ApolloFan98

This is about how I expected this one to go. OHS is so explosive that it’s crazy to think they scored 42 and still left about 21 on the field. They are good and by the end of the year they will be dangeous to any team they face in the playoffs.

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You can listen to the McLean Co v Owensboro Catholic game here... Homers Radio is on Mixlr. Mixlr is a simple way to share live audi...

Outside of the hickup vs Owensboro Catholic, the Devils have been pretty strong this season. I felt like they were a few slight mistakes away from making the Bowling Green game very interesting. Keep in mind this is a team running a completely new system offensively and while they are loaded with talent, it’s taken some time for everyone to get on the same page. Their defense is also pretty young in spots. It seems like they are getting a little better week after week. How close this game is, depends on how sharp they are coming off a bye. A lot of people see that as an advantage, getting 2 weeks to prepare but more often than not, I’ve seen it go the other way. I know Christian County is still a dangerous team but I don’t think they have enough fire power to stay with Owensboro. OHS 46 Christian Co 26

I don’t know that a lot of trash is being talked but I do know Mclean comes in thinking they’ll have a chance for the upset. I couldn’t agree more with the posts above. I think Catholic has proven to be much more versatile than I expected them to be and they are better up front than I expected. To me, that makes this a little less interesting of a matchup. If McLean can sustain drives, prevent Big plays and maybe force some turnovers they’ll have a shot. But that’s asking quite a bit from the Cougars. Catholic 49 McLean 20

I feel like OHS came out remembering last year and hearing a lot of talk from everyone about Daviess County and took it personally. Hearing about how good DC’s playmakers were obviously inspired them, as they ran up almost 600 total yards. Owsley was Owsley and DC just didn’t have an answer. I expected a shootout but the Panthers were without Blake Baker and just couldn’t put the ball in the end zone when they needed to. OHS gets a bye week before heading to Christian County in 2 weeks. DC needs to put this one behind them fast, as they host McCraken in a HUGE district game.

When Apollo fell behind 13-0 thought they may get ran off the field but they battled back fast and just missed a FG that would have put them up 20-13 at half. The second half, Catholic made some really nice adjustments and Apollo couldn’t stop Von Williams. They had limited him to just 10 yards in the first half but he went for 177 and 2 TD’s in the second. Apollo did battle back and make a show out of it but a big sack by Noah Todd followed by a tipped ball INT by McFarland sealed the deal. This game was as good as i expected. Catholic has really taken off after a disastrous start. Apollo starts its road to hosting a playoff game next week at Graves. While Joseph Russell does a GREAT job covering the area, I know we at the Homers put a lot of time and effort into it as well. If you ever want updates you can follow both of us, along with the legendary Mark Mathis.

I can’t speak for all Apollo folks but I don’t think I could be more pleased with a hire. I do think the culture change at Apollo started last season with a great group of kids and a lot of the current seniors were a big part of that group. Hawkins has came in and built on that. I like the mentality and swagger he’s brought to the program and think Apollo is now in a position to sustain the success these last 2 classes have started.

Great games in the city this week. This one has all the makings. DC is coming off a big upset of OHS last season. Coach Brannon really raised the expectations and built confidence within their program over the last few years. Meanwhile, OHS comes in angry from last years defeat. I think both teams will have opportunities to put up points. Whoever plays the best defense and makes the least amount of mistakes will win it.

Interesting clash of styles here. Apollo wants to shorten the game and play smash mouth football, and while Catholic has shown some ability to run the ball, they are still a pass first offense. I think this game will come down to Apollo’s ability to limit the big play. They have very solid DB’s and a solid pass rush that could give Catholic trouble. On the other hand if Catholic is able to put together quick strikes it could force Apollo to open up their offense and take them out of their comfort zone. I’ve gone back and forth on this one all week and I could see it going either way.

Yessir. We switched to Monday’s at around 7pm for football season. You can also listen to any game broadcast or show replay on iTunes or Google play by searching “Homers Radio”. Appreciate the plug. We cover all 3rd Region area teams for anyone interested.

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Every year I say this game will be much closer than people think and every year I’m wrong. Owensboro has the talent to compete in this matchup. Vs Evansville Reitz you could see the potential they had. I still believe this group can pull it together but they have got to come together fast. Defensively, there is no excuse for them to not be better than they were vs Catholic. Especially in the front 7. They are to big and to good to be handled like that. Eventually it comes down to effort and pride and I thought that was lacking in the 4th quarter last week vs Catholic. BG wins, but I think the Devils keep it within a few scores.

Great read. Always fun to get educated on all of the WKY teams. Only note I would chime in on would be the Apollo/Butler game. I agree it’s time for Apollo to schedule up on that one but there was a time not to long ago, the program needed that game to try to get back on its feet. The last time the team made the trip to Butler during the Rex Henderson days they were the underdog(lost to Butler at home the previous year), and won. At the time it was one of the bigger wins Apollo had had in a while. Just goes to show how much the program has improved. Keep up the great work and enjoy your Old Hickory this week(Devils58 will be phoning in updates from Rash while I’m calling the action from Muhlenberg)!

If this game was about 3 minutes longer, McLean probably wins it. Make no mistake, McLean has a good football team. Defensively they were very impressive at all 3 levels. Offensively it looked like they completely wore down Apollo and had them on the ropes. I saw a lot of hands on knees from the Eagles defense. Coach Zach Wagner has done a tremendous job at McLean. As for Apollo, part of me thinks they thought they were going to walk thru this one and we’re caught a little off guard by how physical the Cougars were. It’s a good lesson to be learned. Lessons are always easier when you find a way to escape with the W.

Shocker. Watched a lot of the 2nd half and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I expected OHS to completely dominate the LOS but it was Catholic who I saw dominating. I thought Catholic could have some success vs the OHS secondary if Hartz had any time in the pocket but I didn’t expect anything like this. Owensboro looked lost down the stretch and Catholic looked unstoppable. Big turn of events from what we’ve seen so far this season. Hats off to Coach Morris and company for pulling the Aces off the mat and responding. Huge win for their season!

The really scary thing is, OHS could have won this game by 2-3 touchdowns. They gave up 4-5 3rd &4th and longs in the first half and made a bad mistake in the punting game. The 2nd half they were able to get off the field on those long 3rd downs BUT their offense turned it over 3 times in the redzone. You can tell the Devils are a work in progress BUT when they do play a clean game, lookout. This team has a long postseason run in them. The Owsley kid is one of the more special players ive seen come through town in quite some time.

Proud of the folks at Apollo across the board. They have really put the work in to turn this program around and this was a proof of that turn around. The offensive line is really living up to the hype, as it looked like they dominated the line of scrimmage, especially in the run game. McKenzie went over 200 yards again this week. Colby Clark is exactly the type of QB that can run this offense well. On defense, kids were flying all over. Seemed like they made some nice adjustments at halftime and shut Mater Dei out in the 2nd half. Wes Knott is the best kicker ive seen at Apollo since Brad Wilkerson(yes the former Montreal Expo!). Big time kick to tie the game(had the game winner vs Graves last year). Maybe that #win10 isnt as far out of reach as a lot of people thought it was.

Central is huge across the board. Their tall athletic DB's gave DC fits. Losing Tinsley on the first play obviously didnt help. Central ran mostly an I formation and between their size advantage on the line and leading with the fullback DC really had no answer. When they adjusted to selling out on the run, Central made some very nice adjustments to counter with misdirection and end arounds. Central looked to be extremely well coached. Their big QB went down in the first half with a shoulder injury. Hope he is alright, he looked like the real deal. As for Tinsley, im hearing its a shoulder injury that should only keep him sidelined for a few weeks. DC should be fine in the long run.

Apologies. His brother was head coach at Hancock. Jason was an assistant at Henderson prior to heading to Catholic as an OC the past few seasons!

It’s former Hancock County Head Coach and offensive coordinator Jason Morris. Aces stayed in house.

Announcement on the new hire at 3:15 today.

CovCath is the real deal as I expected they would be. Was proud of the fight Apollo came out of the gate with but it looked like they wore down pretty quickly. Maybe an adrenaline dump? Either way, I’m not sure their best effort would have had them in this one. It’s been a fun ride. Good luck to the Colonels the rest of the way. After seeing all the teams, i think you guys have a pretty good shot to be playing for the whole thing on Sunday!

Without giving it a ton of thought, Muhlenberg and Daviess County should be the favorites. They both return strong pitching staffs, but I would give the Stangs the slight edge in the order. After that I would say Ohio County, Owensboro and Apollo should all be pretty good. No one will want to face Gillim in the tourney. Owensboro has a great young roster, if they can find some consistent pitching and Apollo is always in the mix with Mantooth at the helm.

Season recap: Apollo entered the season with some unfinished business. Last year’s team went 22-6 in the regular season and was the favorite heading into tournament play, but they were bounced in the first round of district by Daviess County in overtime. The Eagles had to go back to the drawing board without its leaders, 3rd region player of the year, Zach Hopewell and point guard Tabor Shadowen. The team would return a solid core of seniors in Nathan Boyle, Alex Gray, James Graham and Cory Wilson. Over the summer, guard Hunter Shelton returned to the program from prep school and Angel Saldana transferred into the area from Puerto Rico, after being displaced from a devastating hurricane. Star baseball player Zach Greer came out to play basketball for the first time since middle school. The season began with the 4th region champions, Warren Central. It was an intense back and forth game, that saw Apollo’s game winning layup rim off at the buzzer. They lost by 1. That became the theme for most of the regular season. 10 of the teams 14 losses came by 4 points or less, with 4 of those coming in overtime. Every time it looked like they were about to turn the corner, they would suffer a puzzling defeat. They would find a few nice wins ,like at 1st region champion McCracken County, or a Zach Greer tip in at the buzzer to knock off Muhlenberg County in overtime, or an upset win over Owensboro in early February. Every success however, was met with a setback. Tough overtime losses to Daviess County and Hancock County near the end of the season made it seem like the team would never turn the corner. Owensboro won a coin toss with Daviess County to win the #1 seed. That would match them up against Apollo. Owensboro was a heavy favorite to win the region, but Apollo had just defeated them 3 weeks prior. Apollo came out and played one of its best games of the season and defeated the Devils 61-58. They would go on to lose the 9th district tourney to Owensboro Catholic, after Luke Hayden drilled a contested 30 foot bucket as time expired to take the game into overtime. Even with the loss you could tell that Apollo had turned the corner. Right out of the gate, they drew Meade County, who many agreed was the toughest draw of any district champion. Alex Gray set the tone with his defense, in Apollo’s box and one against Meade star Aiden Matthews. His offense did the rest, especially red hot Hayden Shelton who finished the game with 23. They moved on to take on Ohio County, a team who had defeated them in the regular season. While the Hartford Eagles played well, but Apollo played on a championship level. They survived a barrage of 3 point shots from Ohio and got an unbelievable game from James Graham (who was 8-8 with 8 blocks on defense) to advance to the title game. In the championship, they would face Owensboro Catholic for a 5th time. Apollo came out of the gates and played what was probably their best half of the season, led by Hayden Shelton's 3 triples. They were able to survice a Tim Riley adjustment with a big time 4th quarter effort from Alex Gray. The Eagles finished the season 1-4 against the Aces, but it was the only one that really mattered. This is Apollo's 10th 3rd region title and its first since 2012. Starting 5... PG - Angel Saldana 6-1, (8.6 ppg) - one of the most improved players in the 3rd region, Saldana is as quick as any guard ive seen all season. Needs to play under control and stay away from falling in love with the jump shot. This is his first season of organized basketball, which is impressive when you watch him play. SG - Hayden Shelton - 6-2 (13.5 ppg) - Shelton has been absolutely locked in during the postseason, hitting big shot after big shot. He spent last year playing in prep school. He is a great pure shooter than can find his mid range jumper off the dribble. SG - Nathan Boyle - 6-4 (15.3 ppg) - Boyle is one of the best pure shooters ive have ever seen come through Apollo. He has drawn the attention of every team Apollo has played this year, and because of that he has developed an ability to drive to the basket. He has one of quickest releases ive seen from a shooter. F - Alex Gray - 6-3 (12.5 ppg/6.4 rpg) - Gray is the garbage man for Apollo. Hes probably played all 5 spots on the floor during his career. He thrives in his role under the basket, getting rebounds and playing tough defense. C - James Graham - 6-7 (8.5 ppg/6.3 rpg) - Graham has really developed into a player over the past few weeks. Hes been a great shot blocker all year, getting about 6 per game on average. It hasnt been until recently that he developed confidence on offense. He must stay out of foul trouble. If he does, he has a chance to turn some heads at Rupp.