🎶Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee…🎶
Sometimes, in football, you can be looking forward to a matchup so intensely you end up losing a couple games instead of just the one. That may have happened to North Hopkins as they dropped consecutive games to Apollo and Owensboro Senior to slide into Thursday night’s match-up with Warren Central. There was no “hang over” when the Mops on Top hit Bowling Green. The Maroons (8-2) hung a 52-12 on Warren Central (3-7) in route to a date with Greenwood next week in the KHSAA 5A playoffs, first round. For the Dragons from Warren Central, it is basketball season from henceforth until next autumn.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Madisonville, KY: Madisonville just played Warren Central’s Dragons on Thursday night (October 30, 2025). The 52-12 victory moved Madisonville’s regular season record to 8-2 and helped prepare (we hope) the Maroons for a date, next weekend, with Greenwood’s Gators (6-4) in Bowling Green.
Dragons are big, tough, mean, ornery, and formidable reptiles, like the Dragons which live on the isle of Komodo, for instance. Gators are also big, tough, mean, ornery, and formidable reptiles.
The “Dragons” are the Warren Central mascot. According to the Oxford online Dictionary, a “Dragon” is a mythical monster resembling a giant reptile, sometimes shown as having wings.
That isn’t how the word, “Dragon” has always been defined. Its definition changed after the discovery of the term, Dinosaur.
The word “dinosaur” didn’t exist in the English language until 1842. The word “dinosaur” was coined by English anatomist and early paleontologist, Sir Richard Owen.
Owen combined the Greek words deinos (meaning “terrible” or “fearfully great, formidable”) and sauros (meaning “lizard”) to create Dinosauria, or “terrible, formidable lizards”. How were the terribly formidable lizards referenced prior to Sir Richard Owen? They were called dragons.
Dragons are nearly universal figures in cultures worldwide, appearing in the mythology and folklore of Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. However, their depiction and symbolic meaning vary dramatically by region.
Perhaps Dragons were more than mythological beings. Perhaps they were dinosaurs actually seen, experienced, and survived by early hominids or archaic forms of Homo erectus, upright men.
All of that discourse is above our pay grade and intelligence. We can tell you this, Dragons, however they may be described, appeared to be no physical match for the Maroons this past Thursday night.
Madisonville rode 346-yards rushing and 53-timely yards passing to a 52-12 victory over Warren Central. Mr. Football candidate, Markezz Hightower, rushed for 173-yards while Ryder Sandidge contributed 93-yards of his own and two rushing TDs.
The offensive line, anchored by All-State candidate, Kadence Price, and its sixth OL, All-State TE, Jayden Travis, helped clear the pathway for those 346-rushing yards on the night. Travis also snagged a 40-or-so yard pass right down the seem for a downfield explosive play in the passing game.
…[T]eams rushing for around 350-yards rarely lose…
Friday Night Fletch
As for the ground game, you will find teams rushing for around 350-yards rarely lose. We just thought we would point that out. That is why teams look to pound the ground the later in the playoff rounds a team advances.
The Maroon defense, anchored by Kirk LaGrange, held Warren Central to 67-yards on the ground and 266-yards combined. The Maroons finish the regular season 8-2 while the Dragons ended its year 3-7, missing out on the playoffs.
The Maroon will now get ready to return to Bowling Green, next Friday night. They will open the playoffs against an altogether different reptilian, the Greenwood Gators.
The Gators are tough, ornery, formidable customers who have lost games this season by a single point (21-20) to Logan County and by three (3) points (17-14) to defending 5A, KHSAA football champion, Bowling Green (Senior) High. Borrowing from the universal use of the word “Dragon” for all things scary, formidable, and reptilian existing pre-1842; the breed of “Dragon” the Maroons will encounter this coming weekend will prove much more daunting than 🎶…the magic dragon (which) lived by the sea\And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee…🎶 if you catch my drift.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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