St. Matthews Boy

Didn't see the whole game but most from 2nd quarter onward. Had a couple third down conversions (and some big ones at that) that I can recall. Penalties really killed Betsy Layne late in this one. Had a 15-yarder with about 5:00 to go when it was a 32-26 game. Would have been fourth down Prestonsburg at about the BL 45. But instead they get the first and score on that drive to make it 39-26. BL ran a kickoff back for a TD late in the third. Made it 20-20.

Stats from the Broadcast: The backfield of Dalton Elliott and Alex Harris for Prestonsburg big time again tonight. Harris with 33 carries for 246 rushing yards and 2TDs. Elliott with 106 yards on 21 carries and 3TDs. Andrew McCutcheon with another big game for Betsy Layne in the loss. 24 carries, 183 yards, 3TDs. 381 total yards of offense for Prestonsburg. 272 for Betsy Layne. The Blackcats had the ball for 32:28 while the Wildcats for 16:32. Betsy Layne had just about four minutes of offense in the 2nd half.

Final. The Blackcats move to 6-0 on the year and get back at their Floyd County rival, avenging two losses from a year ago. Fun game between these two rivals. Love seeing some smash mouth football. Prestonsburg dominated time of possession especially in the second half.

Son of a former UofL and NFL kicker Jon Hilbert. The Cards keep home a legacy and one of the best in the state. His production this year so far:

Yes. They all played with JTown this summer.

Unless anyone else has other info, I haven't seen anything about eligibility in question for any of those guys. We shall see.

Saw Fern Creek this summer and have a feeling they will be better. Will be interesting to see how Fairdale looks with a new coaching staff and after losing some of the talent that led them a year ago. J-Town is the team I am really watching in this region. The Chargers have a solid history and are actually the last team in the sixth region to win a state title, albeit they were in the seventh at that time. While Cam McDaniels is at Huntington Prep now they brought in a whole transfer class. Dayvone Harris led Moore last season with 16.7 ppg. Bryonn Faulkner and Britain Clark were roll players for Fern Creek. Prince Kahnplaye was good in providing talented depth for DeSales. Cayon Gaines was a solid asset for Ballard. Gabriel Cruz-Rivera (9.1 ppg) and Damere Clark (7.4 ppg) are both back

Marshall seems to be the top dog in the region right now. They looked good from what I saw of them a year ago, which admittedly wasn't a great deal of a lot and mostly late in the year. And quite a bit returning from that squad. Marshall, Calloway, McCracken, and Paducah Tilghman look to be the teams to beat out of the region.

Fall workouts are underway and first preseason practice is less than a month away. How do we see the seventh region coming into the year? For me right now I think Trinity and St. X are above the rest but it will be a tough fight to get through the region like always. 1. Trinity - Reigning champs get the No. 1 spot. Return three of their top five scorers with Jayden Johnson leading the charge alongside Julius Edmonds. 2. St. Xavier - All five starters are back from a team that looked title ready until they met Seneca. The Tigers have maybe the best freshman in the state in Josh Lindsay who put up numbers as an eighth grader at Shawnee last year. 3. Male - Cole Edelen leads the Bulldogs as one of the best shooters in the region and city as a whole. Solid core and some younger guys back that should progress nicely, as well. 4. Manual - Malachi Coleman and Justice Decker are one of the best duos in the region. Should be the center piece for another strong Crimson squad. 5. Ballard - The Bruins were very young last season and showed really good signs of growth late in the year. Never count out Ballard and I don't expect multiple "down" years from them. 6. Seneca - The Redhawks have had some really good seasons recently, including last year's region runner-up. Can't replace Quel'Ron House but Prestyn Wheatley was big time as an eight grader last year. Darian Shy who got time as a frosh for Ballard comes in.

Trinity has their full schedule up now on the school website. Date Day Opponent Site Time Result 12/3/2024 Tue DeSales THS 7:30 PM 12/6/2024 Fri Male THS 7:30 PM 12/7/2024 Sat PRTC Classic Jackson County H.S. TBD 12/13/2024 Fri Atherton THS 7:30PM 12/14/2024 Sat Newport Classic Newport TBD 12/17/2024 Tue Seneca Seneca 7:30PM 12/18/2024 Wed King of Bluegrass Fairdale TBD 12/27/2024 Fri Lexington Catholic Tournament Lexington Catholic TBD 1/4/2025 Sat Mercer County Mercer County 7:30 PM 1/7/2025 Tue North Oldham North Oldham 7:30 PM 1/9/2025 Thu Oldham County THS 7:30 PM 1/11/2025 Sat WEB Dubois THS 6:00 PM 1/13/2025 Mon LIT Valley TBD 1/24/2025 Fri Covington Catholic THS 7:30 PM 1/28/2025 Tue Madison Central Madison Central 8:00 PM 1/31/2025 Fri St. Xavier Bellarmine 7:30 PM 2/4/2025 Tue CAL CAL 7:30 PM 2/7/2025 Fri Lexington Catholic Lexington Catholic 7:30 PM 2/8/2025 Sat Cathedral THS 7:00 PM 2/11/2025 Tue Ballard THS 7:30 PM 2/14/2025 Fri Waggener Waggener 7:30 PM 2/15/2025 Sat Henderson County THS 4:00 PM 2/18/2025 Tue Collins Collins 7:30 PM 2/21/2025 Fri Montgomery County Montgomery County 7:30PM

Yes. Each played close games (not wins as I mistyped) against Male. The only common opponent between the two.

Friday will be the 93rd meeting between the two rivals. Trinity leads the series 50-40-2. The Shamrocks have dominated the series since the end of the Glaser era (2012) on Polar Level Road with a 13-4 record against the Tigers in that time. That includes six playoff wins including that 2017 state title. Both the Shamrocks and Tigers have close wins over Male this season. Defense plus the play of Jamaurion Berry in the running game have been two crutches that Trinity has leaned on these past two weeks. The passing game continues to progress. Sophomore Jason Hagan got more involved against Male, catching four of his nine receptions on the year in that win. Sounds cliche, but if the defense continued to play like it has (especially those guys up front) and the Rocks can continue to find ways to move the ball down field, Trinity has a good chance to rack up a third consecutive win over St. X. Key will be stopping Marlon Harbin. He's done just about everything for the Tigers as their top rusher and receiver. Really good athlete who the Rocks looked to limit last season as well. Both will be motivated but St. X maybe even more so coming off that last-minute loss to Elder (Ohio) where they nearly pulled the comeback.

DeSales Colts Head Coach: Derek Ferch (1st Season) 2023-24 Results: 24-10; 22nd District Champs, 6th Region Semifinalists Graduations: Logan Tharp (G), Camden Smith (G), Landon Thompson (G), Brady Cummins (G), Damone King (G), William Gibson (F), John Davis (G) Top Returners: Demba Jawo, Brandon Williams Transfers OUT: Prince Kahnplay (Sr., G) ➡️ J-Town Early Outlook Newness is abound on Kenwood Drive. After what was another solid season for the Colts, this program graduates a group of seven seniors. That includes five of their top six scorers. Their fifth-leading scorer has transferred out. A new head coach has also come in with the hiring of Derek Ferch. A St. Xavier grad, he played baseball at Spalding University and was the head coach at Collegiate last year. He was previously the head baseball coach at Atherton. Damone King was the worth the price of admission last year for DeSales, averaging 20 points per game as the team's leader. Logan Tharp was also an exciting playmaker. William Gibson ate up the glass with 6.1 rebounds per game. All three are now gone, along with four other seniors. The Colts were in the 6th region title game in 2023 and were semifinalists in the region in 2024. They had some really good wins the past few years, beating strong programs such as Male and Ballard. DeSales beat Sweet 16 attendant Spencer County while giving Trinity trouble twice and taking eventual state runner-up Harlan County to OT. They also took St. X to OT. To put it bluntly, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding DeSales entering this upcoming season. Nearly all that top-end talent that helped the Colts reach those highs last season and the year prior are gone. Thus, it is fair to say a "rebuilding year" should be expected from DeSales this winter. Schedule DeSales hasn't formally announced their 2024-25 schedule but this is what has been released on the KHSAA site: Love seeing the DeSales-Holy Cross game back on the schedule after a two-year hiatus. DATE OPPONENT SITE SCORE STATS? Mon, Dec 2, 24 Christian Educational Consortium (Louisville), (KY home school) home 6:30 PM Tue, Dec 3, 24 Trinity (Louisville) away 7:30 PM Thu, Dec 5, 24 Waggener home 7:00 PM Fri, Dec 6, 24 Bishop Brossart away 7:30 PM Tue, Dec 10, 24 North Bullitt away 7:30 PM Sat, Dec 14, 24 Spencer County at Henry County High School 5:00 PM Bodyarmor Showcase Mon, Dec 16, 24 Frankfort away 7:30 PM Sat, Dec 21, 24 Monroe County at TBA 11:00 AM Sat, Dec 21, 24 Metcalfe County away 2:00 PM Fri, Dec 27, 24 Shelby County at TBA 1:30 PM Fri, Dec 27, 24 Shelby County at Henry County High School 1:30 PM Hcit - Henry County Invitational Tournament Sat, Dec 28, 24 TBA away 12:01 AM Sun, Dec 29, 24 TBA away 12:01 AM Thu, Jan 2, 25 Bluegrass United (Lexington), (KY home school) home 7:30 PM Fri, Jan 3, 25 Western away 7:30 PM Sun, Jan 12, 25 Bethlehem at TBA 5:30 PM Tue, Jan 14, 25 Kentucky Country Day home 7:30 PM Thu, Jan 16, 25 Columbus Hawks Homeschool (Columbus), IN home 7:00 PM Tue, Jan 21, 25 Pleasure Ridge Park at Charles W Miller Complex 7:30 PM Fri, Jan 24, 25 Butler home 7:30 PM Mon, Jan 27, 25 Shelby County away 7:30 PM Wed, Jan 29, 25 Atherton away 6:30 PM Fri, Jan 31, 25 Doss away 7:30 PM Mon, Feb 3, 25 Seneca home 7:00 PM Fri, Feb 7, 25 Holy Cross (Louisville) at TBA 7:30 PM Tue, Feb 11, 25 Iroquois away 6:00 PM Wed, Feb 12, 25 South Oldham home 7:30 PM Wed, Feb 19, 25 Fairdale home 7:30 PM Fri, Feb 21, 25 John Hardin away 6:00 PM

Trinity Shamrocks Head Coach: Bret Saxton (1st full season) 2023-24 Result: 27-8, 7th Region Champions, Sweet 16 Quarterfinalist Graduations: Drae Vasser (G), Alex Johnson (PF) Top Returners: Jayden Johnson (Jr., SG.), Julius Edmonds (Sr., C.), Josiah Lawson (Sr., PG) Transfers OUT: Keriawn Berry (Jr., SG.) ➡️ Avon (Ind.) Transfers IN: Xavier Cosby (Jr., SG) BACK at Trinity after a year at Manual Early Outlook Trinity is coming off another successful season on the Hardwood where the Shamrocks made a seventh run to the Sweet 16. The Shamrocks return three of their top five scorers from a year ago with Jayden Johnson being the biggest name. A Four-Star per 247Sports in the 2026 class, Johnson has multiple DI offers from power conference programs. That includes most recently USC, Arizona State, and Indiana. Julius Edmonds, at 6-6, is listed as a center and is the team's second returning scorer and was the top rebounder last season. He is getting some more college interest at the DII and DI level, being recruited as a SF. Look for those two to be the leaders on the court for Trinity. Looking forward to see how Josiah Lawson and Lance Chandler progress. Both were around 130-point scorers last season and are great options carrying the ball up the court. Some players to watch include seniors Avery Frasher (PG) and Rocco Pfeiffer (G). Those two, along with Chandler, seemed to be the ones who could make those extra and often times gritty plays that got the juices going for Trinity. Very intrigued by Xavier Cosby. He is back at Trinity after a year at Manual. He looked good in June with the Shamrocks. Will be interesting to see how all these guards pan out. Only so many minutes in a game and there has seemed to be a lot of good shown by that entire group. Missing holes that need to be filled are due to the losses of Drae Vasser and Alex Johnson. Will be tough to replace the heart and toughness Vasser played with, as well as his leadership. Johnson was good down low, T's best free throw shooter, and could stretch the defense with his range when he wanted. Tough to replace. Losing a potential star in Keriawn Berry hurts as well. He's been young the past few seasons but the upside is clearly there. Biggest concern heading into the season may be size. But that's something the Rocks have generally lacked since their first title run in 2012. Confident, however, that this team can score and run with anyone. They did so last year and clearly showed that off this past summer as well. And as always, not many good or great Trinity teams have played poor defense. Schedule Trinity has yet to release their full schedule but some games have started to trickle out. Trinity will open, once again, against DeSales on December 3rd. Trinity and DeSales have gone to OT and 2OT in two of their last three meetings. Next up is Male on December 6th. That game could potentially be a seventh region title preview. Cov Cath and Ballard other games that have been released to circle. Shamrocks will be in the King of The Bluegrass as always. Here's a list of games thus far from the KHSAA site: DATE OPPONENT SITE SCORE STATS? Tue, Dec 3, 24 DeSales home 7:30 PM Fri, Dec 6, 24 Male home 7:30 PM Fri, Dec 13, 24 Atherton home 7:30 PM Sat, Jan 4, 25 Mercer County away 7:30 PM Thu, Jan 9, 25 Oldham County home 7:30 PM Sat, Jan 11, 25 WEB DuBois home 6:00 PM Fri, Jan 24, 25 Covington Catholic home 7:30 PM Tue, Jan 28, 25 Madison Central away 7:30 PM Fri, Feb 7, 25 Lexington Catholic away 12:01 AM Sat, Feb 8, 25 Cathedral (Indianapolis), IN home 7:00 PM Tue, Feb 11, 25 Ballard home 7:30 PM Sat, Feb 15, 25 Henderson County home 4:00 PM Fri, Feb 21, 25 Montgomery County away 7:30 PM

Wild night in St. Matthews. What a comeback from the Rocks! Most of the night, Trinity looked out of sync. Defense showed up late and the offensive line got their best push of the night when it mattered most. Zane Johnson led one heck of a game-winning drive and ends it with a game-winning TD, which was the first rushing TD of his career. He's not a running QB at all. Hats of to Male. Really impressed with Chayce Burton, Antonio Harris, and that Bulldogs squad. Still surprised T kicked it to Harris on that last kickoff. Looked like he was gonna break free for a second.

A big game with plenty of implications on the line in 6A. Cobb has done everything at Trinity except beat Male as the Rocks are 0-4 against the Bulldogs during his tenure. It's the longest losing streak for the Rocks in the series since the 60s. Beatty twice lost three in a row to Male (2013-14 and 2018-19). Coming off a big week where the Trinity offense seemed to be improved, that is likely the biggest area to watch concerning the Rocks. Will be very interesting to see what Harris and company can do against the T defense. Both sides of the ball have plenty of athletes and playmakers. Expect another good one between these two programs.

Great bounce back win for the Rocks. Big day for sophomore running back Jamaurion Berry. Two rushing TDs and a receiving. The Trinity offense looked much improved from prior weeks. That is especially true through the air with Johnson looking more poised and that receiving corp being more consistent. Big credit to the Trinity D in the redzone. Carmel had a chance to get in the end zone twice early in this one but had to settle for field goals. Really helped give the Rocks momentum early to build up for the win.

Another tough opponent awaits the Shamrocks. Last week the Rocks were physically dominated at the line on both sides of the football. Will be very interesting to see how this team responds on Friday - especially with many younger guys in key roles.

Coming into this game, I'd say its a coin flip. I like the Rocks by one touchdown at home. The Trinity defense has been very, very good through two games. That D-Line and especially Bailey Vance and Jahbarri Frost have helped lead the way. Haven't seen any of Center Grove this year but stats show the Trojans have been able to sling the ball around this year so far. Can that group from T continue to break through to the backfield against one of Indiana's best?

Rocks move to 2-0 on the young season. Both wins have come on the road against two of Lexington's top programs. Credit to FD tonight as they were able to keep it close early and made some sparks late. The T D-line was dominant for most of the game. Difference was mistakes - turnovers and penalties for FD. The called back FD return and the muffed punt in the first half were maybe the biggest. Dug FD a hole they couldn't dig out of. As @16thBBall Fan noted, not much separation on the stat sheet beyond those four FD turnovers. T has two wins versus good fellow 6A opponents. Both wins came with defense playing a big role as the offense seems to still be a work in progress. Center Grove (Ind.) for the home opener next week and Carmel (Ind.) on the road the following week will give the Rocks two more major test. Those are followed by, arguably, their two most important regular season games - Male and St. X. The pressure never let's ups on the Rocks. Last year, T started with Bryan Station and FD and ended with FD and Bryan Station. Have to wonder if the Rocks see either the Defenders or Broncos later in the year once again.