close one to Lawrence County on Thursday and sit at a 1-2 record. East Jessamine struggled down the stretch and ultimately lost to Dunbar. 

Ashland should have a significant advantage in this one and could use this game to straighten out what has held them back in their two early season losses to Raceland and Lawrence County. I’m interested to see if they can continue to build on the passing game and not just rely on Cameron Davis to generate their offense with the rush.

I’m curious to what “significant advantages” Ashland has over East Jessamine in your opinion?  While East had a 4 year stretch where they were NOT good at all, since hiring Fields and he has brought in his staff and philosophy there has been a huge improvement from the weight room to the field. 5A school in a talent rich area. 

Ashland is a different program. I believe East Jessamine has definitely turned the corner but the Tomcats play a different style of ball. I expect Ashland to handle this one with ease. 

Ashland: 35

East Jessamine: 7

48 minutes ago, Hard Work said:

Ashland is a different program. I believe East Jessamine has definitely turned the corner but the Tomcats play a different style of ball. I expect Ashland to handle this one with ease. 

Ashland: 35

East Jessamine: 7

That’s a wild prediction. Not to say it can’t happen, but what “different style of ball” are you referring to? It’s literally mostly run game, struggled with Lawrence County and Raceland (who is better than Lawrence County IMO), etc. If you are saying Ashland’s plan is to get on the board first and the run all night to try and keep East’s offense on the sideline, that is possible, but East has good speed and can hit from most anywhere on the field.

Ashland might open a can on East Jessamine. But don’t pretend Ashland plays any “different kind of ball” when it’s a 75% running team this year. Stats back that up too. Looking at Ashland, they’re 22/44 passing (with 12 of this completions against Raceland) for 187 total yards, 62 ypg. 145 rushes for 906 yards. So 189 total plays on offense this year, 145 have been rushes. That’s 77% rush and 23% pass. 

East is 41/68 for 582 yards, that’s 60% completion and 194 ypg with 74 rush for 389 yards, which is 130 ypg rushing. 48% pass and 52% run.   East is very capable of keeping D’s off balance and have some good talent. A young first year QB starter has had some bumps in the road, but literally 3 TDs were left on the field against Dunbar. Don’t scoreboard or logo shop too much, it can lead to rude surprises. 

48 minutes ago, Old606Guy said:

That’s a wild prediction. Not to say it can’t happen, but what “different style of ball” are you referring to? It’s literally mostly run game, struggled with Lawrence County and Raceland (who is better than Lawrence County IMO), etc. If you are saying Ashland’s plan is to get on the board first and the run all night to try and keep East’s offense on the sideline, that is possible, but East has good speed and can hit from most anywhere on the field.

Ashland might open a can on East Jessamine. But don’t pretend Ashland plays any “different kind of ball” when it’s a 75% running team this year. Stats back that up too. Looking at Ashland, they’re 22/44 passing (with 12 of this completions against Raceland) for 187 total yards, 62 ypg. 145 rushes for 906 yards. So 189 total plays on offense this year, 145 have been rushes. That’s 77% rush and 23% pass. 

East is 41/68 for 582 yards, that’s 60% completion and 194 ypg with 74 rush for 389 yards, which is 130 ypg rushing. 48% pass and 52% run.   East is very capable of keeping D’s off balance and have some good talent. A young first year QB starter has had some bumps in the road, but literally 3 TDs were left on the field against Dunbar. Don’t scoreboard or logo shop too much, it can lead to rude surprises. 

Let's be honest I am saying that these are two different programs in totality. Coach Fields is doing an amazing job at East and is turning the program around for the better. Ashland lost to the number 1 team in Class A and a strong Lawrence Co team. I am saying that I believe there is a style of football played in EKY where they are physical and they will lay on you for 4 quarters. I don't know if the Jaguars can with stand that but we will see for sure on Friday. 

17 minutes ago, Hard Work said:

Let's be honest I am saying that these are two different programs in totality. Coach Fields is doing an amazing job at East and is turning the program around for the better. Ashland lost to the number 1 team in Class A and a strong Lawrence Co team. I am saying that I believe there is a style of football played in EKY where they are physical and they will lay on you for 4 quarters. I don't know if the Jaguars can with stand that but we will see for sure on Friday. 

I literally am from EKy as well. And I can tell you I agree that physicality IS different in some programs, but not all. East is surprisingly physical and I think they will be fine. 
 

Two dramatically different styles of play overall in terms of focus (balance vs run) that will be entertaining on Friday I believe. 

Ashland is a top tier program…but….in its current form this is not a top tier Ashland team. It seems their schedule is full of teams with their best group of players in years. This could spell a rough year for Ashland if they can’t find another gear. They are a play or two from being undefeated right now but instead they have two losses. This is going to be a close game, as a Tomcat fan I’m hoping we pull this one out. If not, another team gets a win against a top tier program and the road ahead gets rougher with rival teams salivating and primed to get a win  against a local rival. I’m keeping the faith and going with Ashland 20-14. 

Ashland by a lot but East will fight hard until the end.

3 hours ago, JagNation said:

Ashland by a lot but East will fight hard until the end.

Will just agree to disagree. Nothing at all to suggest a blow out. Is it possible Ashland wins?  Absolutely. Also possible for East to win. 

MyTownTV is live-streaming this game for those interested. 

6-0 after one quarter Ashland leads. Questionable decision to go for it on a long 4th and 1 o the first drive left Ashland just 51 yards to go for the first blood. But East has held up pretty good. Ashland gaining chunks kn the ground on this drive too though so the D needs to stiffen up

Need to make a couple stops and get them behind the sticks. Ground game chewing up chunks

14-0 now and just had a 3 and out. Dangerous zone for East. D needs a stop badly. 

21-0. Poor punt led to great field position for the Tomcats and about 5 plays later running it in. Offense now needs to grind out a score or this gets too tough for the D to hold. Ashland came out with something to prove after last weeks game and they’ve decided they will hang their hat on the run game with a few passes sprinkled in after the box gets loaded. Coach Craig needs to find a way to stop the bleed on D as well