ryanparker

Sheldon Clark visits Russell in a surprising first round matchup thanks to some late season injuries and suspensions. Sheldon Clark proved early in the year that they are a very good team by shutting out Breathitt County and Channing Fugate, beating Johnson Central, and nearly beating undefeated Lawrence County and Prestonsburg. Russell, however, hasn't been as impressive against the tougher teams on their schedule. They were soundly beaten by Ironton, Ashland, and Mason County and finished the season with a poor showing at Raceland. On the surface, it looks like this should be a Sheldon Clark win, but it's been a long time since Russell has made a 1st round playoff exit. Will pride, tradition, and home field advantage be enough for Russell to pull off the upset or will Sheldon Clark roll over the Devils?

No. Johnson Central did.

He is going to be a top notch running back. For that matter, he already is! Teams will focus on stopping him now, though, if the QB is out. The yards might be harder to come by. At some point in the playoffs, the backup QB will have to win a game with his arm. Maybe he can...but I still hate to hear about the starter going out.

I figured Boyd County would put up a fight in this game, but I guess I was wrong.

What happened to Pawsat? I hate to see him go down because Mason County has a legitimate chance to make it to and even win the state this year. I guess it just goes to show you need a lot of things to come together to go all the way. It sounds like they didn't miss a beat tonight, though, with the backup in there.

I listened to this game on the radio and I concur with SpinDoc in that it sounded like a thorough beating from beginning to end. Ashland coach Leon Hart was the color commentator on the broadcast and had nothing but lavish praises for every Ashland player from the freshman class on down to the JFL. He said the varsity, JV, and freshman teams have hardly lost a game all season long. It sounds like Ashland has the next decade wrapped up as far as beating the rest of the teams from our area. Any single upset of Ashland in at least the next 5 years by a northeastern Kentucky team would be the crowning achievement of the season for any one of those teams. I have a few questions about Ashland's upcoming reign of NE KY dominance, though. 1) Is there any other school in northeastern Kentucky that will be able to compete with Ashland in the next few years? 2) What in the world happened to make Ashland suddenly so good? 3) Does Ashland have a chance at a state title with any of these upcoming classes we have heard so much about?

Boyd County isn't as bad as their record shows. They gave away a win against Raceland, played Belfry tough, got hit by a rash of injuries and the swine flu against Fairview and Russell, and just got done coming within 10 points of a very good Lawrence County team. That being said, I expect Ashland to win. I just don't think it will be the blowout most will expect.

Mason County should win this game, but I do expect Greenup to put up a fight.

What's the deal with Woodford County and stopping the run?

It's about 3 hours from Vanceburg according to Mapquest. It's not the most pleasant drive down there, but they do have one of the nicest facilities I've been to once you get there!

Everyone figured Lawrence County was the better team and congratulations are in order for their tremendous season, but I am actually more impressed at a 2 win Boyd County team obviously showing enough heart to stay within 10. Just like Lawrence County last year, Boyd County isn't as bad as their record would indicate. They handed Raceland a gift wrapped victory to start their season and I believe Fairview and Russell caught them when they were stricken with injuries and swine flu. They've just had a hard luck season. They have the ability to come together and get a win or two in the playoffs. It'll be interesting to see how they play Ashland next week.

Are Ram, SidelineDoc, and The Cerebral Assassin out celebrating? I expected their analysis by now.

This sounds like it was a good showing by Fleming County. Also, with Pike County Central beating a suspension-depleted Sheldon Clark team tonight, Fleming County gets to play at Pike County Central in round 1 of the playoffs. That's a winnable game for them. The winner of that one will play Mason County in round 2. So it's a win-win situation for both Mason and Fleming with tonight's result. Russell, Sheldon Clark, and Belfry are in the other bracket.

Congratulations to Mason County. They should play East Ridge in the 1st round.

Wow! Congratulations to Lewis County. This has to be one of the biggest moments ever for their program. The Lions played well last week at Russell and it looks like they carried it on to this week. Now, though, they get to experience a trip to Belfry.

This is a good win for Raceland. Even with all the talk about Barr, I think Tyler Farley deserved the MVP award. He's a very good passer and once again did a great job tonight. He spread the ball around to a few different receivers. I don't know what to say about Russell's secondary. Raceland spread them out all night long and Russell just clearly doesn't have the playmakers to match up with Raceland. I was fooled into thinking the Russell pass defense was good because they faced running teams for most of the year. Credit also should go to the Raceland line, who gave Farley time to throw for 330 yards. He got sacked once or twice, but that's to be expected when you throw it pretty much every play. Raceland found the key to stopping Russell's offense. They bottled up Travis Jones. I think a good defensive gameplan and proper execution by the players beats Russell more often than not when the other team has equal talent. It's obvious that Raceland has equal talent and probably even better. Raceland also has an excellent coaching staff. If it's not working, Russell will run it again and again and again. If it's still not working, then they will continue to run it again and again and again. I stood in the end zone with some former Russell players and they were calling Russell's plays before they ran them with a pretty high percentage of success. I would imagine if they couls do this, former Russell player and Raceland coach T.J. Maynard had a pretty good idea how to coach up his defense. I think Russell's offensive philosophy requires bigger, stronger, and faster players when you are matched up against a good team and Raceland is a good team. Don't get me wrong. The Russell players tried, but Raceland just has bigger and stronger players who also knew where to be. They stuffed the run and that's all Russell had in the bag of tricks. Raceland's program is coming along well with the dedication off the field in the weight room in the offseason. It is starting to serve as a good benchmark as to what direction the Russell program is headed in because this year's Raceland team is probably 3 or 4 TD's worse than last year's Raceland team and they beat Russell by more. Future Russell football players have some real soul searching to do if they are going to keep up. There are a lot of programs in our area on the rise and it's not going to be easy to maintain the tradition they have built without some serious improvements. Good luck to Raceland in the playoffs. I hope someone pulls the upset of the century and knocks LCA off in the 1st or 2nd round for you guys. :-)

I know. I'll be there regardless, but I just think a lot of fans will stay home if it rains. I like seeing a big crowd for this game. You know, it's sort of funny. We often say it's a "playoff" atmosphere when these teams get together, but I think it's actually better than a typical "playoff" atmosphere. Playoff games are usually between two teams separated by a lot of miles and that often leads to near empty stands on the visiting side. The big crowds add to the excitement.

My idea would be to move this game to Saturday night when the weather is going to be good and the teams would have an extra day to heal from whatever might ail them. The rain will probably significantly reduce the amount of money that will be made off of this game. It's the last game of the regular season for both teams as both have their open week next week, so neither would have to work on a "short week" or anything.

Yeah. I hope both teams have their full rosters healthy. It's bad enough that it's supposed to rain! A game marred by bad weather and illness wouldn't be the same.

I don't know if this will have an impact on the status of Friday's game, but Russell's schools are closed for the rest of the week due to the swine flu. I've heard it was done specifically to keep Travis Jones healthy for Friday's game. :-) In all seriousness, I suspect that the flu will end up having an impact on this game one way or another.

Russell's line has to be given some of the credit, but it looks to me like Jones is very good at finding the open area and exploding to it once he finds it. Like I said, the only teams that have stopped him are Ironton and Ashland and those 2 teams just met him as soon as he got the ball. As for Russell's pass defense, it was considered to be somewhat of a strength until last week against Lewis County. To be fair, Russell did have Patrick Cooper out. He leads the team with 5 interceptions. Kamron Smith was out for most of the game as well. Apparently, he was ill. That's a subplot to this game and several more over the next few weeks. Which team will have more players feeling the effects of the flu? That could significantly impact the outcome of this game.

Russell's offense has always been basic, but this year more than ever the main question for Raceland's defense is "can they stop Travis Jones?". He has essentially been a one man wrecking crew for Russell this year. Here's his game-by-game statistical breakdown: East Carter 170 yards 2 TD Greenup Co 71 yards 3 TD (1 Punt Return, 1 KO Return) Ironton 28 yards Ashland 46 yards Boyd Co 176 yards 2 TD West Carter 260 yards 1 TD Fleming Co 163 yards 4 TD (1 KO Return) Mason Co 195 yards 3 TD This doesn't include last week's Lewis County game where I think he had over 200 yards again along with 3 TD's. Consider also the fact that Russell doesn't have a single QB (out of the 4 who have received significant playing time) who has passed for over 100 yards on the season and you can clearly concoct the formula for stopping this year's Russell team. Notice the 2 games that stand out like sore thumbs, against Ashland and Ironton. The other loss was to Mason County, but that one was over before Jones got started with Russell's 1st half fumbled snaps and punt block. As for Russell being a "good" team or not, I guess it just depends on who you compare them to. I do think it takes a "good" team to beat them, though.

That's a good point. If Fleming County beats Mason County, then Mason, Fleming, and Russell would all be 3-1 in the district. I'm not sure how the seeds for the playoffs are done then.

Fleming County is by no means a bad team. I don't expect them to get beat as badly as you predict, Rams68. Mason County should win, but I look for Fleming County to have a good showing.

I agree with you. I look for West Carter to give Belfry a run for their money in the 1st round just like they did last year.