Watusi

Nothing to see here, keep moving folks ?

District Play Begins Belfry (4-1) at Pike Central (1-3) The Belfry Pirates make the short cross county trip on Friday to tangle with district foe, the Pike County Central Hawks. These two programs are familiar with one another and were 3A district mates for many years until Pike Central dropped to 2A in 2022. The series has been very one-sided with Belfry winning all 33 meetings between the two programs. The average score of those 33 meetings has been 47.2 to 8.7 for an average margin of victory of 38.5 points per game. Is there anything in the 2025 editions of the two teams that suggests the trend will not continue? Maybe Belfry comes down from the high of beating Pikeville and doesn't prepare for Pike Central?

It was astounding to read that. JC has a lot going on right now on offense for sure. I remember Belfry putting up about 525 on Owensboro Catholic in the 2004 title game. That was impressive as well.

I want to give a big kudos to Coach Macnamee for a solid gesture last night. It was a very classy move maybe not everyone caught. The panthers lined up for their fist play from scrimmage in a double tight wishbone formation. An obvious tip of the cap to Coach Philip Haywood from the Panthers. Thank you Coach. That was special and gave me a lump in my throat. Well done!!

This was a great win for Belfry. It’s always good to beat Pikeville but especially in this fashion. Belfry isn’t 6 touchdowns better than Pikeville. The Pirates got some breaks, some of which they created and some that Pikeville helped them with. But there was Zero doubt who was the better team on the field at Philip Haywood Stadium last night. Glad to see the defense put in the really strong effort. They were menacing last night. We are seeing some guys really mature into their roles and to me that bodes well. Defense wins championships so let’s hope this improvement continues. The remainder of the schedule is going to be less challenging than the first half, unfortunately.

Honestly nobody really expected them to. They have a veteran team with several 3 and 4 year starters playing and they returned a ridiculous 18 out of 22 starters from last season. The coaching staff stayed intact, including several coaches who have been on staff for 20 plus years and a couple of them over 30 years. And almost the whole staff played for Coach Haywood in this same system. They have a program who enjoys tremendous administrative and community support. And maybe most importantly of all, there is some extra motivation in that locker room.

It’s a good day to be a Pirate ?‍☠️

Score?

It’s my kind of stick.

The CAO Brazilia was a good suggestion.

It is close enough ?

I finally got it right after editing it about 10 times. I can't brain today, I got the dumb.

According to BHS facebook post it should be here... http://fan.hudl.com/belfry_pirates

Given both team's body of work thus far, I too think it is a very even matchup. A 7-10 point game in favor of either team would not surprise me at all. But I have been surprised often in the past in this series, lol. As much as I want to see the Panthers lose every week, I respect the heck out of their program and what they have done, consistently. Coach Mac is a class act and I really like him. His teams are always in the hunt and he does a great job there.

I guess it’s not just me… everybody hates Pikeville ?

@Carlito what is the word in Panther Land this week?

I agree. The missing pieces for Belfry are big ones. Bogar’s injury hurts a lot on both sides of the ball in the trenches. Davis has filled in very well at FB for Austin but it forces him to play both ways. In small school football even a couple injuries can have a huge impact on depth. But it is part of the game and it’s “next man up” time. If there’s a silver lining it is still early in the season and there is lots of time to gain experience for a playoff run.

As a very old Pirate fan, there is nothing quite like Pikeville week.

2A Belfry and 1A Pikeville have seemingly always played each other in football. There are years here or there where they did not match up, but starting in 1928 they have played 81 times in 97 years. This is one of the oldest, most historic and hotly contested series in Kentucky. Both teams have build ultra winning traditions in their respective programs. Pikeville and Belfry have each won 8 state championships. Belfry leads the all time record 40-39-2. Pikeville comes into the game with a 2-2 record against very good competition. They lost to 3A CAL, who probably beats 99% of the teams in KY in all classes, and to 4A Johnson Central by 3 scores. Their signature win was one of the best in the Commonwealth this season. They rallied against Raceland to win 35-27 after being down 27-0 with about 16 minutes left in the game. So they can score in bunches. Belfry is 3-1 on the season with the lone loss coming 2 weeks ago to the same Johnson Central team 46-21. Belfry has played well in their 3 wins and have put up good numbers, albeit against a lower level of competition than the Panthers. They have thrown the ball more than one might expect from a Pirate team, but the completion % has been fairly low. The Pirates have lost a couple of key players to injury. Last year's leading rusher JJ Austin tore an ACL and OL/DL Kaden Bogar is out with a lower leg fracture. Starting tailback Ace Caudill has also been nursing injury and did not play against Southwestern. Wins and Losses between the two have been strange this decade. Belfry won 17 out of 18 from 2001-2018 then Pikeville won 5 in a row. The Pirates finally got back in the win column in 2024. Who will prevail in this one? Can't wait to find out.

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? It constantly changes. 4:23 to go in the 3rd on the VTS scoreboard. Or belfry leads 7-6 on the VTS scoreboard. et cetera.

Best crew around these parts for sure. You can really follow the game when listening to them. Bobby keeps the sponsors happy too, mentioning them very often throughout the game. I look forward to hearing the Dr Josh Leonard stat update and whatever the info is from the Varney's Tax Service scoreboard. LOL

It just feels right.

Yes sir you are right. My bad.

Not much more to say than the above. These two traded body blows for quite a while and went punch for punch, but JC got in a couple knockdowns and the Pirates never could really get back in it. Field position was huge thanks to special teams. Turnovers at crucial times hurt Belfry and JC capitalized on them. The Eagles went to power football in the 2nd half, especially after getting up by a couple scores and that proved too much for Belfry as they couldn't consistently stop the ground game. The Eagles' team speed was impressive, and they really neutralized Belfry's efforts to get to the edge. Hated to see Dalton Matney with injury. He left the game, came back, then left again. Not sure of the nature of it, but I hope he is ok.