Hearsay

If you read chat boards and listen to gossip, the barbarians are at the gate in Cecilia. Henderson puts a running clock on the Bruins.

Is the question who would win a game between the two this season, or which one is Kentucky’s flagship program?

The Generals (0-2), having their facilities remodeled, will be the home team playing on the road at Bardstown (1-1) Friday night. The Tigers rebounded from a disappointing opening week loss to Cooper with a solid if unspectacular victory Friday night 27-0 over Taylor County, garnering the first-ever victory for new head coach Justin Grundy. Bardstown spread the wealth, getting a 41 yard TD run from junior Sevyn Hamilton, a 36 yard TD run from junior Jayven Montgomery, and 2 TD passes by sophomore QB Carson Riley, one each to seniors Riley Hatfield and Tykeem Taul-Williams. Joe Peake’s Thomas Nelson squad is struggling. Led by Senior RB Cade Benningfield, the Generals fell to Washington County 21-0, and have failed to score in their first two contests. With less than 30 players on the sideline, it looks unlikely that the Generals will avenge last year’s 52-0 loss to Bardstown or achieve their first-ever victory over the Tigers. In addition, TNHS lost a popular senior athlete (non-football) to a car accident Friday night, which will undoubtedly cast a pallor over the hearts and minds of the players, school and community.

Congratulations to Tiger Head Coach Justin Grundy on getting his first win as a varsity head coach. Justin is a ‘02 Bardstown alum, was a Captain of the Tigers 2001 AA state championship team, and a two-year starter and team captain at EKU.

Tigers take care of business at home on Hall of Fame night. Make no mistake, this was not a clean, pretty win, but it was an improvement over last week. One bright point: 4 different Tigers found the end zone, with good balance. Sevyn Hamilton and Javen Montgomery got running scores, and sophomore Carson Riley threw TD passes to Riley Hatfield and Tykeem Taul-Williams. The Tiger run defense was pretty stout, but the pass defense suspect. Taylor freshmen QB Shannon Lofton left the game 3Q with an apparent leg injury, and we wish him well.

This seems tighter than perhaps many anticipated. What say you @Hardin County Preps?

Final.

The kickoff of this game is at 8 p.m. The Bardstown-Taylor Middle School game that had been scheduled for 6 p.m. preceding has now been moved to Saturday morning due to heat concerns. The game can be watched on the Bardstown Media YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/bardstownmedia/live. As with the home opener every year at Garnis Martin Field, it is Hall of Fame Night and 4 new Tigers will be added to the rolls of the immortal inside the Tiger Den.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - last week had the pleasure of a BGP recommendation and ended up eating at Boomtown Biscuits and Whiskey, 9039 U.S. 42, Union, Kentucky. https://www.boomtownbiscuitsandwhiskey.com/ This restaurant is in the front strip of the Kroger shooping center, and it is less than 5 minutes from Cooper's field. Not a huge restaurant, seating was about 15 tables or so, plus a modest-sized but reallt neat bar area with about 8-10 stools and a lot of excellent bourbon choices. Decor is dark, old-west wood and brass, with a bourbon theme. Place was about half-full at 5:30, dress was casual. Boomtown really does drinks up big. They had a large specialty cocktail menu. I ended up having a beer, but Mrs. Hearsay had a whiskey sour and liked it (lush). The menu itself features something I've never seen before, appetizer biscuits with a "flight" of gravies (much like a flight of bourbon shots or beers, just with gravy). Several choices, we got a flight with geotta cheese gravy, sawmill gravy, and a creole pepper gravy. The biscuits are excellent - hot and moist inside and crispy, flaky outside. The gravies were also very good. There were several other appetizer options that are unsusual, with chutneys and flavored butters and such. The entree menu is also diverse, with lots of breakfast for supper platters, and plenty of things with potatoes, then sandwiches, and similar items. The main entreees, though had meatloaf, steaks, and home cookin. Mom Hearsay had the meatloaf, which was the dense version some places do rather than the fluffier-tomatoey version. It was OK. Mrs. Hearsay, Dad Hearsay, and Hearsay, all settled upon the fried catfish platter, which came with collard greens, cheese grits, and pickled cabbage. Portion sizes are huge, none of us finished our full platter, which is saying something if you've seen me. The sides were first rate. The catfish was really heavily breaded and perhaps a tad too salty. If I were to return I would opt instead for the large assortment of breakfast for supper platters and just up my dose of insulin. Everything comes with bicuits, as a place called "Boomtown Biscuits" is to be expected. Dad Hearsay picked up the tab for everyone, so I didn't look at the full bill but from the menu these were all in the medium range. Service was excellent, the owner or curator moved around the place, server was really knowledgeable about the unusual menu options, and we were in an out in about an hour. This place is a 7.6 on the Portnoy Scale. Good. If I were in the area, I would go back, certainly worth trying if you're in the local neighborhood.

I thought E-Town was supposed to be down this year. Signs of life?

Is that Lofton?

How long do the Bruin faithful give Stockdale if the season is a dumpster fire?

I’d say the top 6 are in there all year. The bottom 4 could be musical chairs, with Desales, and possibly Logan County and Spencer County making arguments. Desales-NO this week is a big game.

One of those Smiths graduated, the other went to FD, and apparently 6 or 7 guys went to Campbellsville. QB I think is a freshmen. FS/KR Tylan Spalding came from Bardstown.

This one is a tough one. Tompkins and Schmittel are a formidable WR duo, but I think my old teammate Mike Jackson has got the Colts headed in the right direction. Those two wideouts may have trouble getting off the line of scrimmage and then it’s a question of the NO run game. I'm gonna say Desales 27 NO 23

Some of us advocated for that in the offseason and I actually falsely believed it was a done deal in spring practice. Cannot pinpoint why it wasn’t.

Atherton has been on the uptick in recent years and beat KCD, perennially one of the top teams in Class A. WEB Dubois beat Thomas Nelson, one of the weakest football programs in the state. I will go with Atherton.

Two Class 4A hopefuls with disappointing opening week performances face off in the home opener at Bardstown. The Tigers (0-1) traveled to Cooper and mustered less than 200 yards of total offense, falling 36-6. While the much maligned Tiger pass defense actually defended reasonably well against the Jaguars Cam O’Hara until late in the first half when the wheels fell off, they got little help from the offense, plagued by dropped passes and inconsistent play calls. LB Caden Farrell led the defense with 9 tackles. WR Riley Hatfield was a lone bright spot offensively with 5 receptions for 62 yards. The Cardinals (0-1), suffering from a player exodus in the offseason that leaves them with just 38 players on the sideline, will be looking to rebound from a 54-14 drubbing at the hands of Woodford County on Saturday. While QB Lofton appears to have impressive athletic skills, including a couple of Mahomes-ian acrobatic passes, he got little in support and a fairly anemic run attack despite a huge offensive line. The Cardinals won this matchup in blowout fashion last season in Campbellsville, arguably Bardstown’s worst game of the season. Can the Tigers get revenge against a depleted Taylor squad this year?

Taylor County had less than 40 players on the sideline. Couple of big lineman who wore out before halftime. QB Lofton (freshman?) a very athletic talent, but little supporting cast. Woodford looked really good. QB uncorked a TD pass on last play of first half that traveled 62 yards on the fly.

Not what we had hoped for.

Tiger defense actually better than I expected. Offense is anemic, play calling leaves a lot to be desired. Up the middle run game actually had some success but for whatever reason we have abandoned it.

I'm going to go with Owensboro in the upset. Having watched and tracked CAL the past couple seasons, and then preseason this year, the firepower just does not seem the same. I could be wrong. They can print my post and use it as bulletin board material if they like.

My heart wants to argue with you like I did last season, but my head knows what my eyes have seen.

The Tigers are primed and ready for a long trip up to Union, Kentucky for a re-match with the Jaguars. In last years 35-14 skewering in the opener at Bardstown, the Jags sputtered early but were able to turn to their big dogs for long TD's, and got 20+ tackles from now graduated senior linebacker Jack Lonaker enroute to a state runner-up berth in 5A. Most of those big dogs (less Lonaker) are back, including Junior QB Cam O'Hara, the state's top-rated QB and four-star recruit DE Austin Alexander. In contrast, Bardstown is very different this year, with a new head coach, Justin Grundy, taking the helm in place of retired HC David Clark, and have graduated the school's all-time leading rusher, Ty Ty Williams, now playing on scholarship at Campbellsville. Another significant difference from last year's game will be the Tiger passing game, which was non-existent to start the season last year and allowed Lonaker and the Jag defense to put 8-9 in the box to stop the run. Bardstown returns QB Amonti Marshall who improved over the course of the season, but also will see reps from sophomore QB Carson Riley who has had nice showings in scrimmages against Somerset and LexCath. Senior WR Riley Hatfield, who did not join Bardstown until he transferred from Larue County mid-point last year, is the top Tiger weapon at wideout. In addition, the Tigers have 2 300+ lb. offensive tackles in seniors Tyler Harmon and Nate King, who lead the way for the running-back-by-committee approach now manned by Senior Kenyin Calhoun and Juniors Sevyn Hamilton and Devin Newsome. The Tigers linebacker corps is very solid, with Newsome, Senior Kaden Stone and Senior Caden Farrell returning to lead a run defense that did a pretty decent job against the Jags last year. Alas, the Achilles Heel for Bardstown last year was pass defense, and the scrimmages have shown that trend to be continuing. No doubt, Air O'Hara & Co. have watched those films with the glee of a fat kid eyeballing a chocolate cake. If the Tigers do not come up with a solid plan to contain the Jaguar pass game, there will be nothing left of them but the crumbs.

Any updates on this team? Scrimmages, etc.?