ryanparker

Mason County played well and deserves to be commended. They are the better team. I really hope they do well in the playoffs. They seem to carry themselves very well and play with a lot of pride and spirit. Russell is as down this year as they have been this decade. This isn't a state championship caliber Russell team. That being said, though, they are not a terribly bad team either. Mason County deserves all the credit here and I think they have a good shot to make some noise in the playoffs this year.

Congratulations Greenup! I hope you can repeat your late season magic from last year again. Lawrence County isn't a bad enough team to go winless, but unfortunately it looks like that's a real possibility.

Anyone have any insight as to how Russell's new field should hold up under these conditions? Looks like this game is going to be a real mudbath. Who will win might come down to who can hang on to the ball.

Looks like the rain is supposed to move out by about the end of the game...but unfortunately not before.

I must say, though, that I am very surprised at the poll percentages leaning as heavily as they are towards Mason County and I am shocked at some of the scores being predicted. Many of you really think Mason is going to have an easy time with Russell. This game is at Russell and Russell won both of last year's games against Mason by 1 and by 5...very close games. Some of you must think Russell's football program has taken a real nose dive!

Mason County and Russell have had very similar seasons. They have soundly beaten 6 inferior opponents and been soundly beaten by the 2 quality opponents that each have faced. Mason County has the most impressive of those losses, a 10 point loss at Boone County. This is an all important district game with the winner getting home field advantage in the 2nd round of the playoffs. It is the most important game of the season up to this point for both teams and quite possibly will define the season for both teams.

Good one!

I predict Johnson Central to win this by a score of 56-18.

Is there some sort of Raceland-Nicholas County rivalry I don't know about? Someone mentioned that Ram players have been known to get ejected in the Nicholas County game. Is Nicholas County known for being a dirty team or something?

I must admit that I was thoroughly surprised at that West Carter-Raceland result from last year. For that matter, I was surprised at the Russell-Raceland result from last year, too. From everything I have read about this year's Raceland team, though, it doesn't seem there is much chance of them having a let down against an inferior opponent like Nicholas County. Isn't the core of Raceland's team the seniors who played in those games last year? If so, it is probably good that they have been through what it feels like to "let down" and most likely won't let it happen again.

Of all threads, I have been looking forward to this one! This should provide some good entertainment from the Raceland fans building up Nicholas County as if they could pose a legitimate threat to the Rams. You guys have done a good job with the "Greenup picked you for their Homecoming game" and "Paintsville leads the all-time series" mantras the past few weeks. Let me see if I can provide a head start on this one: Nicholas County beat West Carter this year AND West Carter beat Raceland last year. How's that for early motivation? In all reality, my pick is Raceland 62 Nicholas County 7. I look for the Rams to miss an extra point and for Nicholas County to score a touchdown late.

His streak actually ended last week right after he broke the record.

I am going with Ashland in this one by the score of 27-16. Ashland has been playing well and is showing no signs of letting up. Yes, the level of competition increases this week, but I think they will be up to the challenge.

That's a good blog covering Simon Kenton sports. Any blog that gives this kind of detailed reporting is pretty good: "On SK’s last TD, Lawrence made a nice run and dove out of bounds after gaining the first down. A Russell would be tackler sneered at him for not taking the hit. Lawrence just calmly said; “First down man” and went back to the huddle." Now that's on-the-field reporting.

I wonder if it's good or not. Russell is having a hard time finding teams they can compete with this year. 6 games have been blowouts in their favor. 2 games they have been blown out. Where are the teams that are on Russell's level?

This calls two things that I have brought up before into question. Is Russell in good enough condition this year? I know some individual players are, but is the team as a whole? And also, does the fact that most of their players play both ways including special teams at some point become a liability? When a team like Russell gives up a deflating 80 yard TD run, it's not like they can turn to the offense and ask them to step it up. The offense is essentially the same guys who just got smoked for the 80 yard TD! They come out, fumble on the next series, and the game quickly spins out of control. I have always thought that it takes awfully good players to play all 48 minutes.

I wonder if it does help. I proposed this question in the Johnson Central/Hazard thread as well. Does playing far superior teams make your team better or does it just leave you going away saying "wow...they were good"?

From looking at Beechwood's schedule, they play a totally different level of competition and they have outscored their opponents by an average of 42-8. That is opponent's like Covington Catholic, Prestonsburg, and Holy Cross. They close out the season with Bellevue and Newport Central Catholic so it will be interesting to see how they do in those two games as well. Raceland has done what they are supposed to do so far by blowing out weaker competition. They have been in games with two teams that could remotely compare to the best on Beechwood's schedule, Ashland and LCA. They got close wins in each one. Raceland has a likely playoff road of Clinton County at home, the winner of Fairview-Campbellsville at home, either LCA at home or at Williamsburg, at Hazard, and then the state championship game playing Beechwood. While the 1st and 2nd round games should be easily won, the 3rd and 4th round games will be games that could likely go either way...so it's no guarantee they'll make it to Beechwood. Should they make it to Beechwood, though, I think reality and history says that their chances of winning would be less than 50% as our northeastern Kentucky teams don't generally do well against northern Kentucky opponents for whatever reason. Maybe it's the air we breath around here or something. That being said, I think all of us football fans in northeastern Kentucky will be pulling for Raceland to pull off the upset, though.

Hey...3 points is probably as close as I'll ever come to picking an exact score!

That scenario assumes Russell beats Mason County, Belfry beats Sheldon Clark, Russell wins their playoff games, and the rest of the favorites win in the playoffs. I got the info off of the KHSAA website. I realize the most likely scenario is Breathitt playing at Belfry for the right to play Louisville Central...but one can dream. Let me know if I'm wrong.

It sounded like Russell had quite a few injuries in the game. Did Simon Kenton physically dominate that much? Any word on the severity of the injuries?

Congratulations Ashland. Get ready to play a lot better competition next week!

It sounded like the 80 yard run was the backbreaker. The game got out of hand after that. Some random thoughts: Really when looking at the strength of the teams that Simon Kenton competes with compared to Russell, it is not so amazing that Russell got blown out this year...it is amazing that Russell had a chance to beat Simon Kenton last year! Russell hasn't done well this year when playing teams who have faced and been beaten by far superior competition the week before. Ashland lost to Ironton, OH the week before playing Russell at Ashland. Russell played West Carter the week before playing that game. Russell's starters probably got to play about half of that game. Simon Kenton lost to Boone County last week. Russell played Lewis County last week. Russell's starters got to play about a quarter and a half of that game. By the way, james-russell, I think Russell's playoff schedule (should they beat Mason) will look like this: home against Magoffin County in the 1st round, home against Sheldon Clark in the 2nd round, at Belfry in the 3rd round, home against Breathitt County in the 4th round, and then the state championship against Louisville Central. That is, of course, presuming they have an incredible October/November turnaround.

Congratulations Coach McPeek and Fairview on a big win tonight!

Good idea with a running back that good. Just snap it straight to him and let him go. Seems to be gaining popularity in the NFL.