Hearsay

The Tigers go through a District stretch with 0-5 Mercer County, 1-4 Casey County, and 2-2 Garrard County in a lead-up to a crucial Oct. 17 matchup against Lexington Catholic. For the latter two games of this stretch, the Tigers will be on Fall Break. It is CRUCIAL that they maintain the focus and rigor of practices leading up to Lex Cath, with attention to the basics - blocking, tackling, route tree, assignments, special teams and kicking game - and avoid injuries. This is NOT the time to get fancy and creative. Bardstown has historically lacked focus during Fall Break.

Evenly matched. Edge to the home team.

I think this a pretty good list based upon available evidence. 1 is clear. 2 is clear, based upon opponents. 3-5 is right spot, even though I think Glasgow's defense might make them a notch above. 6-10 could go in any order. None of them have beaten anybody impressive yet.

While this has become a nice district rivalry, Bethlehem just doesn’t have the firepower to keep up. While Jack Bradley is a competent QB, they have depth issues with a 30-man roster and extreme youth on the lines, which showed surrendering 42 points to an average Garrard County squad. Bethlehem is a year or two away from re-emerging as a threat.

What goes up must inevitably come down, and the bubble burst for the Bardstown Tigers Friday, suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of Owensboro Catholic 56-30. Bardstown (4-1), did score three second-half TD’s after falling behind 31-9 at halftime as sophomore wideout Chi Poynter continues to put the opposition on notice, but the Tiger defense could not keep pace as a bevy of chunk plays and pass interference penalties led to score after score by the Aces. They will try to right the ship this week in the District opener on the road against the Craig Yeast-coached Titans (0-5), who fell to Southwestern Friday 59-30. Led by QB Cornelius Mapp, Mercer County had its highest scoring output of the year, but gave up 53+ points for the fourth time this season. The titans have played the tougher schedule early, so whichever defense is able to shore up mistakes will likely take this one.

Final.

56-30, OC. 2:10 left.

50-30 OC. 5:41 to go

At the time of that last score, 9:33

50-23

44-23

38-17 OC, 7:39 3rd qtr.

Bardstown’s TD was a pick-6. Doesn’t sound like the Tigers have done much offensively.

Now 24-3. Carothers with TD passes x3.

Owensboro Times reports OC 17 Bardstown 3 mid-2nd qtr.

I'm 53 and old school and frankly was happy when players wore neckrolls, a uniform had a number and no name, personal recognition might be a sticker on a helmet, the sportwriters ranked the colleges and there were bowl games January 1st and then the season was over. Ditto for high schools. What we are doing to kids is downright criminal. Want to know why we are where we are as a country? Look no further than the monstrosity that sports has become. But I digress. Not everyone gets a trophy. Schools don't need "boosts" for their programs, essentially life support or affirmative action to make things competetive. Doing that only hamstrings kids later. The formula is, always has been, and always will be, find the right people to lead, install physical programs, get kids to buy in, coach football, turn losing into winning. See, I.e., Logan County, Hart County, others. Go back to 4 classes. Expand districts. Make district play mean something again. District champs get in, the others by a ranking system. 16-team, 4-week playoffs, including the title game. Very simple. If the KHSAA wants to do something, spend a bunch of money on recruitment, training, and investigation of actual by-golly football coaches, from head coach on down to SID's. That's my "get off my lawn" .02. Its my opinion, ought to be yours.

Any injury reports/updates for this game?

This is not the same 'ol Marion County. They are much better. Not great, but better. I'm calling the Marion County upset 26-21.

I've said before that I would reserve judgment on Bardstown until after the OCath game. If they are very competetive the spot may be earned even if they don't prevail.

Lexington Catholic v. Bardstown here is a couple weeks. New LexCath head coach David Clark visits his old team, a place he worked and coached since 1997, and it will likely be for the 3A District 4 title and the chance to avoid CAL in Round 2. Topic: Bylaw 6 - Dead or Alive? Question: What are the Best Kept-Secret Fishing Holes of Larry French in Kentucky?

Bardstown sophomore wideout Chi Poynter now has 17 catches for 410 yards and 5 TD’s. He has shown great versatility, Friday night catching a sideline stop pattern, a slant out of the slot, a bubble screen, a medium-range seam, and a deep go pattern. He also demonstrates great RAC ability for a kid with a 6’4” frame.

Bardstown has strung together 2 consecutive dominant performances, with a balanced offensive attack and stingy defense. They could stand to cut back on penalties, but I like their chances to make this a very competetive game. The emergence of the passing game, short, intermediate and deep, has been impressive.

Reviewing this, Bardstown generated over 500 yards of total offense, balanced between short, medium, and long-range throws, edge running and effective up the middle running, including a draw game. This was the best game of the year for senior FB/LB Devin Newsome. Running inside adds an element to Sevyn Hamilton’s outside success. The Tiger line controlled the line of scrimmage from the first drive. Time of possession was lopsidedly in favor of Bardstown. Considering Bardstown had graduated 4 of their 5 starting OL, I have been impressed with the rapid development of the new starters. That’s good coaching.

A player worthy of recognition tonight for Bardstown was defensive back Ackrid “KJ” Stafford. He had several passes defensed and held Nelson County star wide receiver Jacob Reynolds to 0 receptions. Another is junior linebacker Lucas Wilcher whose combination of speed and strength makes him lethal in both run defense and pass rush.

Tigers use a combination of punishing, long drives and explosive single plays to dominate the Cardinals. Sevyn Hamilton with 3 scoring runs to complement 2 Carson Riley TD passes, and the Tiger defense had impressive pass defense and a strong rush. Bardstown had a huge amount of penalty yardage and 3 turnovers they will need to overcome as they head out to Owensboro Catholic next week.