Okay guys, time to crow a little. We selected 89 first round games to pick a winner in Round I of the KHSAA football playoffs. There were 95 game and se failed to pick a winner in 6 of those, which was an accident and not intentional. However, in the 89 games for which we picked a winner, we were correct in 79 of those for a winning percentage of .88764045. Don’t care who you are, that is pretty dad-burn good. What can we say, we aren’t the foremost authority in HS football in Kentucky for nothing. This week we will go right down the brackets and pick the teams we believe will go on to round 3, or the Regional Championship. We will do this by Classifications.
Class 1A;
Crittenden County over Rusellville; We didn’t expect Russellville to get out of round one. They have played better and better as the year has progressed which tells me there’s some coaching going on around there. Still, Crittenden County is the best 1A team on the western end of Kentucky outside of Louisville.
Holy Cross over Bethlehem;
KCD over Eminence;
Newport Central Catholic over Ludlow;
Nicholas County over Bishop Brossart;
Raceland over Paintsville; Taking the upset here in picking Raceland. We just think Raceland is a more experience playoff team in recent years though no denying Paintsville has “been there before” too.
Pikeville over Hazard;
Williamsburg over Lynn Camp.
Class 2A;
Mayfield over Murray;
Owensboro Catholic over McLean;
Edmonson County over Clinton;
Somerset over LCA; Hard to beat a team twice, especially when they are equally matched.
Walton-Verona over Owen County;
Beechwood over Newport;
Breathitt County over Middlesboro; The Riverbank should be rocking Friday night. This Middlesboro team is a better squad than the first game’s 57-7 margin the Bobcats put on them in Middlesboro would indicate. Are they good enough to overcome the Bobcats in the Holcomb Athletic Complex? We don’t believe they are.
West Carter over Shelby Valley.
Class 3A;
Paducah Tilghman over Union County;
Glasgow over Taylor County;
E-Towen over Bardstown; This one is a toss-up. E-Town has “been there” so many times in the past.
DeSales over CAL; End of the road for CAL as DeSales has to be considered a “favorite” to see Kroger Field, if not win it.
Bell County over “The Rock;”
Fleming Co. over Mason County;
Ashland Blazer over Russell;
Belfry over Pike County Central If Pike Central can put two halves together instead of playing tough for a half and then fading in the 3rd and 4th quarters, this one could be a tight contest.
Class 4A;
Madisonville North-Hopkins over Hoptown; That round one, near debacle against Calloway County has “shaken” our confidence in the Tigers.
Franklin-Simpson over ACS; ACS has been coming on of late. Franklin-Simpson wins district round games in District 2 because of the name on the front of the jersey.
Moore over John Hardin;
Franklin County over Central; This one may be the best game in Class 4A’s second round. We like Franklin County, but not by very much.
Boyle County over Lexington Catholic; This will be the end of a fantastic high school career for QB Beau Allen. Good luck in the Mr. Football race and at UK!
Holmes over Scott;
Corbin over Wayne County; We believe Corbin will be a tough out after having experience what amount to a tough year for them.
Johnson Central over Harlan County Won’t be close, sorry Bear fans.
Class 5A;
Owensboro (Sr.) over Graves County; Blow-out.
South Warren over Bowling Green; Don’t know what to make of this one. BG has the home field but South Warren travels well, particularly across town. We think Brandon Smith is one of the better head coaches in Kentucky. That usually factors this time of year between teams equal in talent.
Fairdale over Bullitt Central;
South Oldham over North Bullitt;
Covington Catholic over Conner;
Frederick Douglass over Scott County; This will be a tough 2nd round game in the 5A Class.
Madison Southern over East Jessamine; This one will go either way. Taking the visitors because we believe them to be better along the offensive front with Duane Jackson anchoring the O-Line.
Southwestern over Whitley County.
Class 6A;
Henderson County over McCracken County; They don’t call him “2nd-Round Clark” for nothing. Marc Clark has done a masterful job coaching this team. This would be a good year for him to break out from his career string of not getting past the second round. Game will be exciting.
North Hardin over Central Hardin;
DuPont Manual over St. Xavier; Man-o-man, was it tempting to go with St. Xavier in this one. Going to ride it out with the Crimson, as they have some of the best talent on any roster anywhere in the commonwealth.
Male over Fern Creek;
Trinity (Louisville) over Ballard;
Simon Kenton over Dixie Heights;
Tates Creek over Paul Laurence Dunbar;
Oldham County over George Rogers Clark.
That’s how we see round 2 shaking out this coming Friday night. Don’t worry if we didn’t pick your team to win, we are wrong like one in 10 or so times anyway.
Reporting for KPGFootball, this is HB Lyon, reminding all of you ballers out there that #WeGotUCovered and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
If you enjoyed this article and wish to gain full-access to the site, then subscribe monthly to Kentucky Prep Gridiron by following the prompts!
Leave a Reply