Class 1A
1. Pikeville
2. Raceland
3. Campbellsville
4. Kentucky Country Day 

Class 2A
1. Beechwood 
2. Lexington Christian Academy 
3. Owensboro Catholic
4. Mayfield 
5. Belfry 

Class 3A
1. Christian Academy-Louisville
2. Lexington Catholic
3. Bell County

Class 4A
1. Boyle County
2. Highlands
3. Covington Catholic
4. Johnson Central
5. Franklin County
6. Paducah Tilghman

Class 5A
1. Woodford County
2. Owensboro
3. Bowling Green
4. Cooper

Class 6A
1. Trinity 
2. South Warren 
3. Saint Xavier 

For a third straight year, it will be the Birds hosting the Colonels for the championship game of the NKY Freshman Football Conference. Covington Catholic's football program (the younger of the two programs) is currently in it's 60th season, and this will make the sixth time overall that these two programs have faced off against one another for the conference title, with Highlands getting the dub in all five previous title meetings.

The two teams played in Park Hills nine weeks ago in the season opener for both programs, with Highlands winning the game 34-14. Since the August 27th contest, both teams have gone on to win the following 8 games. Highlands' most notable win following the opening week of the season came on September 11th when they beat the Elder Panthers 42-8, and Cov Cath's most notable win came on October 15th when they beat the Trinity Shamrocks 28-13.

Kickoff for the championship game is currently scheduled for 6:30pm on Wednesday at David Cecil Memorial Stadium.

Week 10

Jacob Savage (RB/LB, Ryle)
Evan Hampton (RB, Owensboro)
Kain Patton (ATH, Prestonsburg)
Keagan Maher (RB, Cooper)
Kaleb Evans (QB, Lloyd Memorial)
Markezz Hightower (RB, Madisonville-North Hopkins)
Mason Griffin (QB, South Laurel)
Landon Yoak (RB/LB, East Carter)
Cam Davis (ATH, Ashland)

‼️Milestones‼️
Cam O'Hara (QB, Cooper)
🗞️ | First, the school record book fell by the wayside. Now it's the NKY edition, one that's noticeably thicker. O'Hara is now the region's all-time leader in career passing yards, aside from the touchdown pass standard he's already set. The Lorenzen’s, Towles’, Hergott’s, and Morgan's of the world are now all in his rearview. He's also this week's recipient of the 'William Tell Marksmanship Award' 🎯 after completing a perfect 10/10 attempts against Boone County. And I'm certain that's what he was really after this week.
Season so far: 88/154 (60%) for 1,380 yards and 13 touchdowns with 5 interceptions 

Trending Up 📈
Maddox O'Neal (QB, McCracken County)
🗞️ | After receiving an honorable mention in the pre-season watchlist, O'Neal faded from view following an inauspicious start by player and team. As poor as the front half of the regular season was, the back half has been 🔥. He's averaging 264 yards per game with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 21/0 over his last five. O'Neal became McCracken's all-time leader in career yards and touchdown passes last week against Henderson County.
Season so far: 144/228 (63%) for 1,892 yards and 26 touchdowns with 5 interceptions | 2 rushing touchdowns 

Top 25

Trinity 103.9
Christian Academy - Lou. 90.38
St. Xavier 89.17
South Warren 88.14
Manual 83.4
Covington Catholic 80.6
Highlands 80.1
Woodford County 78.74
Boyle County 78.35
Frederick Douglass 76.81
Ryle 75.94
Paducah Tilghman 75.82
Johnson Central 74.02
Scott County 71.68
Pulaski County 71.11
Beechwood 71.04
Owensboro 70.98
Madison Central 70.53
Cooper 68.86
Mayfield 68.2
Bowling Green 67.6
Belfry 67.27
Male 66.01
Owensboro Catholic 65.78
Corbin 65.51

KCD will travel to Campbellsville with a District Title on the line… Campbellsville enters the game with a 7-1 record (#3 RPI) and KCD enters with a 8-0 record (#1 RPI)… Both teams possess high octane offenses and physical defenses…  This will be a Great Game… Who gets the Win???

The District Championship is on the line this week as the #1 Pikeville Panthers make the trip to take on the #6 Hazard Bulldogs. Pikeville is looking to win its 10th straight District Championship and #1 seed of the District for the playoffs. Hazard is looking to gets its first District Championship win since 2017. Hazard won the game in 2017 at home 38-26. The last win though against Pikeville came in the playoffs in 2020 in an upset 21-12. 

Pikeville comes into this 2025 matchup averaging 28 points per game and giving up 20 points per game. Hazard comes in averaging 33 points per game and giving up right at 23 points per game. These teams are very close in numbers. Who wins the district?

Does Pikeville make it 10 in a row? Does Hazard shock 1A knocking off the #1 Panthers?

Welcome to Homecoming week at Highlands High School!

The alumni will be flowing in to watch this regular season finale with 5A power Scott County traveling up I-75 to meet up with one of the Top teams in 4A.

Game time: 7:30pm

Scott County (7-2) has had a pretty good season with their blemishes by 6A Madison Central in the middle of season and just lost a heartbreaker last night against the Top 5A team Woodford County.  Looking at all the statistical season info they might as well be called the Young Guns.  I don’t see any Senior in any category!  The starting QB is a Sophomore (Charlie Ellison), his main role this year has been to hand the ball off and allow your RBs to run!!! The current split has been 915 yds passing vs 2700 yds rushing for the season. I’m assuming they still run that crazy offense that we saw when they played us in 2022 with the double back set with backs going in different directions to really mess with the camera man.  Let’s see how that fairs this time around. Camera crew better be on their toes.

Highlands (7-2) will be coming in with the same record with only blemishes at Boyle and at Elder this season.  They rebounded nicely after the Elder loss by putting a running clock on Mason County.  The key to this game is to stop the run of course.  

Scott County does come in with a nice 5 game win streak against the Birds, albeit 4 of those were during the Weinrich tenure and the 2022 playoff game loss the only Sphire era loss, while they were 5A foe’s.

Should be a perfect fall weather night for a Friday Nights game in the mid 50s and dry!

Who you got?

I’m having Highlands staying perfect at home with a bit of a grind out win for the Birds:  

24-14

GO BIRDS!!!

Class 1A
1. Pikeville
2. Raceland
3. Kentucky Country Day 
4. Campbellsville
5. Sayre

Class 2A
1. Beechwood 
2. Lexington Christian Academy
3. Owensboro Catholic 
4. Mayfield 
5. Belfry 

Class 3A
1. Christian Academy-Louisville
2. Lexington Catholic
3. Bell County

Class 4A
1. Boyle County
2. Highlands
3. Covington Catholic
4. Johnson Central
5. Franklin County
6. Paducah Tilghman

Class 5A
1. Woodford County
2. Owensboro
3. Bowling Green
4. Cooper
5. Scott County
6. Pulaski County
7. Atherton 

Class 6A
1. Trinity 
2. South Warren 
3. Saint Xavier 
4. Manual 
5. Frederick Douglass

Week 9

Jacob Savage (RB/LB, Ryle)
Colin Daniels (QB, North Oldham)
Keagan Maher (RB, Cooper)
Evan Hampton (RB, Owensboro)
Cavalli Pittman (RB, John Hardin)
Brady Wasik (QB, Lexington Catholic)
Marlon Harbin III (ATH, Saint Xavier)
Kain Patton (ATH, Prestonsburg)

‼️Milestones‼️
Markezz Hightower (RB, Madisonville-North Hopkins)
🗞️ | The upset loss to Apollo overshadowed his landmark night, but Hightower’s 222 rushing yards moved him past 5,000 for his career. He also scored four touchdowns, though it was all in vain as M-NH’s pursuit of an unbeaten season was cut short.
Season so far: 156 carries for 1,328 yards and 22 touchdowns | 116 receiving yards

The ratings use Avg. margin of victory/loss applied to strength of schedule played. There is a cap to margin of 35 pts to keep teams' having an inflated rating from running up the score. Out of state opponents are not counted in the ratings. These are posted on Wednesdays.

Top 25 (10/15)

Trinity 103.92
Christian Academy - Lou. 90.69
St. Xavier 90.09
South Warren 87.45
Manual 82.98
Covington Catholic 80.69
Highlands 80.15
Boyle County 78.09
Woodford County 77.84
Frederick Douglass 76.74
Ryle 76.53
Paducah Tilghman 76.34
Johnson Central 74.19
Scott County 71.95
Beechwood 71.44
Owensboro 70.75
Bowling Green 69.73
Madison Central 68.85
Cooper 68.84
Mayfield 68.22
Belfry 68.03
Pulaski County 67.58
Male 65.84
Owensboro Catholic 65.8
Madisonville N. Hopkins 65.59

Lexington Catholic is coming off of 2 blowout wins and has another chance at a large margin of victory in this one. Bardstown blew out Mercer like Catholic did, but lost in a thriller to Garrard County, a squad Lexington Catholic shutout and hung 38 points on.

It has been fun to watch this Knight offense rack up the points. Expect that again here. That finale against Ashland looms in the distance as the next significant challenge to their offense. That doesn't mean that Bardstown can't hang for a while in this one, but I don't see them containing the Knights for four quarters.

Bellevue takes a long trip across the street to face their district foes. In his third year as the Tigers' head coach, Chad Montgomery has continued to breathe new life into the Bellevue football program. After a four year skid that only managed 3 wins for the program, Montgomery returned to coach at his alma mater in 2023 and immediately produced a 3-win season, followed by a 5-win season in 2024, and Bellevue is currently sitting on a 5-2 record this year. The Tigers are currently 1-0 in 1A District 3 after beating the Dayton Greendevile 18-0 last Friday in their annual Battle For The Paddle.

A few hundred yards to the west on the other side of I-471, Coach Paul Wiggins is currently in his sophomore season as head coach at Newport. This year his Wildcats team currently holds a 3-4 season record and a 0-1 record in 1A District 3 after their 26-6 loss to Newport Central Catholic last Friday in their annual battle for the Newport Fireman's Bell.

The two teams have played one common opponent thus far this season in the 1A Ludlow Panthers. Newport thumped the Panthers 47-7 back in Week 1 of the season, while Bellevue pulled out a 12-7 win over Ludlow in Week 6.

Who takes home the win on Friday? Kickoff is currently scheduled for 7pm at Newport Stadium.

The 7-1 Cardinals are traveling to Versailles to play the 6-1 Yellow Jackets.

The series with the new district is split through two seasons. A couple years ago the Cardinals blitzed on the road winning 36-0 to take the district. Last year, Woodford got their revenge on a game winning field to take the district.

This game has MASSIVE implications for November. Whoever wins will secure home field for at least two rounds of the playoffs, and the RPI boost won’t hurt either.

The question for Woodford will be how to contain Junior Timmy Emongo. Timmy had four touchdowns in only 7 or 8 touches last night as the Cardinals only ran 26 total plays on offense in their 49-21 win over South Oldham.

Scott County will have to figure out how to slow down the air attack by Woodford. Two years ago they dominated, but last years performance was anything but. Luckily, the strength of Scott County’s defense is the secondary which is led by JuJu Harmon, and of course, Timmy Emongo.

This is a top 15 matchup in the state and possibly the #1 vs #2 in 5A. Does Scott County take the district for the second time in three seasons? Or does Woodford claim their second district title in a row?

Week 8

Cash Harney (QB, Covington Catholic)
Cam Davis (ATH, Ashland)
Jacob Savage (RB/LB, Ryle)
Brady Wasik (QB, Lexington Catholic)
Marlon Harbin III (ATH, Saint Xavier)
Kain Patton (ATH, Prestonsburg)
Mason Griffin (QB, South Laurel)

‼️Milestones‼️
Colin Daniels (QB, North Oldham)
🗞️ | He continues to build on a stellar season, probably the best in program history. Daniels threw five touchdown passes against Valley to bring his season total to 31, a single season school record. He likely has several games remaining to stretch the new standard out.

Season so far: 120/176 (68%) for 1,826 yards and 31 touchdowns with 2 interceptions | 137 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns

Trending Up 📈
Kaleb Evans (QB, Lloyd Memorial)

Class 1A
1. Pikeville
2. Raceland
3. Kentucky Country Day 
4. Campbellsville

Class 2A
1. Beechwood 
2. Lexington Christian Academy
3. Owensboro Catholic 
4. Mayfield 
5. Belfry 

Class 3A
1. Christian Academy-Louisville
2. Lexington Catholic
3. Bell County

Class 4A
1. Boyle County
2. Highlands
3. Covington Catholic

Class 5A
1. Woodford County
2. Madisonville-North Hopkins 
3. Owensboro
4. Bowling Green
5. Cooper

Class 6A
1. Trinity
2. South Warren 
3. Saint Xavier

Week 7
Keagan Maher (RB, Cooper)
Colin Daniels (QB, North Oldham)
Evan Hampton (RB, Owensboro)
Markezz Hightower (RB, Madisonville-North Hopkins)
Landon Yoak (RB/LB, East Carter)
Cash Harney (QB, Covington Catholic)
Marlon Harbin III (ATH, Saint Xavier)

Trending Up 📈
Kaleb Miller (RB, Bell County)
Kain Patton (ATH, Prestonsburg)

‼️Milestones‼️
Cam O'Hara (QB, Cooper)
🗞️ | Maher wasn't the only one chasing landmarks in Edgewood. Against the red Colonels, O'Hara became the 12th quarterback in state history to pass for 10,000 career yards. The record for career touchdown passes is still on the table, but he needs to pick up the pace, still trailing Brady Atwell by 25.

Top 25

Trinity 104.42
Christian Academy - LOu. 91.1
St. Xavier 90.05
South Warren 86.63
Manual 83.14
Highlands 80.64
Covington Catholic 79.75
Boyle County 78.31
Ryle 77.68
Woodford County 77.35
Frederick Douglass 77.26
Paducah Tilghman 76.91
Johnson Central 73.79
Scott County 71.26
Owensboro 70.68
Madison Central 69.7
Beechwood 69.64
Bowling Green 69.29
Cooper 68.97
Mayfield 68.06
Belfry 67.22
Male 66.38
Owensboro Catholic 66.22
Madisonville N. Hopkins 66.18
Corbin 64.74

Another week means another epic battle in front of the Bluebirds to challenge them.

Freddy Douglass ✅
Cooper✅

Boyle Co ❌
Cov Cath ✅

 Elder ❓

The buses travel across the river to the “Pit” for this battle.  
 

Elder (7-0) is showcasing a perfect record after beating Moeller this past Friday. They are currently sitting a top of the Ohio polls as the #1 team in the state.

Birds (6-1) will need to have a clean well executed game plan with very limited amount of mistakes and even if they can pull that off they still might need some good mojo to pull a win in the Pit off.  I love the fact that Coach Sphire is challenging this team this year.  Hopefully this helps this team come playoff time playing the caliber of teams during the regular season.

I am so looking forward to the trip to the Pit!!

There will be 2 options that I am already aware of on how to watch/listen to this game:

Watch: 859sportsradio.com

Listen: bluebirdsradio.com, our very own @Brennan_Bucher will be back in town doing the play by play on the radio for old times sake.

Who you have?

GO BIRDS!!!

Manual (5-1) will host St. X (3-3) and is coming off an open week. St. X is coming off a 14-3 loss to Boyle County. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30.

Last year Manual won 29-22.

Manual has a potent rushing attack that averages 240 yards per game and is led by RB Gerian Traynor who has 531 yds and 7 touchdowns. The defense has played well giving up 16.6 pts a game. 

St. X was without QB Mason Trimble in the Boyle County game and his status for this game is unknown at this time. QB Will Burmester came in the 4th quarter against Boyle County and was 6-8 and threw for 93 yards and if Trimble can't go, I would expect him to be the QB this week. The St. X defense has played well giving up 16.5 pts a game.

Manual has won 2 years in a row which is a big reason ST. X has lost in the second round of the playoffs the last two years getting beat by #1 district seeds Male and Ryle, so this is a very important district game but strangely all the teams in District 4 who District 3 is paired with this year are down. This game is also very important for RPI position for the 3rd and 4th round of the playoffs. I know St. X will be motivated since Manual has won the last two years plus having a three-game losing streak. Manual will be fresh coming off an open week and will be well prepared. HSRatings.com has the two teams essentially even. I'm looking forward to seeing the new Manual turf and new video scoreboard. Who wins this long rivalry that dates back to 1923?

After losing 31-38 on Friday to district arch-rival Highlands in a game that came down to a final play touchdown, Covington Catholic is looking to rebound and return back to a winning record on the season as they welcome the Cathedral Irish from Indianapolis to Park Hills.

At 5-2, Cathedral's losses came back on Aug 29 when they lost 29-0 to Indiana's #1 program, Brownsburg (7-0), and then the following week when they lost 24-6 to Ohio's #11 program, Cincinnati St. Xavier (5-2). Cathedral can expect to move up in ranking when the latest polls are released following their 21-15 win on Friday over Indiana's #5 team, Center Grove (6-1).

With 21 total players currently holding college offers, Cathedral is not short on talent. Their offense, captained by senior QB Cameron Koers, has averaged 339 ypg, 173 run/166 pass. Koers is 92-158 (58%) passing on the season, and has thrown for 7 TDs with 4 INTs.

Cov Cath will be looking to markedly improve on last week's rushing performance, with QB Cash Harney being held to a scant 11 yards on 14 carries after averaging 102 yards per game and 9.27 yards per carry this season coming into Friday night's loss to Highlands. Senior RB Dylan Gaiser managed his second best game of the season on Friday with 88 yards on 7 carries, but with 99 total yards on the ground in the game, the offense is undoubtedly working hard this week to plan their ground attack facing Cathedral's impressive defensive front. In the air, the Colonels had a best passing performance of the season against the Bluebirds with 263 yards gained on 9 completions. Defensively, Cov Cath allowed 200 yards passing and 206 yards rushing on Friday, 3 yards shy of season-high 409 total yards allowed to Elder (OH) back on Aug 29, so Coach Brown and the defensive coaching staff will be working to shore things up on D as they prepare for the game on Friday.

What are your predictions for the game on Friday? Kickoff is currently set for 7:00pm in Park Hills.

The ratings use Avg. margin of victory/loss and is applied to strength of schedule played to date. There is a cap of 35 pts for avg margin to keep a team's rating being inflated from running up the score on lower rated opponents. Out of state opponents are not included. Ratings are posted on Wednesdays. 

Top 25
Trinity 105.67
St. Xavier 96.04
Christian Academy - Lou. 91.6
South Warren 85.96
Covington Catholic 82.19
Manual 82.12
Paducah Tilghman 81.67
Highlands 78.52
Ryle 77.32
Frederick Douglass 75.12
Johnson Central 74.32
Boyle County 72.83
Woodford County 72.45
Owensboro 71.36
Scott County 70.38
Cooper 70.21
Madison Central 69.44
Bowling Green 69.39
Beechwood 69.34
Male 68.59
Madisonville N. Hopkins 68.1
Mayfield 67.52
Owensboro Catholic 67.13
Belfry 66.43
Franklin County 64.52

Class 1A
1. Pikeville
2. Raceland
3. Kentucky Country Day 

Class 2A
1. Beechwood
2. Lexington Christian Academy
3. Owensboro Catholic 

Class 3A
1. Christian Academy-Louisville
2. Lexington Catholic
3. Bell County

Class 4A
1. Boyle County
2. Highlands
3. Covington Catholic

Class 5A
1. Woodford County
2. Madisonville-North Hopkins 
3. Owensboro

Class 6A
1. Trinity 
2. Saint Xavier 
3. South Warren 

Wyatt Robbins (QB, Murray)
Keagan Maher (RB, Cooper)
Evan Hampton (RB, Owensboro)
Isaiah Martin (ATH, Murray)
Cam O'Hara (QB, Cooper)
Mason Griffin (QB, South Laurel)
Cash Harney (QB, Covington Catholic)
Marlon Harbin III (ATH, Saint Xavier)

Trending Up 📈 
Cam Davis (ATH, Ashland)

Watchlist Rewind 📼
Harney has been an impact player each of the last two years versus Highlands. In his first game as CovCath's starting quarterback, he accounted for 315 total yards and three touchdowns. As a sophomore, he picked off Brody Benke and took it back for six to help spur the Colonels to victory. 

When: 7pm, Friday 

Where: David Cecil Memorial Stadium (Highlands)

That time of the season is upon us!  The greatest Ky High School rivalry, Colonels vs Birds.

Colonels after starting the season 0-2, has rattled off 4 straight wins and now has a record of 4-2.

Birds fell in a heartbreaker down at Boyle Co after winning the first 3 and has rebounded with 2 straight wins after the Boyle game.

This rivalry has heated up the last 3 years with the two teams trading blows with Birds winning 3 yrs ago and last year and the Colonels wining 2 years ago.  Prior to this current back and forth the Colonels were on a 9 game winning streak.

Unfortunately the stakes weren’t as high as normal the last few years with Cov Cath in 4A and Highlands in 5A but it’s all right in the world once again with both teams sitting as State Contenders together in 4A.

I have a feeling this thread is going to get a lot of attention this week so let’s get it the party started!!!

Who you got???

Me: Go Birds Beat Colonels!!!

The ratings use AVG. margin of victory/loss applied to strength of schedule played. There is a cap on margin of 35 pts to keep teams from having higher rating from running up the score on weaker opponents. Out of state teams played are not counted in the ratings. These are posted on Wednesdays each week. 

Top 25 - 9/24/25
 
Trinity 104.45
Christian Academy of Louisville 96.6
St. Xavier 95.44
Covington Catholic 85.27
Paducah Tilghman 81.6
South Warren 81.36
Johnson Central 80.15
Ryle 78.75
Manual 78.01
Highlands 76.79
Madisonville-North Hopkins 75.54
Woodford County 73.73
Frederick Douglass 73.42
Beechwood 72.01
Madison Central 71.65
Boyle County 70.97
Owensboro 70.39
Male 70.06
Collins 68.1
Cooper 67.28
Scott County 67.19
Pulaski County 67.05
Franklin County 66.66
Belfry 66.27
Owensboro Catholic 66.16