This Weekend's Games

Time to start district play, which gives us some interesting match-ups this weekend. To me, of course, the most interesting is the long-awaited meeting between the Heath Pirates and the Paducah Tilghman Tornadoes. When I was in high school, Heath played in 2A or A, while Tilghman played in 3A or 4A, so we never met. It never even occurred to me that Heath could grow -- and Tilghman could shrink -- to the point where the two schools would be in the same class. To me, the notion that Heath would someday play Tilghman was as unthinkable as the idea that we would play Murray State. But thanks to decades of folks moving out to the suburbs, the Pirates and the Tornadoes are both in Class 3A, District 1. Naturally, now that Heath has finally gotten to be roughly the same size as Tilghman, the powers that be in McCracken County have decided that Heath is too small to exist at all. There's a message there, but I'm not sure what it is. Anyway, I'm at least happy that Heath gets to host what may very well be the only meeting between the only two teams in McCracken County ever to win a state football championship.

I'm also getting nervous about Madisonville's trip to Owensboro. I know that Madisonville has the better record, and the Maroons have been playing great lately, but I've always been intimidated by Owensboro -- probably because of the piano recitals I used to do up there. I hope Madisonville plays better than I used to.

I'm also very interested in the matchup between Fort Campbell and Trigg County, two other old powers who are clashing this weekend. If I could attend any game on the board -- other than Heath-Tilghman, of course -- I would visit that one.

Finally, I just want to mention a team not on the board -- Bowling Green. The Purples, who play in 5A, shocked the world a few weeks ago with a 28-20 win at Louisville St. Xavier. The last time St. X lost to a KHSAA team not from Jefferson County was September 5, 2003 -- when they lost to Lexington Catholic. They last time they lost to a public KHSAA school not from Jefferson County was November 2, 2001 -- when Meade County knocked them out of the playoffs. So this was a big deal. The Purples followed up that win with a 55-7 win over Henderson County and a 62-0 win over Owensboro to run their record to 5-0. So I'm thinking this may be the best team in BGHS history. However, I would note that Warren Central -- BG's arch-nemesis -- is also 5-0, and that the Dragons have outscored their opponents 199-41. These two will meet at Bowling Green on October 14th in what should be a ding-dong game, and then they will almost certainly meet at some point in the 5A playoffs. I'm very excited about those two games.

Home teams listed first:

Caldwell Co. (2-3) v. Ballard Mem. (3-1)
Calloway Co. (2-3) v. Lone Oak (3-2)
Christian Co. (5-0) v. Hopkinsville (0-5)
Crittenden Co. (1-3) v. Reidland (1-4)
Fort Campbell (2-3) v. Trigg Co. (4-0)
Fulton City (1-3) v. Lake Co. (Tenn.)
Heath (2-3) v. Paducah Tilghman (3-2)
Marshall Co. (3-1) v. Mayfield (5-0)
Owensboro (2-3) v. Madisonville-North Hopkins (4-1)
Owensboro Apollo (1-3) v. Graves Co. (0-4)