Watusi

3A Letcher County Central Cougars will travel to 2A Belfry Pirates on Halloween Eve, Friday October 30th The cougars are 5-4 and have won their last 2 games against Powell Co and Magoffin Co by a combined score of 87-8. They finished 3rd in 3A District 8 and will travel to Knox Central the following week for the first round of the 3A playoffs. The Pirates are 8-1 and have won their last 4 games against Pike Central, East Ridge, Betsy Layne and Shelby Valley by a combined score of 197-8. Belfry finished 1st in 2A District 8 and will host Martin County the following week in the first round of the 2A playoffs. Historically, Belfry and Letcher have played 5 times with Belfry winning all 5. Last year the Pirates traveled to the beautiful stadium at Letcher Central and won handily, 42-14. However, the last time the Cougars travelled to Belfry, in 2024 it was a barn burner that Belfry finally won 35-34. Will this be one of those spooky nights where unexplained things lead to an upset? Is the Cougar a black cat? Is the Pirate ship a "ghost" ship? Who gets the treat, who gets tricked?

Time?

Final 48-0

48-0

42-0

Belfry 35-0 about 2 min left

I hope JC can keep up the momentum. A win here would be good for them (and for Belfrys RPI)

After a blocked punt and 2 more offensive plays the Pirates take a 28-0 lead 7:19 2nd qtr

Belfry up 21-0 About 9:20 to go 2nd qtr Pirates have only run 4 plays and have had less than 1 minute time of possession

Yes if Beechwood finishes below both Ocath and Mayfield, then they would travel most likely the winner of the regional final game between Ocath and Mayfield. The semifinals would likely include (in order of RPI) LCA, Ocath or Mayfield, Beechwood and Belfry. Belfry would would travel to LCA and Beechwood would travel to that winner of Ocath or Mayfield

Most of the playoff picture in Kentucky High School Football will be decided after a full slate of district games this week across the Commonwealth. In one of those meaningful tilts, Belfry (7-1) travels across Pike County to play Shelby Valley (5-3) on Friday night. The winner will own the 2A District 8 crown for another year, and will have the upper hand in hosting playoff games the first couple of weeks. Both squads have proven their mettle and have clearly been the two best teams in the district this season. Both of these teams are 3-0 in district play with each having defeated Pike Central, East Ridge and Betsy Layne. Belfry outscored those teams by a total score of 149-8 and Shelby Valley was nearly as impressive, outscoring their district mates by a total score of 132-42. Betsy Layne has never beaten Belfry in 12 meetings, however 11 of those games were played more than 15 years ago. Last season is the only recent result, where Belfry won 47-7.

Preach on Brother TH58, you are spot on!!

The RPI is flawed, and using it for playoff seeding suffers, no doubt. This is a glaring example. I suspect Trinity couldn't care less, as they knew the rules when they made their schedule and they would rather challenge themselves than worry about seeding. The bigger issue for me is this. No matter what system you use for payoff seeding purposes, the travesty is seeding the semifinals with no east/west division. No high school team should have to travel 8 hours for a game of that magnitude.

There's no place like home. Belfry (6-1) returns home to host district opponent Betsy Layne (2-5) at Philip Haywood Stadium There is not much better than high school football in October in the mountains. The cooler weather brings out the fall colors and the nip in the air is just right for a Friday night. And there is no better place than the friendly confines of Belfry High School. As Dorothy said "There's no place like home" which was borrowed from lyrics by John Howard Payne who wrote in 1823 “Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!"🙂 Belfry has never lost to Betsy Layne holding a 6-0 advantage against the Bobcats. Their first meeting was in 1987, and then they were district mates from 1999-2002. The two teams never played again until they rejoined 2A, District 8 last season where Belfry won 48-7 on the road at Bobcat Stadium. The Pirates have outscored the Bobcats 300 to 19 in those 6 previous games. This one may not be much different, as the two teams are not quite on the same level. However, Betsy Layne has had quite a bit of success under Coach Jarrell, who has a record of 38-26 at the school and have played competitively with the district opponents not named Belfry. Maybe this is the week for a monumental upset in 2A?

Final 40-0 East Ridge is improved and they have a good core of players. Sophomore QB Canaan Ramey runs the offense well and Senior RB Talon Jordan is a workhorse in the backfield. I hope they can build on this success and keep improving moving forward. It is really good to see.