Saturday Night’s Weekly Winners…

As is custom, we select certain games which are from areas where we get the most hits to highlight the teams from those ares. We published a few days ago who we thought would win on Friday night. Now, we will go in and pick some Saturday games of interest in areas which have shown interest in us.

Bell County vs. Collins…

Bell County is one of the best teams in the commonwealth, classification be damned, year in and year out in Kentucky. They are coached by a bone fide coaching legend in Dudley Hilton. The Class 3A football team has been switched into the 8th district in 2019 from it position in the 5th District it had a year ago. Bell was 11-2 in 2018 losing only to Corbin twice. Corbin was a state finalist, losing in the championship game by a single point to Central. Collins was 11-3 in 2017, losing by four points to the State Champions in the classification Franklin-Simpson. Then in 2018 Collins slipped to 1-10. That is quite a fall. We think Collins will be better in 2019, just not enough to beat an opponent like Bell County.

KPGFootball’s weekly winner…Bell County

North Hardin vs. Waggener…

North Hardin played in the 6A classification’s 2nd district in 2018 going 9-3. North Hardin boasts some of the finest talent anywhere in Kentucky. Between Octavious Oxendine (DL), LaVell Wright (RB), and Darren Green (LB) how can any high school coach possibly pray to have better talent than that? The answer is he can’t. North Hardin and Meade County will battle it out for the District Two crown with either of them having the talent to make a run to the Semis. Waggener has a lot of talent itself, particularly for a team which was Class 3A, District 3 a year ago and went 8-4. They are now in Class 4A, District 4 and boasts one of the best offensive tackles in Kentucky’s 2021 class of prospects in mammoth John Mudd. Waggener can play with anyone on its schedule to include North Hardin, but we like North Hardin Saturday night.

KPGFootball’s weekly winner…North Hardin

South Warren vs. Butler…

South Warren is the defending Class 5A State Football champions. In 2018, we thought they were Kentucky’s premier team regardless of classification as they went 15-0 and beat Covington Catholic to claim the title. However, they sustained key losses at key positions from linebacker (Pete Cross), to the DL (Jacob Lacey), to DB (Clayton Bush), to QB (Gavin Spurrier). We have no idea how this will effect the Spartans. They may reload and be just fine. They are well coached and there’s plenty of talent on hand in Warren County to re-stock anyone’s cupboard. Gary Wheeler’s Bears from Butler (Louisville) High School are a Class 6A, third district team loaded with talent. Chaz Burks is back at QB and threw 31 TD passes in 2018, Samuel Porter and Hosea Knifely maybe two of the better defensive players anywhere in Kentucky. While we have both these teams highly regarded in each of their respective classifications, our gut is telling us to go with the Spartans for this Saturday night.

KPGFootball’s weekly winner…South Warren

Bowling Green vs. Father Ryan

Bowling Green has been a hard team to figure this preseason. They have All-State caliber players in Jordan Dingle (TE), DaVito Tisdale (DB), Evan Spader (DB), and Terrion Thompson (DL) and up and comers on whom we are mighty high like Bridger Knee (DE). However, are they the team which beat Louisville Male in a preseason scrimmage or are they the team which only outlasted Hoptown 14-7, the week before Hoptown narrowly escaped losing to Todd County Central? Well, we don’t know. Father Ryan is excellently coached by Brian Rector, a native of Owensboro and graduate of Owensboro Catholic, but they were 2-10 a year ago. Bowling Green will find Father Ryan tougher than they are expecting and Father Ryan may hang around a while but we like the Purples in this one.

KPGFootball’s weekly winner…Bowling Green

Paducah Tilghman vs. McCracken…

There were times last year where the Blue Tornado looked all the way back to us. One of those times was when they stuck it to McCracken, last year, at home 35-6. Paducah absolutely embarrassed Hopkinsville last year in Paducah 47-13. Then, just a few weeks after Hopkinsville beat Caldwell in Princeton by 15 points and one week after putting it on Hoptown, Tilghman hosts Caldwell and gets dropped 37-22. You almost never know what you are going to get when Tilghman takes the field. However, they have some of the finest athletes roaming the hallways anywhere in the western end of the commonwealth and the best high school track program in Kentucky. McCracken has a really solid head coach in Marc Clark who has done a good job there during his stint. McCracken owns Class 6A, District 1 and looks to this year too. McCracken went 8-4 a year ago but were clearly a better team at the end of the year then the team which got drilled by Paducah Tilghman in the first game in 2018. If this game were played later in the year, we would likely pick it differently. This game is a toss-up, but we are picking the Blue Tornado.

KPGFootball’s weekly winner…Paducah Tilghman

The rest of our winners for the August 24th games…

Holy Cross (Lou.); Taylor County; Campbellsville; Boyle County; Mercer County; South Laurel; Montgomery County; Madison Southern; Conner; Danville; McLean County; Fairdale; Anderson County; Pikeville; Raceland.

There it is, the continuation of our first edition of our Weekly Winners. This is part two of the series we began when we picked the Friday “Winners” we picked two days ago. We will continue picking winners throughout the season.

This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!

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About Henry Lyon 1210 Articles
Have coached at the high school and middle school level. Have worked in athletic administration. Conceal my identity to enable my candor on articles published by this magazine. Only members of the editorial board are aware of my true identity.

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