4A Franklin Simpson (3-1) at 4A Paducah Tilghman (3-1)

The Blue Tornado’s host the Wildcats of Franklin Simpson in this season’s first 4A District 1 battle for each team.  First, I got the call from the bullpen from our lead Tornado @TilghmanPride, who is off to the Caribbean to enjoy “the Life of Riley”.  As my mind works, I looked up “the Life of Riley” as I’ve said the phrase for many years and heard it longer than that.  My research told of an actual Irish Catholic farmer named Willy Reilly from Sligo, Ireland in the late 1700s who defied the church and his kind and ran off with a Protestant heiress, who afforded him a well-kept life.  There were ballads written in the early 1800s focused on the story.  It became more common and even popular to say in the US by US soldiers during WWII.  And the rest as they say is history.  Why do I go into all that?

Well, with as much as I respect the old battles, I’ve watched Franklin Simpson have (especially vs BG), the story above is likely more interesting than this game will turn out to be.  I realize that could be construed as mud-slinging, but I honestly feel the loss Tilghman took Thursday Night at Madisonville will refocus their team and they will come out razor sharp in this game.  Additionally, 4A is a very difficult class this season and gaining home field later in the playoffs seems more important this year.  The Tornado’s don’t need more losses to lower their RPI from this point forward.  Hosting Weeks 3 and 4 of the playoffs would be a huge advantage in my eyes for the Tornados!  Onward!

These two teams have played 17 times with Tilghman leading the all-time series 14 to 3.  They first met nearly 70 years ago on September 22, 1955 (20-7 PT).  Franklin Simpson’s first win in the series came back in the Regional Finals on November 11, 1983 (24-6 FS).  The other two Franklin wins were also in the playoffs in 1994 and 1999.  But they haven’t played since the Regional Quarterfinals game in 2004 in a barnburner (25-21 PT).  So, nearly 20 years between games for these two as Franklin Simpson stepped up this year to 4A due to Classification Realignment and I’d say solid growth in the Franklin – Simpson County area. 

Franklin Simpson Wildcats Information – (TP94 Ranking: 63.5)

Coach Max Chaney, in his 6^th season as head coach, will bring his Wildcats roughly 2.5 hours west to the “Quilt Capital of the World” to battle top ranked (in latest BGP 4A poll, which will surely change on Monday) Paducah Tilghman.  The Wildcats fell in the opening game of the season to a solid White’s Creek, TN team (33-42 L) that remains undefeated on the year.  They then defeated 5A Warren Central 49-14 (who has won 2 straight) and then drove all the way to Lexington to rough up 6A Lafayette 35-7.  And last night, hammered “old” rival Russellville (82^nd meeting all time) 49 to 7. 

The Wildcats are led by SR QB Brady Delk who through 3 games (Russellville stats not included) is 8 for 18 for 190 yards and 3 TDs vs 1 INT.  But the Wildcats hang their hat running the ball as they do 85% of the time this season.  Franklin has 3 RBs with at least 20 carries on the year including JR Xavier Hampton (26 carries for 286 yards and 4 TDs), SR Blake McPherson (32 carries for 209 yards and 6 TDs), and JR Ayden Jones (20 carries for 84 yards and 2 TDs).  Defensively, JR Jaxon Gass leads the team with 25 tackles and 2 tackles for loss.  Also, SR Blake McPherson has an impressive 3 INTs on the year in the Wildcat secondary.

Paducah Tilghman Blue Tornado Information – (TP94 Ranking: 77.03)

The defending 4A State Champions come into this game off the wrong end of a 25-22 loss at scrappy Madisonville.  The loss broke an 18-game win streak.  They had not lost a game since a 2023 4A State Semifinals loss at Covington Catholic (14-22) prior to last Thursday.  Tilghman has not lost a home regular season game since falling to Hopkinsville to end the 2022 regular season (26-30).  Tilghman graduated some key players off last season’s championship team, but they seem capable to battle for another championship later this season.  But first things first.  You are not going anywhere without securing your district seeding for Rounds 1 and 2 of the playoffs and that starts right now vs a solid Franklin Simpson squad.

The 2025 Tornado’s are led by SR QB Stone Crowe who has completed 69 of 110 pass attempts for 1,080 yards, 16 TDs vs 5 INTs (does not include Madisonville NH stats).  Two SR RBs have gained the most yards on the ground for Tilghman including Demarkus Wilson (49 carries for 222 yards and 3 TDs) and Mason Copeland (26 carries for 165 yards and 2 TDs).  The receiving corps for Tilghman may be the best in the state with SR Cameron Wade (19 catches for 382 yards and 7 TDs) and SO Avery Thompson (21 catches for 372 yards and 5 TDs).  Oh, both also have an INT on the books for this season as well.  Impressive!

Defensively for Tilghman, there is only 1 senior in the top 6 tacklers on the team.  WOW!  The defense is led by SO LB Harper Shively with 48 tackles on the year.  Coach Sean Thompson, in his 5^th Season off Washington Street, has just done a super job and has his team ready to start District play right here.

Game Information

If this game were in Franklin, I think it would be a “little” closer.  Tilghman is averaging just over 47 points a game.  Wow!  I could see where this score is closer to the Graves County score (49-14).  But in order for Franklin to keep the game closer than that, their Oline needs to create lanes for their RBs to keep moving the chains.  Madisonville was able to keep Tilghman’s offense off the field with multiple long clock-chewing drives.  That is the recipe for Franklin’s success; I just don’t know if they can execute it vs what I expect to be an "EF5" version of this Tornado group.

Also, for Franklin, your battle in my eyes is for 2^nd in the district and earning a home playoff game.  That’s one I think the Wildcats can have success with.  Good luck!

Who wins this game and why? 

Now where else on here are you going to learn about “the life of Riley”? Great write-up as usual. I would like the Wildcats chances a little better if PT hadn’t just lost to Madisonville. I was down on FS after they lost to Whites Creek but WC has whipped everybody else they have played since then and their QB is the best player I have seen FS play against this year. Couple that with the running clock that FS put on Warren Central and the subsequent wins the Dragons have had and I feel much better about FS than I did earlier. With that being said, the Wildcats have an uphill climb facing them this week. If they can hold the ball and limit the number of possessions for PT, and score almost every time they have it, they have a puncher’s chance. Tilghman is very talented but also mistake-prone. If PT wins the line of scrimmage, they will win comfortably. But if FS can hold their own, they might pull it off. The passing game worries me as that is PT’s strength and FS’s weakness. Realistically I think PT wins by about 20 and maybe more, but stranger things have happened. 

This will probably be the best team PT has played since joining this district. That being said FS is not MNH and I don’t think there’s any chance they could win this game. However, I do expect FS to keep it close for a while but PT pulls away and wins by 2 or 3 touchdowns.

I'm eager to see how Tilghman responds after last week's loss. They have the tools to run away with this game, but their collective head has to be right. F-S is good enough to keep it interesting if the Tornado isn't prepared and the Wildcats can stack first downs to play keep-away.

Anyone know if Sanderson for PT is back yet?  I didn’t get to see the Madisonville.  I think he is very good against the run.  But obviously they want to make sure he’s 100% healthy first.  

56 minutes ago, PTown Dad said:

Anyone know if Sanderson for PT is back yet?  I didn’t get to see the Madisonville.  I think he is very good against the run.  But obviously they want to make sure he’s 100% healthy first.  

I think he’s got a couple more weeks, we are pretty bruised up on defense with 3 starters out on the D-line and linebacker area. I think this week will be a bounce back and by the end of the season they should be firing on all cylinders. (Or at least that’s what I’m hoping for) Last weeks game reminded me of the semi finals loss to Cov Cath in 2023 were everything that could go wrong went wrong and lots of dropped balls mixed with penalty’s and turnovers. That game ended up being a big wake up call for them and I’m hoping last weeks will do the same.

Bump.

Live Stream   F-S vs.? 

It sounds like no Jarvis Strickland tonight. I didn’t know that he had an injury.  

PT drives to the FS 40 but comes up short on 4th down. 

FS loses 6 yards in total and punts it. PT will start at their own 30. 

PT drives to the FS 5 but throws incomplete on fourth down. 

FS gets one first down but then punts to the  PT 41. No score with 1:08 in the first. 

58 yard TD run for PT. He was bottled up in the backfield but escaped and went all the way. Tilghman goes for two after an offsides penalty. Dropped snap and the conversion is no good. PT 6-0 at 52 seconds in the first. 

Chance McPike had the PT TD run. Then PT recovers the onside kick at midfield. FS was not prepared for that.