Twotoplace

Chames picked up his 2nd foul with about 2 minutes to go in the first quarter. Think he sat out the rest of the first half. Believe Hill had 12 points in first half. Holmes led 22-20 after first quarter and 40-26 at halftime, as I recall. Pushed the lead to about 30 with about 3 minutes to go in third period. Yes, Snapp had a nice game for the Wildcats.

Bulldogs showed a nice inside game tonight. Bolden only played about two and half quarters. Same for Chames.

Re: 35 to 15 free-throw advantage: As I recall, Holmes shot 30 free throws to NewCath's 11 in the first-round 9th Region tourney win this past spring. So this is a continuation of the same pattern.

Just want to make sure I got this right. In the statewide poll, coaches throughout the state picked Holmes No. 5 in state, with NewCath 12th. But in a poll of 9th Region coaches only, NewCath was ranked first in region and Holmes second. Is that right? Sounds fair to me. At this stage, who knows how good the supporting cast will be for Holmes.

Some weeks one has to look long and hard for something resembling an upset. My main complaint about six-class football is that the results are so predictable. Every week the Enquirer prognosticators go chalk and every week they're correct.

Both Holmes and NCC have more to worry about in the 9th than how they fare vs. each other. Should be a real fun 9th this year.

I'm one of the many who disagree. Love watching NewCath play, but I'd be surprised if they win the 9th. Holmes being ranked No. 5 in state might actually be a spot or two too low.

Newport is on a bit of a roll. I'll take 'em in a close one, 26-20.

I heard the comment while listening to the game on 740 AM. I didn't find it insulting -- more along the lines of good luck, because it's going to be a daunting task for new QB to come in and drive Highlands however many yards to tie or win game, which was just stating the obvious. I only listened to end of first half and most of fourth quarter on radio, but heard no Bluebird put-downs by Elder radio crew.

Holding penalty negated Harrison tying TD with about 5 minutes to go in game. Harrison played great D in first half. Scruggs had nice third quarter.

Play Holmes and then NewCath three days later.

And Holmes will score 100 on Highlands. In basketball.

The third quarter was possibly the longest I've ever witnessed. I think the penalty on the hit on the Holmes receiver on the fake-punt pass was what set off the Bellevue coach. I didn't understand that call. Looked clean to me. I thought it was an entertaining game -- little bit of everything.

Highly entertaining game. What was the total yardage by both teams? Had to be 900 yards if Scruggs got nearly 300 by himself and Bellevue QB had 400 yards passing, according to nkysports story. Late addition: Story said Ackerson also had 150 on the ground, so the two-team total might be closer to 1,000 yards!

Final: Holmes 42, Bellevue 36. Tigers scored last 20 points but ran out of time. Two more long TD runs for Scruggs in second half. I think he finished the game with 290 yards rushing and four TDs -- if I heard the announcer right. Great effort by Bellevue late after rough third quarter. Twice in second half Tigers got inside Holmes 10 but went four and out.

Passing game clicking, but turnovers, penalties hurting Bellevue. Two long TD runs by Scruggs for Holmes in first quarter. Holmes' 28 points includes FG.

Holmes up at half 28-16.

I agree with everything you said. My son and his wife came close to buying a home in Bellevue. The area is on the rebound. In Covington, one can see a similar pattern. Couples like the fact that they can buy a lot of house for the money, but when kids arrive, it's off to the burbs.

Agree. Socio-economic issues at work here.

One of my arguments is that it's wrong for the KHSAA simply to chop up classes by enrollment. I think you also need to consider tradition, community support, program funding, facilities, number of kids who actually wear a uniform, and, as you point out, geography. For instance, although Highlands is 4A in enrollment, it's 6A-plus in all the categories I mentioned. Re: "Then you'll have people saying that the regular class's championship is tainted": Yes, that would be true. Winning an elite championship would certainly carry more clout than winning one of the two "regular" divisions, but at least we would see more competitive games than what we've got now.

See post 18. My call for change really isn't about Harrison County losing to a 1A school. My "elite" and "regular" plan is about reducing the frequency of these gosh-awful mismatches -- like Harrison County and Highlands both being in the same 4A district. If we had an elite class and a regular class, these blowouts would be reduced, and fans would see more exciting, meaningful games.

The comment was elitist.

There's got to be a better way than what the KHSAA is doing now. I'm toying with this idea -- have four classes: big school elite, big school regular, small school elite, small school regular. I haven't worked out details yet, but you can see where I'm going. This way Highlands, for instance, would play St. X and Trinity and S-K instead of Harrison County, which would compete in big school regular.

Does same apply to Highlands basketball fans when they travel to NewCath or Holmes?

HC lost by 30 last week to 1A school. This game exemplifies why we need to completely rethink the 6-classification system in football.