In the CCMS/HMS game, Judgement has been rendered

As forewarned in the article published on this site August 27, 2018 and entitled A Game which MATTERS…, nobody on the Orange and Black side of town pats you on the back for beating the Todd County Central Rebels. You are judged more by how your team principally performs against the Christian County Middle’s of the football world and not how you play against the Little Sisters of the Poor convent school. Last night for Coach Southerland’s HMS Tigers was Judgement Day and the thousands of fans who attended were the jury. Well, the verdict has returned in the form of a 30-0 beat down at the hands of the cross-town rivals which left onlookers impressed the Colonels had taken it easy on the Tigers and could have beaten them even worse.

Before we detail the 8th grade game, however, we would note the 7th grade team, coached by Coach Nason, performed very well in losing, narrowly, 14-6. Andrew Nason, whom we have before featured on this on-line publication, was fantastic offensively, on special teams, and defensively for the 7th grade team and demonstrated he will be a player whom will have to be in the opponent’s game plan going forward. Nason demonstrated tremendous wiggle and burst  with the ball in his hands pressing the edge for big chunks of yardage. Nason throws the ball well too, as he is a young QB with the full accoutrement of skills, its just that there is generally no one able to get open and catch it in 7th grade football. Even CCMS’ star, 2024 QB, Joshuah Keith, who threw the ball effectively in the 8th grade game, struggled to find anyone in the 7th grade game to target. If there was a bright spot during the Tigers’ evening, the play of Coach Nason’s 7th grade team, and the way it competed against a vastly better opponent, was it.

In the eighth grade game it was pretty much the JT Adams show on both sides of the football for the Colonels. Of course, JT is an All-American, middle school linebacker, so his play was what one might expect. Adams wasn’t alone among the standouts for the Colonels as when it wasn’t Adams running through the Tiger defense, it was tailback Cyrus Greenwade doing the honors. What we saw offensively from the Colonels was I-formation when Keith was under center with Adams at fullback and Greenwade aligned at tailback behind Adams. It appeared, to KPGFootball, Adams ran almost exclusively between the tackles and when the Colonels wanted to press the edge, it was tossed to Greenwade who may have been the faster of the two, but not by much as both players exhibited plenty of separation speed for players their age.

Equally impressive as the Colonels ground attack was its ability to align in the Pistol and let Joshuah Keith let it fly. Keith is a cool customer in the pocket and not easily flushed, but mobile enough to make a play for you should he be flushed from the pocket. Keith works through his progressions well and finds open receivers to target down the field. We have before featured Joshuah Keith whom we believe to be the second best QB, in Kentucky, in his class behind only North Oldham’s Cole Hodge. Keith attended the Murray State University football camp this past summer where he was awarded the Top Gun Award for QBs. The camp hosted players aged 7th through 12th grade so the Top Gun Award, going to a 7th grader, is an absolute indication of Keith’s extraordinary ability.

After last night’s game, the Colonels 8th grade team, which is now 3-0 without having surrendered a single point all year, faces next a tough customer in Caldwell County Middle School. According to the published schedule for the Hopkinsville Tigers, they will get the privilege of enjoying an invasion from the Mayfield Cardinals on September 6 in advance of road trips to both Graves County and Logan County, before coming back home to face Browning Springs and Christian County (again). Hopkinsville is now 1-2 on the year with a remaining schedule leaving Tiger fans wondering from where wins, additional to the one it has now, will come.

Famed author Charles Dickens once famously observed, about the French Revolution, in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the following…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. Chapter 1, the Period.

The above words were veritably harkened into my consciousness over the course of watching the 8th grade game at CCMS last evening. It appeared the best of times, for CCMS, as it played a talented Tiger squad which appeared to be suffering through the worst of times. The Colonel fans appeared to feel as though their team had summoned the epoch of belief while the Tiger fans appeared to feel as though they were suffering through the epoch of incredulity. For the Colonels, it has been a season of Light and for the Tigers it was beginning to appear the very sun was setting on this ill-fated season of darkness. Perhaps the most poignant Dickinsonian-like observation from last night was KPGFootball’s belief we were seeing the best Colonel 8th grade football team we have seen since coming online. As Charles Dickens would probably write, had he been around to see what we saw last night, this Colonel team is enjoying a spring of hope and should feel it has everything before [it].

Reporting for KPGFootball, this is Fletcher Long reminding all of you ballers out there that #WeGotUCovered and to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE.