One of the biggest games in the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky is Breathitt County High School’s “Honey Bowl.” The annual bowl game is played at the Mike Holcomb Athletic Complex and the Breathitt faithful refer to playing there as “playing on The Riverbank.”
The Honey Bowl is part of Jackson, Kentucky’s Honey Festival. This edition, 2019, will mark the 38th year of the community’s family festival celebrating Jackson’s wonderful Appalachian Heritage.
There will be live music, great food, and friendly mountain folk. What there likely won’t be this year is anybody on The Riverbank from Clay County High School. They have backed out of the game.
In a move sure to bump the Bobcats’ strength of schedule component from which they will benefit in the third and subsequent rounds of the KHSAA playoffs, Breathitt County is close to finalizing a contract which would bring the South Laurel High School’s Cardinals to The Riverbank to join our Bobcats in this year’s Honey Bowl. We thought it would be fun to take an in-depth look at Coach Donnie Burdine’s Cardinals today.
South Laurel is a Class 5A, District 8 opponent which competed in District 7 prior to the KHSAA realignment which begins with this year. They were 5-6 in 2018, losing to Harlan County in the playoffs first round 38-19.
The Cardinals scored 327 points in 11 games while allowing 278. That comes out to the Cardinals scoring roughly 30 points a game (29.7272727) and allowing 25 (25.2727273).
Logan Gentry returns as the QB for the Cardinals in 2019 and he doubles on defense at safety. Gentry completed 74 of his 149 passing attempts, in 2018, for 997 yards and 9 passing TDs with 9 interceptions thrown. At safety, Gentry collected 22 tackles and recovered a fumble.
Leading receiver, at least as far as receiving yards on the year, Matthew Dalton (above pictured) has graduated. Daterian Brigance returns in 2019 after only playing in 9 of the 11 games in 2018. In spite of the missed games, Brigance led the team in number of receptions with 30 a year ago, for 340 receiving yards, catching 3 of Gentry’s 9 TD passes.
Ace Allen and Jay Sams both exhausted their eligibilities in 2018 and both of them were prominently featured in the Cardinal passing attack and defensively along the second level. The loss of Allen is particularly harsh as he gained 1,248 yards on the ground a year ago in 183 rushing attempts with 11 rushing TDs.
Allen’s absence may hurt the defense as much as the offense. Allen led the defense in 2018 with 11 QB sacks, 133 tackles, 38 TFLs, and two forced fumbles. There might not have been a football player in Kentucky more an integral part of its team’s production on both sides of the ball in 2018 than Ace Allen.
The defense, which was suspect in 2018 in the first place, will have to replace more than just Ace Allen (as if that isn’t enough). Khanh Tran had 116 tackles with 22 TFLs and 6 QB sacks and he, too, is out of high school eligibility. Tran forced three fumbles a year ago and recovered 4.
Along the line of scrimmage, the Cardinals will be very pleased with the return of Jacob Turner. Turner, in addition to being a stalwart along the offensive front, was second on the team with 7 QB sacks in 2018 and recovered a pair of fumbles to go along with his registering 71 tackles with 12 tackles coming behind the line of scrimmage.
The back-four, defensively, returns a star. Class of 2021, Kasey Fields, will be a junior in the upcoming season. As a sophomore in 2018, Fields had 5 interceptions for 102 return yards and a pick-six. Also returning is Conner Wilson, who also punts and place-kicks. Conner had 4 interceptions in 2018, 92 return yards, and a pick-six, coming close to matching his back-four mate Kasey Fields.
This is a match-up which will be a tall order for the Bobcats as Class 5A teams generally boast more depth than can be mustered down in the 2A classification. South Laurel is a 5A team which made the playoffs in 2018 and will be a tall-task for Breathitt as a Honey Bowl opponent. The Cardinals are a significant scheduling upgrade over playing Clay County.
All of that aside, this is a beatable Class 5A team for the Bobcats. In addition, a mark in the left side of the won-loss column over this Class 5A team would look very good on Breathitt’s résumé come seeding time for the 3rd and subsequent rounds in the playoffs.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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