After two home games and one trip to nearby Stanford, Garrard County will play their first official road game of the 2009 season on Friday night when they travel to Irvine to face the Engineers of Estill County. This renews a series that has been played off-and-on for over thirty years, but has not seen a matchup since 2002.

 

Garrard County will look to shake off a tough 14-13 home loss from this past weekend to West Jessamine. The Colts were able to hold Garrard in check for nearly all of the game before the Lions punched a score across late. A missed PAT kept it from going into overtime. After a fantastic season last year saw Estill County finish 11-2 and regional runner-up, the Engineers appear to be rebuilding this season. Estill has scored only 13 points in two games, while allowing an average of 52 points per game.

 

These two programs share one common opponent so far this season in Rowan County. The Lions defeated Rowan 41-35 on August 28, and Rowan returned to defeat Estill 63-7 the following weekend. Both schools will also play Somerset this season. And realistically there is a good chance that these two schools could face each other in the playoffs, as Garrard is in District 5 and Estill County is in District 6.

 

Garrard County struggled to adjust on offense against a stout West Jessamine defense on Friday night. The Lions defense, however, has made tremendous improvements from week to week so far this year. Estill County seems to be struggling on both sides of that ball, although the Engineers run a double-wing backfield that can be difficult to stop. Should be a good game in Irvine on Friday night.

 

Historical Preview

*This marks the 9th meeting between the schools

*Garrard County leads the all-time series 7-1

*The last meeting between the schools was a 47-0 Garrard win in 2002

*This will be the 5th matchup in Irvine, a place Garrard County has never lost

*Garrard won the last game in Irvine, 50-20 in 2001

*Prior to consolidation, Garrard County played Irvine High School three times, winning twice and tying once. The first game in Garrard County history was a 6-6 tie with Irvine in 1964

 

Series Scores

1975 - Garrard County 26, @Estill County 6

1976 - Estill County 6, @Garrard County 0 (OT)

1977 - Garrard County 46, @Estill County 6

1978 - @Garrard County 28, Estill County 0

1993 - @Garrard County 33, Estill County 0

1994 - Garrard County 29, @Estill County 7

2001 - Garrard County 50, @Estill County 20

2002 - @Garrard County 47, Estill County 0

I'll take a young Garrard team to get the win and improve to 2-2 on the season.

By as many as Garrard wants

Garrard big..

GC will win by at least 3 TD's.

Garrard County 48-7.

Cantrell rates the Golden Lions as an 8 point favorite:lol:

Garrard will name the score in this one.

Garrard Co. 35-14.

Tyler Ray and Fred Hays score 2 TDs each for the Lions.

Garrard Co. has too much speed for Estill Co.