Ah, Footbah

Here are the games from this weekend's slate that most intrigue me:

-- Heath at Ballard Memorial. It's a "Purchase Power 10" border-war showdown--No. 7 v. No. 9--in Barlow, baby!

-- Tilghman at Mayfield. Some good stuff from Wikipedia: "Traditions include burning of effigies representing the opponent's mascot at pep rallies; a dinner between the schools' cheerleading squads and the wearing of red socks (Mayfield's color) by Mayfield students on game day, following a superstition of a former Mayfield coach," And: "Tilghman participates in 'Mayfield Week' where students show school spirit by dressing up throughout the week on 'hick day, dooms day, blue and white day, 80's day and twin day.' The rivalry is noted for breaking the record capacity at Memorial Stadium(Tilghman) in 2003, when 9,132 people showed up to watch the Friday Night football game."

-- Pearl Cohn (Tenn.) at Fort Campbell. The 2A-state-champion Falcons are 0-2, but, reminds George Robinson in The Leaf-Chronicle of Clarksville, "The Falcons lost its opening two games in 2007 before reeling off 13 straight, including the first of three consecutive state championships in Class 2A in Kentucky."

-- Henderson County at Christian County. Kevin Patton writes in The Gleaner of Henderson that injuries to two senior defensive backs could shift a third sophomore and the starting quarterback into the Colonels' secondary tonight.

-- Taylor County at Campbellsville. It's a cross-town game pitting first-year coaches.

-- Pikeville vs. Danville and Boyle County at Corbin. Saturday's Cumberland Falls Pigskin Class in Corbin pits four teams who are all ranked in their classes' Associated Press top 10, and none of them enters the weekend with a loss.

-- Knott County Central at Perry County Central. Neither of these teams is ranked in its class, and I don't really know much about either. But these two schools, in Hindman and Hazard, respectively, are separated by only 22 miles along(the fantastic) Ky. 80, and things apparently get a little lively at Perry County Central. After Casey County lost, 22-21, last Friday in Hazard, Josh Robinson of the Casey County News quoted one of the team's assistant coaches, Shannon Cain, as saying, “It was a wild atmosphere last year when we went there. Those fans are crazy and rowdy. We didn't have any of our players spit on like we did last year, but they endured plenty of other things."

-- Madison Central at Newport Central Catholic (AP No. 1 in Class 2A), (No. 1 in 3A) Louisville Central at Louisville Ballard, Beechwood at Fort Thomas Highlands (No. 1 in 5A) and (No. 1 in 6A) Louisville Trinity at DuPont Manual. Aforementioned Mayfield and Boyle County are the AP's No. 1s in classes A and 4A, respectively. Beechwood, by the way, is 0-1 but No. 4 in Class A and winners of 11 state championships in the class, all since 1984.