Game Day:  Saturday, Oct 25th

Game Time:  2PM

Highlands (Region 9 Champ)

Record:  13-9-2

How did they get here?  They won against the Region 12 Champ (was undefeated) Boyle County by the score of 2-1

Johnson Central (Region 15 Champ)

Record:  21-2-0

How did they get here?  They won against the Region 14 Champ Estill County by the score of 9-1

Frank's Pick:  Highlands, of course!!!

I think that this game has the potential to be a blowout win for Highlands.

20 minutes ago, addout said:

I think that this game has the potential to be a blowout win for Highlands.

I absolutely see why you would think that with the common opponent of Boyle County:

Boyle Co beat JC 9-0 on Sept 14th

Highlands beat Boyle Co 2-1 on Oct 21st

A lot of things might have changed for JC since that Sept 14th mercy ruled game with BC who knows.......

Once again, I don't know the solution around fixing the RPI but the current RPI for these 2 teams:

Johnson Central = .66696

Highlands = .52333

 

2 minutes ago, FrankNicodemus said:

I absolutely see why you would think that with the common opponent of Boyle County:

Boyle Co beat JC 9-0 on Sept 14th

Highlands beat Boyle Co 2-1 on Oct 21st

A lot of things might have changed for JC since that Sept 14th mercy ruled game with BC who knows.......

Central plays too many local teams and their strength of schedule is the basis of my prediction.

Just now, addout said:

Central plays too many local teams and their strength of schedule is the basis of my prediction.

Totally agree, also if you follow the bread crumbs where JC lost to Martin County and Martin County lost to Owensboro Catholic....  Then look at OC's schedule and results who is a team that actually played some decent competition....  I know that's a rabbit hole I went down BUT I DID!!!

Added notes:

Interesting data on Highlands record which on the surface isn't the prettiest 13-9-2  Let's dig into those numbers a little.  If you remove the Out of State competition the record is revised to 12-4-2, which is a little more visibly appealing.  Let's then breakdown the 4 (KY opponent) losses on Highlands resume:

Bishop Brossart (Region 10 Champ): Lost 3-1, 1st game of the season on Aug 11th

Sacred Heart (Region 7 Champ): Lost 3-0 on Aug 25th

Notre Dame (Region 9 Runner-up): Lost 1-0 on Sep 13th

Campbell County (Region 10 Runner-up): Lost 3-1 on Sep 15th

My point is there really wasn't a "bad" loss to a Ky opponent all year.  I say it all the time, you either win or you learn....We are seeing that the Birds learned a lot!  Keep on flying!!!

Highlands leads JC 1-0 at the half!

Reese Wilkens with the 1st half goal from deep

Wow, I step away for 10 minutes and all heck breaks loose!

Birds have pounced on JC in the 2nd half

Score is now 4-0

29 minutes left

Birds owned possession in the 1st and peppered the goal with shots but just couldn't get a few to go only scoring 1.

Not the case in the 2nd half apparently...

20 minutes to go

Still 4-0

5-0, Birds with Maddy Lickert heading in a corner

3:42 left in the game

Birds get a PK due to a hand ball infraction in the box.

Manning takes the PK, it gets blocked but Manning is able to put it back into the back of the net

Birds up 6-0

1:11 minute left

Highlands wins 6-0!

Final Four bound for the first time since 2019

Up next they will see the winner of Central Hardin vs Daviess County (who play tonight)