Five titles on line in last week of grid district play
Oct. 20—Call it Championship Week.
Three games in northeastern Kentucky tonight will determine district champions tonight. Another contest could either crown a titleist outright or play an important role in a potential three-way tie.
And a conference title will be decided just across the Ohio River.
Class A Paintsville at RacelandThe Tigers are playing their 102nd year of football. The Rams will undertake their 100th season in 2025.
It only seems like Paintsville and Raceland have met annually in the de facto district final for a century.
It has, though, been a decade. Rams versus Tigers has determined at least a piece of the top seed in Week 10 every year since 2013.
One difference is a second showdown in the postseason isn't imminent, as it long seemed under first the region playoff format and then the intra-district system, which also introduced the use of RPI to determine pairings from the third round forward.
This year's format is a hybrid: sister districts in the first two rounds, and then brackets set by RPI beginning with the round formerly known as the region final.
Raceland (7-1, 2-0 district) and Paintsville (4-4, 2-0 district) constructed their schedules to be prepared for weeks like this. The Rams traveled to Highlands and the Tigers encountered Beechwood and Pikeville as part of typically stout slates.
"We feel like we put ourselves in as many adverse conditions as we could've in the preseason with our scrimmages and early-season schedule," Raceland coach Michael Salmons said. "No matter what circles back around, we feel like we'll be able to adjust — maybe not in the first minute or the first quarter, but over the course of 48 minutes, we'll be able to find our comfort zone and get our feet under us and be able to put our best foot forward."
Tigers coach Trevor Hoskins noted that Paintsville is "three points away from sitting here being 6-2," referring to a 35-34 loss to Somerset and a 27-25 setback to Perry County Central.
"We hope that the schedule that we've played up to this point has put us in a position to where we can go compete," Hoskins said. "We know how good Raceland is, we know what they're capable of, but we feel like we're a good football team too."
Through seven games, Paintsville's AJ James had thrown for 748 yards and seven touchdowns. Harris Phelps has rushed for 823 yards and 10 TDs. Jonah Porter leads the receiving crew with 269 yards and three scores.
Raceland's Logan Lundy has passed for 1,379 yards, 22 touchdowns and four picks. Seven Rams have caught multiple scoring passes, led by Parker Fannin with 419 yards and seven touchdowns.
Conner Hughes (343 yards) and Mason Lykins (308) have six TDs apiece.
Noah Wallace has rushed for 391 yards and five scores.
Class 3A Ashland at Greenup CountyThe Musketeers are after their first district title since 2007. That isn't likely to faze them, coach Zack Moore said, just as the moment hasn't seemed too big at any point during a resounding follow-up to a winless-on-the-field season in 2021.
"We can do all the coachspeak about, this is just another game," Moore said. "We're not stupid. This is not just another game. This is to win a district championship.
"We're not gonna shy away from it. We're not gonna pull out the Gene Hackman thing from 'Hoosiers' where we measure the field or anything like that. We know what's at stake, but we know that if we want to come out on top, we have to just do what we do."
So far, that has been a knack for big plays, particularly on defense and special teams, and a heavy dose of hard-nosed running.
Quarterback Tyson Sammons has rushed for 1,111 yards and 16 touchdowns. Ike Henderson has chipped in 600 yards and seven scores.
Sammons has added 791 yards through the air and five scores — four of them to Brady Howard.
Greenup County (6-2, 2-0 district) has pushed past a difficult season last year. The Tomcats' struggles came earlier in this campaign.
Ashland lost three of its first four games and was 2-4 entering its non-district finale against Elizabethtown. The Tomcats knocked off the Panthers, 27-25, and subsequently took care of East Carter and Russell in their first two district contests.
"As you're going through it, you got tunnel vision and you're really trying to fight every week for a win," Ashland coach Chad Tackett said of the early bumps, "but now you get to this point and you look back and realize just how beneficial some of those games were, not only from playing them but from losing them too. ... I think those games tested us tremendously and have put us in the position we're in now."
LaBryant Strader has thrown for 1,510 yards, 12 TDs and four picks for the Tomcats (5-4, 2-0 district). Braxton Jennings owns 785 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. Brandon Houston has 597 yards and six scores, with Terell Jordan (390 yards, three TDs) and Asher Adkins (359 yards, three scores) also big in the aerial game.
Class 4A Boyd County at Rowan CountyFor the Lions, it's simple: win and they're district champions for the first time since 2008.
It's a nice change of pace for Boyd County (6-3, 3-0 district) from other seasons in which it was either fighting for the final playoff spot or already eliminated from postseason contention by now.
"They know we were close to being right there, a lot better than our record showed last year," Lions coach Evan Ferguson said. "A lot of kids had a lot of buy-in all offseason long, and whenever you have buy in from a lot of players, it makes a difference."
The Vikings (4-4, 2-1 district) lost four of five in midseason, including their district opener against Scott, 37-34. Rowan County rebounded with consecutive gritty victories on the road — 14-12 at Holmes and 28-13 over Harrison County.
Now, after their bye week, the Vikings are back home looking for a title.
"We always set a goal of winning a district title," coach Kelly Ford said, "and to get us even in the talk at the end of the year after the kind of season we had starting out (was big)."
Rowan County has allowed 25 points combined the last two weeks after yielding 37 in the loss to the Eagles.
"We kinda let that one slip away," Ford said, "but overall, our kids still stayed the course and they stayed together."
Boyd County wins the district championship outright if it wins tonight. If the Lions lose, tiebreakers come into play because Rowan County and Scott each carry one-loss records into the final night of district play.
If the Vikings win and the Eagles lose, Rowan County takes the title on a tiebreaker. If the Vikings and Eagles each win, they and Boyd County all finish at 3-1, in which case RPI at the end of the regular season would set seeding.
Rhett Holbrook has thrown for 1,068 yards, 12 touchdowns and one interception and punched in eight rushing TDs for Boyd County. Malachi Wheeler has rushed for 1,090 yards and six scores and Dakota Thompson has added seven touchdowns.
Josh Thornton and Trey Holbrook each have four TDs and north of 360 receiving yards.
Rowan County's Zach Menard has passed for 712 yards and five TDs. Louis Hayes has six touchdowns and 527 yards on the ground and 446 yards and five scores receiving.
Letcher County Central at Johnson CentralThe Golden Eagles dropped to 2-2 with consecutive losses in September.
They haven't scored fewer than 43 points or played a game decided by less than 36 since.
That's business as usual for Johnson Central (6-2, 3-0 district), which hasn't lost a district game nor come particularly close in the currently alignment set in 2019.
Golden Eagles coach Jesse Peck isn't taking that for granted against the Cougars (6-2, 3-0), however.
Peck touted Letcher County Central's athletes and said Cougars quarterback Jonah Little "may be the best athlete we've seen all season."
Little has passed for 862 yards and 10 touchdowns and rushed for 1,297 yards and 24 TDs.
"It's been a lot of sleepless nights for myself and our defensive coaches trying to find a way to stop him," Peck said, "but we feel like we've gathered a pretty good plan."
Johnson Central has, as first-year coach Peck promised when he took over for the late Jim Matney, retained the offense it has long operated for so well. Zack McCoart, Chase Price, Mason Lawson and Logan Music are big-play threats every time they touch the ball.
McCoart leads that crew with 1,099 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground. Price (739 yards, nine TDs) and Lawson (44 yards, five scores) follow suit.
"Nothing's changed there," Peck said. "You find out early what the other team's wanting to take away, and we've got two other guys that are ready to step up and carry the load if they have to."
OVC Ironton at PortsmouthThe Fighting Tigers and the Trojans renew one of the oldest and most-played series in the Buckeye State for the Ohio Valley Conference championship.
Ironton is 6-0 in OVC play, while Portsmouth is 5-1.
It's a similar scenario to last season, when Ironton entered the final game of the regular season undefeated in league play and Portsmouth came in with one loss looking to tie in the standings. The Fighting Tigers won, 36-9, and followed that with a 17-6 playoff victory two weeks later.
Ironton is the top-ranked team in Division V, Region 19 by more than five points in the OHSAA's computer calculations.
An attempt to reach Ironton coach Trevon Pendleton for comment was unsuccessful.
More playoff implicationsFour more games tonight in northeastern Kentucky will have a direct impact on playoff seeding, including one to determine if an area team makes the postseason.
West Carter hosts East Ridge for the final berth in Class 2A, District 8.
Fleming County travels to Lewis County, with the No. 2 seed in Class 3A, District 6 going to the winner.
East Carter is at Russell in Class 3A, District 7 and Fairview entertains Betsy Layne in Class A, District 6. The No. 3 seed is on the line in each of those games, with the loser assured of at least the No. 4 playoff seed.
Entering the final night of district play, Morgan County is already locked into the No. 4 seed in Class 2A, District 7. Bath County has been eliminated from Class 2A playoff contention.
Lawrence County clinched the Class 3A, District 8 title last week by knocking off Belfry. The Bulldogs hold tiebreakers with both the Pirates and Pike County Central regardless of what happens tonight.
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