MIDWEEK MIDLINE: Musketeers prepared to take Moore chances

Aug. 23—It isn't going rogue when you're the one in charge.

And besides that, Zack Moore had more on his mind Friday night than simply converting a fourth down.

"We haven't won a game since 2020," Greenup County's coach said, "and I thought they needed to know that we have enough confidence in them to do whatever we practice at any time."

So Moore called a daring fake punt that, had it failed, would have given hard-charging Fleming County possession in Musketeers territory, down just one point in the final minutes.

"I was the only one in the huddle, so none of the other coaches even knew we were faking it," Moore said. "And Fleming County had a lot of offensive momentum going too. I thought it was important that we kept their offense off the field."

Lest Moore have thought he was one of only 12 people — himself and the 11 green-clad players on the field — who knew what was coming, what Greenup County didn't know is the Panthers anticipated a fake.

"Whether you want to believe it or not," Fleming County coach Bill Spencer said. "I know coach Moore. We talked and said, they're gonna fake this punt. We fully expected them to have the quarterback run it ... 'If we hit him, I think he'll throw it up.' We had one kid that was giving a little bit of cushion."

That was how the Panthers had played gunner Jayce Griffith on previous punts, which Moore and Griffith discussed before Moore green-lit the fake.

Punter Carson Wireman — formerly the Musketeers' quarterback — and Griffith spotted that cushion again.

They needed six yards. Wireman zipped the ball outside to Griffith, who caught it for a gain of nine.

First down. and after two more first downs, ball game.

Griffith had had trouble defensively earlier in the game and heard about it from Moore, the coach said. But with the opportunity on the line for Greenup County to secure its first victory since Oct. 2, 2020, that didn't matter.

"I would trust any of our seniors that have been through as much as they have in the last two years, and some of the craziness we've endured," Moore said. "I'd lean on any of those guys."

It paid off Friday.

Three-and-Out

—Daniel Barker didn't particularly enjoy being in the press box at Paul Ousley Stadium on Friday night, but it was certainly preferable to the hospital bed where Barker was up until three days earlier.

That was the end of a saga for the West Carter coach that began a week before that. Barker was at a training for teachers on Aug. 9 when he realized he couldn't even stand up. He went home to bed to rest and shake what he thought was a stomach bug.

But when Barker couldn't get going for practice that evening, it became apparent it was more than that.

"(Wife) Abby said, 'Well, you're going to the hospital then, if you're gonna miss practice,'" Barker said. "And then from there, it just turned really crazy."

Barker had appendicitis, which was corrected with an appendectomy. He went home the night of Aug. 12, but his oxygen dropped dramatically and ended up in an ambulance headed to King's Daughters Medical Center the next morning.

Barker had bacterial pneumonia, which caused the level of oxygen in his blood to drop to 80% after surgery. (The normal level is 95 to 100%, according to the Cleveland Clinic.)

Barker wasn't exactly at death's door, as he understands it, but his situation was hardly optimal.

"I don't think that they ever approached it like I was unlikely to come out of it," he said, "but I do know that I was in pretty serious condition. It wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility for me to get really bad off."

It never came to that. KDMC personnel diagnosed Barker and treated him with medication and oxygen, he said, and "I started to improve pretty quick."

He got home in time to be with the Comets on Friday night at Rowan County, but wasn't comfortable being on the sideline due to lowered stamina and wasn't sure he could move quickly enough to avoid collision. So he worked from the press box.

West Carter offensive coordinator Thomas Flannery called the offense, as usual. New Comets assistant coach Braden Brown ran the defense with input from Barker, who usually handles those duties.

"Braden is kind of like the co-defensive coordinator with me right now," Barker said. "He's got a big hand in our game planning and all that. In a lot of ways, it was kind of business as usual."

That didn't mean Barker enjoyed it — and the 24-0 loss to the Vikings surely didn't help — so he is excited about his planned return to field level on Friday night when Fleming County comes to Olive Hill.

"As long as it's a good week health-wise, I plan to be back out on the sideline this week," Barker said, "and really just can't wait to do it."

—East Carter got a unique opportunity to workshop a few adjustments on Saturday night.

The Raiders hadn't been able to produce points through the first quarter and change of the Recreation Bowl against Montgomery County. Ordinarily that would necessitate triage and on-the-fly discussion, with the meat and potatoes having to wait until halftime.

But lightning struck at the 8:16 mark of the second quarter, and stuck around, leading to a pause of an hour and 26 minutes. The Raiders expected a lengthy delay, based on radar and the sky, coach Tim Champlin said, so East Carter retreated to its locker room, broke into position meetings and tweaked a few things.

They didn't work like the Raiders had hoped in the four-play sample size they got before another delay of 44 minutes.

So Champlin and company went back to the drawing board (as well as ate hot dogs and pizza provided by the Indians concession stand, having not eaten in about seven hours by that point).

What they came up with worked better in yardage than points — East Carter racked up about 400 yards of total offense, Champlin said, but only finished off two drives with touchdowns.

But that was enough. The Raiders knocked off the Indians, 14-7.

Champlin was impressed with East Carter's composure. It isn't nearly the same starting lineup that played in last year's Class 3A state semifinals, but enough Raiders were along for that ride to be able to handle the unique circumstances of Saturday's game, which started well after the projected kickoff, didn't go well early and didn't end until 1 a.m. on the dot.

"We had had two opportunities to score and didn't," Champlin said, "and when (Montgomery County) finally scored their first one to go up 7-0, young teams, inexperienced teams, those kinds of things happened and their heads hang and they get defeated, really.

"There were a lot of games (last year) we went into halftime down, or we're the second team to score, so they knew how to handle themselves and knew that the game wasn't over. ... We gotta go take care of business."

—Asked if helming a football program again felt as familiar as riding a bike, Gene Peterson chuckled at the common metaphor.

"The bikes I used to ride had those big ol' seats on them," Peterson said. "Any more, they've got those real small seats, so you gotta be pretty careful as far as getting back on the saddle again."

Peterson and his new charges at Lewis County didn't have much trouble getting the pedals moving again on Friday night. The Lions knocked off Morgan County, 40-14, which carries significance for a handful of reasons.

The win was Lewis County's 200th in program history. It boosted the Lions to 1-0 for the first time since 2013, and it was Lewis County's widest margin of victory since Sept. 14, 2018, when the Lions took down Fairview, 52-0.

The Lions' Austin Howard returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and Braedyn McGlone added a punt return to paydirt later in the first quarter.

Peterson didn't know Lewis County was on the cusp of No. 200 until two days after it happened, he said. For the Lions, their performance was more satisfying, Peterson said, because it showed a bounce-back from a rough outing in the Eastern Kentucky Conference Grid-o-Rama against Greenup County.

"We're just happy to get the win, and it wouldn't have made any difference if it was the 300th or the 1,000th win," Peterson said. "That win was very special to them."

Reach ZACK KLEMME at zklemme@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2658. Follow @zklemmeADI on Twitter.