In keeping with recent tradition, and as we are the foremost experts on high school football (at least among the Kentucky press corp), here’s how we see this Friday night’s sleeve of football games. We were a little over 66% correct this past Friday night, with Saturday night’s forecasts taking us well into the 70s (we had a good Saturday night).
For some games we will just pick a winner and for others we will have something incredibly clever to say. In either event, here’s our forecast for this coming Friday night…
Russell over Ironton
Simon Kenton over Oak Hills
Barren County over Adair County
Shawnee over Seneca
Grayson County over Edmonson County
Henderson County over Christian County, When it rains, it pours. Coming into the year we didn’t know whether Henderson would be any good without departed, dual-threat QB, Skip Patterson. After beating two straight Indiana Powers, it turns out the Colonels from Henderson, Kentucky may have been left for dead a bit prematurely. Henderson beat the Colonels from Hopkinsville/Christian County 28-7 last year. When they are through with Christian County this year, last year’s score will look like a nail-biter.
Newport Central Catholic over Roger Bacon
Van Horn over Butler County, Is there a team anywhere who Butler County can beat at football? Can’t really answer that, but pretty sure Van Horn isn’t it.
Ludlow over Gallatin County
Crittenden County over Ballard Memorial, Crittenden County is one of the best football teams in its classification. That is a nearly annual thing; CCHS being really good. Do you know what else is a yearly event? Ballard Memorial being terrible.
Highlands over Campbell County, Here’s something you may not know, the team from Knoxville which just barely escaped Highlands at the Fall Pigskin Classic in Corbin, Kentucky is one of the premier Class 5A teams in all of Tennessee. How good is Knoxville Catholic? Well, they play Brentwood Academy from Nashville this year and ESPN is broadcasting it, so they are that good. Highland pushing Catholic to the bitter end tells me the Bluebirds are back to their old ways. Campbell County doesn’t stand a chance.
Ohio County over Hancock County; Ohio County got a huge transfer which took them from a joke of a team to formidable with just his entry on the roster. Basically, Q’daryius McHenry may be the best running back in the commonwealth, at least on the western side, and he is enough to beat most folks by himself. They call. him “Q,” we call him special. Hancock County is down from where they were in recent years talent wise.
Russellville over Butler County;
Iriquois over Jeffersontown;
Paducah Tilghman over Mayfield; Hoptown’s offensive front is both young and inexperienced. Paducah Tilghman is big, experienced, and physical along both lines of scrimmage. Mayfield barely escaped Hoptown with a narrow victory aided by the Tiger QB throwing into triple-coverage for a pick-six, or the outcome may have been completely different. We know Mayfield is the top-ranked team in Kentucky’s 2A (duh, we vote the poll); however, we think the Hoptown result may have shown us Coach Morris’ Cardinals ain’t what they used to be, so to speak.
Glasgow over Monroe County; If Monroe beats Glasgow someone quickly check the temperature in Hell.
Hopkinsville over Caldwell County; This is a battle of the Tigers. The Tigers from Princeton have had a lot for which to play, losing their legendary coach right before the season started. Caldwell will play their guts out but they don’t have athletes like Reece Jesse, Jr. and Denarius “Red” Barnes living in Princeton, Kentucky. Word is, Erick “Fat Daddy” Grubbs has been released to return to Hoptown’s lineup. That doesn’t bode very well for the remainder of the HHS schedule. Besides that, Fletcher Long, who is on our editorial board, threatens to fire me every time I pick against his Tigers. I believe he went to Hoptown or something.
Webster County over Breckinridge County
Bishop Brossart over Bellvue
Trigg County over Calloway County; Trigg County has some of the best talent in Kentucky’s 3A classification what with Cameron Jordan (committed to the Naval Academy), Kendric Adams, and All-State candidate at LB, Cade Bleidt. The Wildcats could stand to be better up-front. However, that won’t matter this week.
Connor over Dixie Heights
Owensboro Sr. High over Owensboro Catholic; Picked the Red Devils in this match-up last year and they completely walked out into the middle of the field and (figuratively) took a dump all over us. Drew Hartz at Catholic is an elite talent at QB and Owensboro Catholic is one of 2A’s elite teams. However, the Red Devils are one of 5A’s elite teams and when two teams are elite in their respective classifications shouldn’t the 5A team be able to beat the 2A squad? One would think so.
Muhlenberg County over Hopkins County Central; We called Central “not so terrific” in an article last year featuring one of the Storm’s players. Boy, were the parents at Central irate. Even the kid we featured remonstrated us. The very idea of saying a team which wins only 3 games and misses the playoffs is “not so terrific.” Well, neither of these two teams are terrific. However, Central’s not so terrific is more un-terrific than Muhlenberg’s.
McLean County over Union County
Atherton over Southern
Logan County over Warren East
Covington Catholic over Lexington Catholic
Greenwood over Allen County-Schottsville
Bowling Green over Warren Central; This game will be tighter than one would think and will feature an over/under set at about 80-points. These things are easy to forecast for several reasons. One, Bowling Green isn’t very good and Warren Central’s offense has proven quite potent. Two, Warren Central boasts one of Kentucky’s most productive and exciting offensive weapons in Dre Boyd (QB), but sadly, has never heard of playing defense. Does Warren Central know the point is to not let the other team cross the goal line?
Green County over Hart County
Murray over Marshall County
South Warren over Franklin-Simpson; South Warren has looked good in compiling a 2-0 mark thus far. Franklin-Simpson dropped its opener to a team in Greenwood, coming off a 3-8 record and having graduated nearly 20 seniors, and then lost to Meade County, a team coming off two consecutive losing records. Guess what Franklin-Simpson? Not only is South Warren going to pound you but Goodpasture Christian, out of Goodlettsville, Tennessee is likely to run your record to 0-4 next week. What has happened? Has the talent in both Springfield and Portland stopped commuting to Franklin, KY?
Madisonville North-Hopkins over Daviess County; North-Hopkins may be the best team in Kentucky’s Class 4A outside of Danville, Kentucky (Boyle County). Daviess County is a 6A team but in district one, which is weak as a rule in that classification.
Fulton County over Fulton City
Todd County over Fort Campbell; From what we hear from our friends in Trigg County, Fort Campbell likes to throw fists and writs out on the football field. Three of its best players were ejected last week and are not likely to be eligible Friday night. Fort Campbell wasn’t going to beat Todd County anyway. The Rebels are ranked in the AP top ten for the first time in program history, at least that’s what we’ve been told.
Boone County over Lloyd Memorial
Elizabethtown over John Hardin
Powell County over Bath
Madison Central over Madison Southern
DuPont Manual over Scott County
LaRue County over Casey County
Raceland over Rowan County
Somerset over Beechwood; Beechwood start out the year 0-2? Yep, Somerset is the best team in Kentucky’s 2A. They beat MoCo 75-13 and still steadfastly maintain they didn’t run up the score. You know the Paintsville team which just beat Beechwood in Georgetown, Kentucky? Somerset beat Paintsville 40-0 in a preseason scrimmage, just saying.
Hazard over Prestonburg
Tates Creek over George Rogers Clark
Paris over Pinneville
Boyle County over Danville
Leslie County over Williamsburg
Meade County over Pleasure Ridge Park
Trinity over Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati)
Breathitt County over Magoffin; If Somerset isn’t the best team in Kentucky’s 2A classification, it very well could be Breathitt County. They call the O-Line at Breathitt, the “Big Blue Wave.” Ask Magoffin why that is on Saturday morning.
Frederick Douglass over Lafayette
Bell County over South Laurel
Letcher County Central over Estill County
Anderson County over Mercer County; Anderson County boasts the roster inclusion of the best DE in Kentucky in Darion Dearinger. Zack Labhart is back off injured reserved and ready for action. Anderson County, when right, are very, very good. How good? Considerably better than Mercer County.
Male over St. Xavier
Bourbon County over Woodford County; Jim Beam makes Bourbon, like the type of whiskey which made Bourbon County, Kentucky famous. Woodford Reserve is Jim Beam’s most expensive brand of Bourbon whiskey and it is made in Woodford County, Kentucky hence the name. “Woodford Reserve” is a finer bourbon than Woodford County is a football team. If that weren’t true, we might see this one another way.
Waggener over Moore
Phelps over Harlan
Lexington Christian over CHCA
Bardstown over Marion County
Central Hardin over Apollo
There it is, our third edition of weekly winners for 2019. We will continue with this new format throughout the season. Hope you enjoy the commentary. We are sure roughly half of you will not.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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