Only two weeks left in the regular season, and we have a few good matchups. The Lone Oak/Madisonville game is huge, of course. I'm always interested in the Battle of Fulton, as well as the Crittenden/Caldwell rivalry. There are years in which Mayfield v. Russellville could be spectacular, but this is not one of those years. By the way, Google Maps has Russellville doing that whole I-24 to the Purchase Parkway thing for its trip to Mayfield, but I agree with Eric that route is not the way to go.
Friday, October 21
Crittenden Co. (3-5) v. Caldwell Co. (4-4)
Fulton City (1-7) v. Fulton Co. (1-7)
Graves Co. (2-6) v. Hopkinsville (0-8)
Heath (3-5) v. Fort Campbell (4-4)
Hopkins Co. Cent. (1-7) v. Owensboro (3-5)
Lone Oak (6-2) v. Madisonville-North Hopkins (7-1)
Marshall Co. (5-3) v. Daviess Co. (3-5)
Massac Co. (Ill.) v. Ballard Mem. (3-5)
Mayfield (8-0) v. Russellville (5-3)
Murray (7-1) v. Reidland (2-6)
Todd Co. Cent. (1-7) v. Union Co. (3-5)
Webster Co. (0-8) v. Paducah Tilghman (7-2)
Saturday, October 22
Trigg Co. (6-2) v. North Bullitt (7-1)
High-school football on Joe B today!
ReplyDeleteGary Somebody from WBLK FM in Lexington is on. He thinks J.J. Jude has a chance to break the state's all-time rushing record tonight. And the Belfry coach, with a victory tonight at Pike County Central, would become the state's all-time winningest coach. Gary points out that Anthony Wales of Louisville Central has a time to eclipse the all-time rushing mark, too.
Joe B loves all this talk, but he gets a little nervous when a caller wants to talk about Louisville Trinity and the fact "that they have kids from six counties and two states most years. ... It used to be that the pipeline to the Catholic high schools was the Catholic grade schools. Now, for the most part, it's kids going through the public elementary schools, who, quite frankly, can't afford to go through the Catholic grade schools. ... It's just kind of becoming uninteresting. I mean, Scott County might have their best team ever, and they're going to lose to Trinity by 50 if they play them. That's shouldn't have to. It's just not fair."
Trinity is idle tonight, by the way.
Thank you for the love on the Russellville-Mayfield route, GoHeath.
ReplyDeleteIn the same way that it was during a particular 2002 conversation at a Whole Foods salad bar that I knew I was in love with my eventual wife and that it was in the aftermath of the Miami-Oakland 1974 playoff game that I knew I was in love with the Dolphins, it was on this route (plus about 30 more miles between Bowling Green and Russellville) that I realized I was in love with Kentucky.
On the first high-school-football Friday of 1986, during my freshman year at Western Kentucky University, I decided I wasn't quite done being a Heath High School Pirate. I had been to every Heath football game for three straight years, and, at some point in the afternoon, I hopped in the car and took off for Mayfield to see Heath's game there. Because I was getting away from Bowling Green early enough in the day, I decided I'd take a scenic route over. Actually, I can't imagine it had nearly as much to do with scenery as the fact that it would expose me to more Kentucky Fried Chicken, Lee's Famous Recipe and Hardees drive-throughs than would the parkways.
Anyway, I chose U.S. 68/Ky. 80 through Russellville, Elkton, Hoptown, Cadiz ... and this was before the four-lane bypass, so, at each of those towns, the road had to hook itself through downtown squares. I'd ridden this road with my dad at least a couple, three times before, but this time I found it so interesting that I decided on the way west toward Mayfield that I was going to drive it back again on the way home--even in the dark, even after everything would be closed.
The game was a letdown. Not because of the result. Heath lost, 14-0, at War Memorial Stadium, but it was a closely fought game--and it was apparent that these Pirates were going to be really, really, really good. The problem was that, even though I saw people I knew in the visiting stands and felt plenty welcome, I definitely felt more removed than I expected. The whole drive over, I had thought about the you-can't-go-home-again deal, but I was still a little jolted by just how stark of a feel the whole experience had.
This was what was on my mind as I headed back east toward college, but then my brain kind of got sucked into the WHOP late Friday-night roundup of statewide scores that I found on the radio. The different place names intrigued me ("Paris" and "Glasgow," "Somerset" and "Beechwood," "Christian" and "Union" counties). It wasn't long before this that I had been introduced to the WPA guide to Kentucky, and I had already decided that I really wanted to visit all of these places that I had read about from 50 years before.
For an Aug. 29 in Kentucky, it was awfully cool that Friday night. One of my favorite things to do in cool weather is to drive alone at night with the windows cracked and just a little bit of heat coming off the floorboard. And every so often, I like to actually hang my head out the window and feel the wind--like a dog. At Auburn, in Logan County, at the end of my drive, creeping through downtown at 20 or 25 miles an hour, my little Buick Skylark and my out-the-window face were being showered by leaves. I just had to stop. I parked the car, stood in the middle of U.S. 68/Ky. 80 (it was now almost midnight, and there were hardly any cars on the road) and just breathed in the moment and the place.
And that was it. I was long gone.
The old Kentucky Fried Chicken in Russellville is owned by Western Kentucky University, and, for the last five years, the former Hopkinsville Zaxby's manager has leased it and operated a restaurant called Ski Daddy's, per this very good report in the great Logan Journal (LoJo) by (indispensible) Jim Turner.
DeleteOne of the state's best football stories is developing in Alexandria, home of the Campbell County Camels, who have won three straight, all in their Class 6A district, after an 0-5 start in Coach Stephen Lickert's first season. The latest victory was last Friday night's rally from 13-0 down at the half at Union Ryle. "Our kids just fight, fight, fight," the former Dayton and Covington Holmes coach told Richard Skinner for The Kentucky Enquirer. "We believe in them and they believe in their abilities. The team that was 0-5 is just gone. We’re a new football team.”
ReplyDeleteCampbell County plays at Boone County tonight.
Ready to go at War Memorial.
ReplyDeleteManual vs. Male.
ReplyDeleteBowling Green is across town at Greenwood tonight. BG remains No. 1 in the Associated Press Class 5A poll), but not all of this week's 17 votes for first-place went to the Purples. No. 3 Harlan County got two. Perry County Central plays at Harlan County tonight.
ReplyDeleteState stats leaders. Bourbon County's Kentayvous Hopkins leads the state with averages of 265 yards rushing and 22.8 points scored per game. Bourbon County plays at Bath County tonight.
ReplyDeleteJ.J. Jude, incidentally, is not listed among the rushing leaders, but please note that his school, Johnson County Central, is not in the list of schools submitting reports. (Nor is Heath.) Johnson Central is at Ashland Paul Blazer tonight.
Great stuff, Eric. Loving the coverage -- loving the stories about your youth.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteNow on Mayfield's WYMC, "Where the Cardinals Fly:" Ronnie Milsap of Robbinsville, N.C., with 1974's fantastic "Pure Love."
"Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding of Dawson, Ga. ... "This is (another) show tune, but the show hasn't been written yet."
ReplyDeletePregame coverage of Heath-Fort Campbell will be on Oldies1480.com in an hour. The fantastic "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne was just a few minutes ago.
ReplyDeleteFort Campbell has alternated wins and losses this season. The Falcons beat Webster County last week.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a Fort Campbell fan, I probably would've stopped at the Majestic pizza-and-steak place in Draffenville en route.
ReplyDeleteHalf: Fort Campbell 40, Heath 0. Thirteen minutes to go in homecoming halftime. Oldies1480.com broadcaster says tonight is the first game of the season during which he has been able to see his breath.
ReplyDeleteGame in West Paducah.
ReplyDeleteFun seeing Coach Haskins in the locker room before Lone Oak's win over visiting Madisonville-North Hopkins.
ReplyDeleteWow. Fulton County trailed, 6-0, at half vs. Fulton City--and won, 34-6.
ReplyDeleteThe Russellville Panthers presumably had a less fun drive home from Mayfield last night than I did in 1986. The Cardinals discard the visitors, 42-0. A couple of interesting things from this Paducah Sun preview of the game: the two teams never played in the late 1970s, 1980s or early 1990s, and the Russellville head coach is a former Mayfield assistant.
ReplyDeleteLone Oak, by the way, has done well in the playoffs in the seasons it has earned home-field advantage, and now the Purple Flash is pointed to have it to the state-championship game.
ReplyDelete