nkywildcat68

They may have to throw somewhere down the line, but haven't had to much to this point.

I know I need to preface this with saying "they need to beat Ballard first..blah blah blah"...but... People need to quit dismissing this Dixie team's chances of winning it all. That's two dominating performances against a very good Simon Kenton team that ended the year 11-2. They're winning games at around a 22 point per game clip over 12 games. And, amongst those 12 wins, Cooper is in the 5-A semis. Beechwood is in the Class A semis. They're good. They are physical and they run the ball so well that they don't need to throw it.

Id rank them, from most likely to be a nailbiter to least likely 1. Newport-NCC- by far 2. Simon Kenton-Dixie - will be closer than the first meeting, but Dixie should win. 3. CovCath-Highlands- probably will be the most entertaining game of the four 4. Frankfort-Beechwood Cooper-Anderson is pretty much a toss-up. But, alas, it's not in NKY.

As a neutral who was at the first game: The issue isn't who is hotter between Moore and Powell or whomever. Dixie is superior to Simon Kenton in the trenches. Unless that has changed in four weeks, then there won't be a change in the outcome. SK may convert more scoring chances than they did on Oct 17 and make it closer, though. But unless SK is at least plus 2 or 3 in the turnover battle, Dixie wins again.

Obviously, this is going to be skewed toward small schools, so you can probably throw out the Oldhams, Andersons, SKs, etc. Jones has had Gallatin solid over a long period of time, no doubt. As far as other small schools in the 8th go...Owen, under Duvall, has risen to their level in recent years (thanks in large part to the Williamses, but they have a solid program regardless), Carroll won the All-A 8th last year, and Walton Verona will be back to compete with them in short order under Brannen. But, Gallatin has sustained it over a longer period of time. The 31st is a very competitive district with four similar sized county schools (GC, OC, CC, and Henry) and a fifth independent (Eminence) that has some good teams in the past. Hope any upcoming realignment never breaks that district up.

Looks like its going to be: Tates Creek at Dixie Heights Ryle at George Rogers Clark Campbell County at Lafayette Madison Central at Simon Kenton

Carroll went from out of the playoffs altogether to hosting a first round game with that one play.

I wouldnt count it out so quickly. The bracket setup in 2014 for 6-A could be the first break they would need. The winner (or second place team) of the NKY 6-A district has a great opportunity of making it to Bowling Green. Then, who knows what happens in a one game situation. Why? One side of the bracket: D1 (McCracken) vs D4 (Trinity/St X/Male/Manual), D2 (Central Hardin/Meade Co) vs D7 (Bryan Station/Scott Co) Other side of the bracket: D3(Butler/PRP) vs D5(Ballard/Fern Creek), D6 (Dixie/SK) vs D8 (Lafayette) they would have to go play on the road in the third round if it came to playing someone from D8. But, it would certainly be doable.

If it goes to a three way tie-breaker, its probably going to come down to Simon Kenton's game against Bullitt Central this week. They are 8-0 right now. Right now, Dixie has the trump card with a win over Beechwood, who likely end up 8-2. A win over a Bullitt Central team that will end up at worst 8-2 (they also play South Oldham on Halloween) would make it interesting. Dixie wins this week anyway, though.

I've seen them both twice this year. It'll be close, like last year's game.

Not even close.

Owen, Carroll, Trimble, and Gallatin all are at 1-2 in the district, with Owen-Gallatin and Trimble-Carroll hooking up next week. One of those four will host a playoff game in three weeks (next week's Lloyd/Newport loser)

- Why worry about passing when you can run like Dixie did. Brossart not only said that he feels as if over 10 pass attempts would have meant a loss (I heard that too in the media "gathering"), but he also thinks they pass well enough, but don't have to. - What adjustments would Marksberry make? They were shoved all over the ballpark when Dixie ran between the tackles, and most of the time when Moore kept it on the read option, they had no one who could match-up with him athletically. They did get him a few times for losses, but not many. Dixie is too big, too strong. - Dixie absolutely put the clamps on Powell in the second half. He had 71 first half yards, 24 in the second. That's quite an accomplishment based on what he has done recently. As good as Moore and the running game were, Dixie's defense were what impressed me tonight. - Winkler is a nice receiver, but Simon Kenton had nothing in the vertical passing game. 11 catches for about 75 or so yards? Dixie was more of a threat throwing the ball downfield than SK was.

1. Highlands 2. Simon Kenton 3. Dixie Heights 4. Beechwood 5. Ryle 6. CovCath 7. Campbell County 8. Cooper 9. Scott 10. NCC/Boone/WV I have seen, in person, 1-4, 6, 8, and 9. I'm not penalizing Highlands for losing to an out of state power as I doubt that any of the teams below them would do any better, I will see #2 and #3 on Friday (seen both multiple times already)

730 days, a whole two years to the day.

Congrats to Trimble. They should get to play some playoff football now.

-They're the second best team in NKY (I've seen SK, Highlands, Dixie, BWood, Cooper, I have not seen Ryle or Campbell County.) -They aren't as good as last year. That team last year should have done some damage past the third round. -I think they beat Dixie because of depth. But, "eye-test" wise, Dixie looks the part of a team that can beat them, especially if they establish the running game early and can avoid falling behind and playing catch-up. Dixie is a big physical team that is playing lights out right now, week in and week out. But, there has to be concern that they'll have more two-way players than SK.

Seeing all three teams....based on the simple eye test, I would go with Dixie. Beechwood is playing the best right now of the three right now, though. And, I saw CovCath when they got hammered by Highlands. All three are quality teams who had bad nights against one of their rivals. All will factor in their respective playoffs. Beechwood obviously has the best chance of the three to win state, but Dixie and CovCath will give their district favorites fits when (if) they play them in the third round of the playoffs.

People think comparing scores against Dixie tells you the whole story are wrong. Or, the idea that if Beechwood cant hang in with CovCath or Dixie, how can they compete with Mayfield? I'd be wary of comparing scores, every game is different (Dixie fell behind early against CovCath due to special teams, and made them get out of their normal run game) and sometimes teams match up poorly with certain opponents (which is what happened with Beechwood when they took on Dixie, Dixie was massive up front). Seeing both teams, I do think CovCath wins fairly comfortably (2-3 scores), but Beechwood will be better off for it. And, I wouldnt be surprised by a closer margin.

Hoge was intercepted on the third play from scrimmage, so Highlands set the tone by running the ball 12 straight times on the next drive. They made a curious sweep call on 4th and 1 from the CCH 2 and got stuffed, but they had established the run at that point. They ended the night with over 300 yards of rushing at about 6 ypg. That set up the pass, which led to some wiiiiiide open Birds in the secondary. It was a clinic. Halftime score should have been something like 35-7. They missed two FG opportunities (one a bad snap, one a wide right on their last play before the half) along with the already mentioned goal line stand. Highlands defense had some nice fourth down stops, too. CovCath looked against Highlands kinda the way Dixie looked against CovCath. They are living rent free in their heads.

South is on its way to three straight district titles. Dragons win big.

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Total yards was 515-64. First downs were 29-3. SK ran it for 275 and passed for 240. It's probably the most lopsided game I have ever covered in NKY. I said in one of the other threads that Cooper would make it close. Boy, was I wrong. Simon Kenton has a heckuva team, Marksberry has it going on there in a big way. That's a very good football team. Lots of playmakers all over the field. Injuries certainly hurt Cooper, but if this game was played 20 times, Simon Kenton would win by double digits 20 times.

I like Simon Kenton tonight, but it's not going to be over by halftime. I think a Cooper win will be a mild upset, but stranger things have happened. I think its closer than some on this thread would believe. In any case, it'll most likely be the best team either has lined up against so far. Simon Kenton's first four opponents are a combined 1-12, and Cooper's three wins have come against teams with a combined record of 2-9 (the opponent two wins were Ryle and Boone over Conner).

No, Beechwood and NCC do not need to stop scheduling bigger neighbors. You find out more about your team when you face adversity and your weakness are exposed. Their goal is in November and December.