nekysportsfan

Looking forward to your updates on these games and 8 teams newarkcatholicfan...thanks for providing us the information.

Is Alex Roy's brother the Fairview QB this season? Fairview will compete with most of the teams on their schedule aside from the district games. Noah King is a good athlete and I look for them to get the ball to him as much as possible.

Regardless of what they are wearing, this should be the best Ashland team in a long time. 3rd year starter Ratliff at QB already has a D1 offer and can win games with his legs or his arm. Pittman is one of the fastest backs in the state. Hester has hit the weights hard and looks primed for a good year. South Point transfer Brandt brings big time athleticism at the receiver spot. A healthy Ryan Bryant is a scary proposition for opponents. The offensive line is very experienced led by 3rd year starter John Stone at center. Junior Jones on the defensive line is a beast. The Tomcats are the real deal this season. Now is it enough to beat Johnson Central? I don't know, but it certainly should be interesting.

Fire the head coach coming off a 24-6 season only to turn around and hire his freshman coach who went 6-23 in his one year coaching varsity basketball? If this happens, there is some interesting stuff going on behind the scenes at Ashland.

Not sure why they fired Howell, but I think this is a quality job that could attract experienced and successful coaches. Hiring from within again would not be the right move. Strader was 6-23 during his one year at a head coaching job at Russell. Surely they will get a top flight external candidate as they return a team capable of winning the region next year.

Ashland before January 9th: 15-1 record AIT Champions 2 wins over Boyd by 3 and 12 31 point win over Russell 23 point win over Raceland 37 point win over Fairview Fun style to watch Ashland after January 9th: 9-5 record 3 losses to Boyd by 4, 5, and 5 4 point loss to Russell 9 point win over Raceland 9 point win over Fairview Tough style to watch What happened? Prior to January 9th, it seemed like Ashland had a rotation established with players knowing and fulfilling their roles. During the span of days between January 9th and 19th, it appeared to have been decided that they were going to go with a different rotation altogether than they were during the successful first part of the season. Players who were starting were demoted to JV. Players who were playing JV became starters. Players who were effective bench players became not as effective starters. The team’s leading 3 point shooter was benched and rarely saw more than 1 shot per game during the second half of the season. The team at the end of the season did not remotely resemble the team at the beginning of the season. The team at the beginning of the season would beat the team at the end by 30. It’s almost as if they changed coaches during that 10 day span. What a turnaround.

As time passes, I have a feeling that FG might grow to 50 yards like a fish story. :-) Congratulations to Raceland! What a great win for a program that has always fielded solid teams but never gotten over the hump. The challenge now will be to not just be satisfied with making it and get ready to play Beechwood. Whatever happens, though, this fan is happy for all of Raceland.

Congratulations to the Rams and posters like Old Rambler and Ram. You guys have been loyal to the Ram cause for many years on here and I’ve got a feeling this year it’s going to be rewarded. It’s funny how football works. In my opinion, Raceland has had better teams that have fallen short through the years, but this one might be the one to go all the way to state. They are set up better than any of the previous teams. Pikeville appears to be a solid team, but they aren’t a powerhouse. Old Rambler, you’ve just got to keep the Rams focused on the task at hand this next week so they don’t get too happy about beating Paintsville and forget about Friday’s game with Pikeville. I’m sure you’ll find the right words. :-)

More personal fouls than I’ve seen in a game...these 2 teams must not like each other.

LOL...with a difference in halves like that, Haywood must have taken Matney to the coaching woodshed.

What happened to turn this game around? Must have been some serious halftime adjustments.

LOL...I know going for 2 every time cost them last week at Ashland. By the way, thanks for doing the updates. This should be a great game.

Good to see Johnson Central found a kicker this week!

This will be a hard fought close game but I think the Rams will come out on top. After beating Russell, I thought Greenup was ready to take a big step forward. Losing to Fleming, though, tells me they're not mentally there yet. It takes a while to build that winning mentality where you expect to win and the Rams have it. That's the only difference in this one.

I don't think Ashland's defense is that great. They gave up 49 points to a Harlan County team that put up 6 and 11 in their next 2 games against Hazard and Tates Creek. I guess it's all relative to the competition. That being said, though, Russell is as bad as they've been for a while. Ashland wins this one by 14 or more.

No doubt that Mason has a good bunch of players, just not enough of them. Their opening drive ball control strategy was a good move. They were literally running the play clock down to 1 second before snapping it each time. I thought they should have stayed with it. Ashland's Braxton Ratliff has proved to be a really good QB. He will have a few plays a game where you wonder why he didn't get rid of the ball, but he will have an equal number of plays where he escapes like Houdini to make a positive play out of nothing. Overall, glad to see Ashland move on. I hope they can earn a rematch in Paintsville with Johnson Central.

Always good to see Greenup succeed. Hopefully this coach will stick around for awhile and build Greenup into a consistent winner. Going into next week, at least Greenup knows what they are going up against. I'd love to see them find a way to compete.

Russell will win this one big. Russell has a very good team this year. Were it not for the big red machine standing in their way, Russell fans could and would be excited about a deep playoff run. TJ Maynard has done a great job with this program and I expect Russell to be very good for years to come.

From reading this board for many years, isn't this the game where you Ram fans always used to comment about the weather? Doesn't it always rain whenever Raceland makes the trip to Nicholas County? Rain or no rain, I think Raceland wins. Nicholas County hasn't played any team near the caliber of Raceland. Maybe not a running clock, but Raceland still moves on the inevitable rematch with Paintsville.

I believe Paintsville wins this one, but I must say Fairview has done better than I thought they would this season.

I'm happy for Russell and TJ to get this big win over Raceland. Russell ended up one failed 2 minute drive against Ashland away from an undefeated season. I still feel confident that Raceland will make a strong postseason run and have a real chance at a state championship. Two very good teams.

I agree that neither team should rest players. This is high school football and both teams are likely headed to state championships. They can rest players the first few weeks of the playoffs because neither will be challenged until at least the state semis, maybe even not until the state finals. This game is a good opportunity for 2 great teams to really decide who is the best this year with no excuses.

Finally the district play is over and Russell can get back to some more entertaining football games.

Yes. Paintsville had some big plays called back and were the victims of most of the flags I saw. At one point, Raceland kicked off from the Paintsville 30 yard line.

Easy win for Johnson Central after a shaky start. These teams should meet again in a few weeks.