ryanparker

:scared: Ram.....are you o.k. ?? That one scared me. I think you need some rest.

I'll write you a script for that......

Take 1 sausage brat, 1 ram burger and drink all of 1 can of orange crush and stay away from anything maroon/gold in color. Get lots of rest and hopefully that fever will break. :thumb: :clap:

Leave him alone, OldRambler. He may just be seeing the light!

Can we expect to see Cooper at RB and Hayes at QB to start the game this week?

That would be both interesting and surprising. They've gone to the shotgun spread formation with Cooper at QB for about 5 or 6 drives this season. The only times they've moved Cooper to RB (that I recall) have been in the Mason County and Sheldon Clark games.

I had high hopes that we would see more of this formation after seeing them try it out with some success in their preseason scrimmage against Spring Valley, but we really haven't seen a lot of it this season. As I said, it would be surprising to see them come out with this. I wouldn't, however, be surprised to see them go to it if they fall behind and the Wing-T proves ineffective.

As for the Raceland fans rooting for Russell, I disagree with the notion that Raceland won't root for Russell. As a matter of fact, I think Ram should pack in there with me and trek to Belfry and make 2C buy us some popcorn at the concession stand.

 

And not to further steer the thread awry, but I find that most people from a particular region root for the teams from their area when they advance. For instance, I'd like to see Fairview trounce LCA this weekend. I'd be highly surprised if that happened and would be tickled if they won by 1, but am rooting for them all the same.

I agree. I always root for whichever area team makes it the furthest each year.

Back to the game.

 

What players should we look for from Russell? Who are the playmakers on both sides of the ball?

 

What is Russell doing well? Not so well? I know they still run the Wing-T, but are they doing anything different out of it?

Two players. Korzep and Cooper.

Joel Korzep has been the running the ball very well after being moved to FB for the playoffs. He played on the line for most of the season but switching him to FB has proven to be a good move. QB Patrick Cooper has been running well, too. Those are the two main playmakers on offense. There are several others who will get some carries, though. Russell doesn't really have a "feature back" as in years past when they faced Belfry. I guess that's good because there's no one to key on, but it's also bad because no one is going to break huge runs. The same two players, Korzep and Cooper, have been very good on defense as well along with linebackers Paul Spradlin and Justin Davidson.

With the exception of the Ashland and Raceland games, Russell has been playing pretty good defense all season and even better in the playoffs. Their passing game, even though it's mainly only used to move the chains on 3rd downs, has been a little suspect at times this year. They've thrown some costly interceptions in a few games this season. I would imagine Belfry fans and Coach Haywood will recognize the Wing-T that Coach McGlone will be calling plays from. Other than going to shotgun spread formation on a few drives this season, they aren't doing a lot different.

One thing to point out is that Russell does have a pretty good senior kicker in Tanner Locey. If the game comes down to field goals, then Russell has a shot.

I concur. Very nice post. It's good to see someone have this kind of pride in their team and community. Even though it's probably not apparent to most high schoolers while they're playing, thoughts like this highlight the fact that the players really are playing for more than just themselves out there. That's one of the things that is great about high school sports.

Russell travels to the beautiful CAM stadium next Friday for the 5th playoff game between these 2 teams in the last 7 years. The head-to-head series is tied at 2 apiece with Belfry winning in 2004 and 2009 and Russell coming away with victories in 2005 and 2006.

The 2 programs have shared a great deal of success over the past decade. Since 1998 (as far back as the KHSAA website goes), Belfry has an overall record of 133-41 with 2 state championships, 1 state finals appearance, and 3 additional regional championships. In that same time frame, Russell has an overall record of 122-44 with 1 state championship, 1 state finals appearance, and 2 regional championships.

The 2 programs are led by 2 of the top 7 winningest high school football coaches in Kentucky football history. Belfry's Philip Haywood is 3rd on the list with an overall record of 335-118. Russell's Ivan McGlone is 7th on the list with an overall record of 296-135, which doesn't include a 28-20 record he accumulated while coaching Huntington Vinson in West Virginia early in his coaching career.

Both teams favor ground attacks. Both teams are used to winning. However, neither team was predicted to be a serious contender this season as rebuilding years were forecast for both. In fact, most figured this week's matchup would be Mason County against Sheldon Clark, the two number 1 seeds that Belfry and Russell defeated on the road to reach this point.

It should be an exciting night of football next Friday in Belfry.

I'm sorry to hear Pawsat was hurt again. I'm sure this made a huge difference in the outcome of the game. What's the injury?

Great job by Johnson Central and Jude. Impressive win and statistics.

Congratulations to Coach McGlone, Coach Morris and the rest of the staff. Listened to the game on the radio. Sure sounded like they called Huffine's name quite a bit on defense. Good to have him and Davidson back. It's off to Belfry next week. Should be another battle.

It is good to have Huffine and Davidson back. They still had a couple of offensive linemen out this evening, but it's giving younger players a chance to step up. The good thing is that they are stepping up and performing really well! The seniors like Korzep and Cooper deserve a lot of credit for this run as they are proving they won't go quietly.

The only negative? It looks like Coach Kidwell will have to wait a little longer to get his post players out to practice. :-)

Disappointing result. 6 interceptions and 4 brought back for TD's??? Wow.

I think this Ivan McGlone guy might turn out to be a pretty good coach after all! :-)

In all seriousness, great job by the Russell players and coaching staff stepping up when it matters most. Waiting until the last drive of the game to bring in Googie Hayes at quarterback and switching Patrick Cooper from quarterback to running back was a key factor as Cooper ran a long one that got called back for holding and then ran another long one to score the winning touchdown. They scared me a bit by kicking off out of bounds with a minute left and letting Sheldon Clark pass down the field to the 3 yard line with a few seconds left. Sheldon Clark missed the potential game tying field goal, though.

Aug. 20 - East Carter

Aug. 26 - @ Ashland

Sept. 2 - @ Pikeville

Sept. 9 - @ Greenup County

Sept. 16 - @ Portsmouth East

Sept. 23 - @ Lawrence County

Sept. 30 - OPEN

Oct. 7 - Nicholas County

Oct. 14 - Fairview

Oct. 21 - @ Paintsville

Oct. 28 - Russell

This looks like a good schedule. It looks challenging for the most part with a couple of easier games thrown in. I like having the home opener on a Saturday again with one of the easier teams on the schedule. I also like the bye week before the district games. There should be good crowds for the opener since it's on a Saturday, the Ashland game, the Greenup game, the Fairview game, and the Russell game. Adding Lawrence onto the pre-district schedule along with Ashland might be biting off more than they can chew, but those types of teams are balanced out by what should be easy wins over a couple of the others. The only criticisms I can think of are having 5 away games in a row, having only 4 home games again, and the fact that Ashland still won't come to Raceland. I'm glad they got the Greenup game back on the schedule, though.

I haven't seen Sheldon Clark play this year, but it looks like they have a pretty balanced attack from looking at their stats. They've lost to some good teams, but they have some quality wins as well. Russell has their work cut out for them, but they've proven they can play with good teams as well this year like Ironton, Mason, and Pike County Central. No doubt that Sheldon Clark should be the favorite, but if Russell plays with the fire they showed last week then they could come away with the win.

As a fan of Russell, the team that gets to compete with Mason County for the district title on a yearly basis, I sure hope Mason County steps up this year and wins this game. I know the Royals are excited to get basketball season started, but Round 2 playoff losses at home to Southeastern Kentucky teams are getting old! Pike County Central last year and Sheldon Clark the year before that. Don't let Belfry complete the hat trick. :-)

Seriously, though, there is no doubt in my mind that Mason County has the talent to win this game. Belfry will try to rough them up so Mason County will have to be ready play their best game of the season, but Mason's speed and big play ability should prevail. When Mason County played at Russell, they were stricken with what seemed like a slew of holding penalties. Granted, perhaps the refs were looking through maroon colored glasses that game, but whatever the case, that can't happen against Belfry.

This should be a good game. I like Big Blue Insanity's prediction, 28-20 Mason County.

As far as the Ironton game goes, was there anything in particular about the loss that impacted the Tomcats, or have they just plain and simple "not been the same" since then?

I agree with Ram. Ashland had too much talent this year to simply chalk up their downfall to "playing better teams". Albeit in smaller divisions, 3 of the first 4 teams they played are still alive in the playoffs, so it wasn't that the schedule was TOTALLY frontloaded with cupcakes. They even dismantled Mason County in a preseason scrimmage. It's as if they were breezing by on pure talent early on, Ironton showed up with some serious will to win and destroyed them, and Ashland never found whatever they had again. I have no idea, but it sure seems something had to have gone wrong in their heads or behind the scenes for them to perform the way they did after that game. Maybe beating the local rivals is enough for them and the prospect of ending up losing to a Northern Kentucky team every year in the playoffs is getting them down? The good news is that they'll return a boatload of talent for the next 3 years. As a fan of Northeastern Kentucky area football, I think it will be a shame if they can't come up with wins over (a) Johnson Central and (b) a top Northern Kentucky team over this time span.

After reading all these posts, it sounds like Johnson Central has put quite the target on their back with their unsportsmanlike penalties and decisions to intentionally try to humiliate opponents. What is their coach thinking?

You guys have seen all the Raceland games this year so I certainly can't disagree with your assessment that turnovers, or the lack thereof, will tell the story in this game. I still think Farley is one of the best QB's in our area, though. He has the ability to lead the Rams to a victory if he handles the pressure, makes good decisions, and eliminates the interceptions. I hope Raceland wins.

Lets just concentrate on Raceland vs. LCA right now. LCA is our district champs and that one is Friday night.

Agreed. Raceland has their work cut out for them next week at LCA. For selfish reasons, I was just expressing my hope that they can pull off the upset and play close to home the following week. It would be a fun game to attend. I expect Fairview will be there waiting unless the long bus ride they face saps their strength.

For now, though, this was a good win. Any stats/details?

What happened to Luke?

I think a shoulder injury? That's at least what I heard from a friend of a friend who read some message board rumors. :-) I do know he is out for the entire basketball season, though.

With the few people in attendance, it was as silent of a stadium as I've ever heard when Dehoff went down. He came back into the game so I guess he's OK, but I was sure starting to worry about basketball season. They've already lost Luke Bailey and can't afford to lose any more rebounders.

Glad to see Raceland get the win and get the chance to play LCA again. Maybe they can pull off an upset and get a rematch with Fairview as well. :-)

In my opinion, this was the biggest win for the Russell program since the 2006 shutout win at Belfry to go to the state finals. Few expected them to win this one.

If you're a Russell fan, the story of the game was the heart of this Russell team. The game played out like a fight in a Rocky movie with Russell getting knocked down and barely getting up after Pike County Central hit a long TD pass with 8 seconds left in the first half to take a 21-7 lead into the locker room. The small Russell crowd in attendance was left shocked and silent.

Russell came out, though, with some inspired play on both sides of the ball in the 2nd half to get up off the canvas and get the win over the favored Hawks. They made the crowd start to believe in them and support them again like I honestly haven't seen since that game in the 2006 season. What an impressive performance by this group of players. I'm sure every Russell fan is proud of them as I am. It was the first Russell game I've been to that made my 4-year-old son say he wants to play for Russell someday.

The entire team fought extremely hard, but Joel Korzep has to be mentioned at the top of the list. He ran the ball like a warrior tonight. Good job by the coaching staff coming after the Pike County Central QB with a few blitzes and great job by players like Paul Spradlin fighting to get there just enough to make a difference.

If you're a Pike County Central fan, however, you've got to be disappointed in the penalties on the final drives of the game, particularly a 15 yard face mask penalty that gave Russell a new set of downs on the game winning drive. You've also got to be disappointed that a potent offense with a very talented QB stalled for the entire 2nd half.

Russell travels to Sheldon Clark next week, but they need to enjoy this one until they get back to work on Monday. They deserve it. Good job Red Devils.

LCA dominated the game from a physical standpoint. Lots of hard hits and getting off blocks. I don't think Fairview has seen a rush defense quite like that of LCA. Fairview players kept getting up slower and slower as game went on. It also seemed that there was lots of jawing and finger pointing by the Fairview team when LCA took control. I was there about 30 mins before kickoff and Fairview wore their home uniforms and chanted all the way from LCA's gym to the field. A coach would yell "Whose House?" and the whole team would respond "Our house!!!!" I guess when it was all said and done it was LCA's house and again LCA's district.

 

I hope #2 is okay. He was hit on a clean, but hard peel back block on a Scout McCamey scramble.

What a scene that must have been.

With all the talk of Fairview being the real deal this year and LCA being down, I sure expected a closer game. I expect Fairview to get another chance at LCA in the playoffs.

Strategically speaking, I must say I strongly disagreed with Russell's decision to punt while trailing 34-30 on 4th and 4 from their own 30 yard line with about 3 minutes left. The defense had been pretty bad all night so I really didn't have faith in them to be able to keep Raceland from getting a first down or two. They didn't. In fact, they game up a touchdown instead.