Last night’s set back does little to dampen Central’s enthusiasm
Looking forward over the remaining schedule, things have clarified quite a bit and the preseason goals set for the Storm seem even more attainable now than at the first of the year. The Storm is a good football team which ran into a very talented 5A squad in Morton’s Gap last night and suffered a set-back. Still, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater…
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, KPGFootball
I don’t know how many of you have ever heard of Ernest Lawrence Thayer. Thayer was a poet who penned, perhaps, the most known poem about baseball ever published.
Thayer wrote “Casey at the Bat.” “Casey at the Bat” became an American classic after then actor William DeWolf Hopper read it over the radio, a classic and popular form of entertainment for families once.
…somewhere in this favored (sic) land the sun is shining bright
Ernest Lawrence Thayer, “Casey at the Bat,” 1888
There is a poignant stanza in this very famous poem particularly relevant to us today. For “…somewhere in this favored (sic) land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light; And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout, But there is no joy in Mudville-mighty Casey has struck out.”
You see “the Mudville Nine” and its charismatic star player, “The Mighty Casey” swung, missed and, perhaps most importantly, lost. Losing was a thought inconceivable to that baseball team and its star player.
Morton’s Gap commiserates this morning. We feel as though our “Mighty Caseys” have also swung and missed last night against hated, cross-town rival, Madisonville North-Hopkins.
While there may truly be no joy in Mudville, Morton’s Gap should feel quit differently. There is still very much fight left in our Storm, very much left out there for the taking for this really good and talented team which fell short, last night, of one of its seasonal goals.
First of all, looking ahead, we have a 1-2 Crittenden County squad next week coming off a 22-point loss to a 6A McCracken team we didn’t think too much of entering the season. The Mustangs may be better than we thought, but the Crittenden County game is one The Storm probably should win.
While there be no joy in Mudville, Morton’s Gap should be quit different
Fletcher Long, Senior Sports Writer, KPGFootball
Last night, Crittenden’s senior quarterback, Michah Newcom (’24), threw for 173-yards and 3-TD’s against the Mustang defense. While that is quite good, Crittenden’s running game managed a paltry 27-yards rushing. If the Storm could hold that phase of the game to that kind of woeful output, the Storm’s chances of victory, next week, would seem pretty rosy.
Hopkins County Central still has Webster County looming. Trigg County (26-21 winner over a Ft. Campell team on which we scored 60) and Fulton County likewise remain.
Point is, there is a clear path to six (6) regular season wins entering the playoffs just overcoming the teams against which we figure to be favored entering each contest.
As for our version of the “Mudville Nine,” Zayden Parker (’25) continued his fine play in a losing effort last night. Parker carried it only 4-times but led the team in rushing gaining 75-yards.
Calil McNary (’24) gained 67-tough yards on his 15-rushing attempts. Dylan Pulliam (’24) scored one of the team’s two TD’s on a 46-yard “pick-six.”
Things didn’t go as we would have hoped last night. The Storm sort of “struck out” so to speak.
The difference is, in our scenario, there is still much joy in Morton’s Gap. Why not? Our “Mighty Casey(s)” still have plenty at bats remaining.
This is Fletcher W. Long, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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