Teams looking for late-season momentum
Oct. 21—The last two weeks of the high school football regular season are here.
It doesn't seem that long ago that 7-v-7 passing tournaments were heralding the start of preparations for a new season.
Most teams have a good idea about what awaits them in the KHSAA football playoffs that open the first Friday in November.
A key point to remember is districts are cross-bracketed for the playoffs this year. That means District 1 and District 2 will be going against each other, 1 seed against 4 seed, 2 seed against 3 seed.
Owensboro Catholic is the highest ranked team among the four football teams in the Owensboro, checking in at No. 3 in Class 2-A in calpreps.com and at No. 4 in the RPI used by the KHSAA.
Guess who is No. 2 in the RPI? The young men from McLean County, which is No. 7 in calpreps. It could be a game-of-the-year matchup Friday at Steele Stadium, with Cougars visiting the Aces at 7 p.m.
This game will decide the champion of Class 2-A, District 2. If Catholic wins, it will be 4-0 in the district and be district champion outright. Catholic is 5-3 overall. McLean is 7-1 overall, 2-1 in the district.
More importantly, a Catholic win will switch it with McLean in the RPI — at least if there's any logic in these rankings. A Catholic win over McLean, coupled with what Mayfield does in its last two games of the regular season, could leave Catholic in a better 2-A playoff hosting position than the perennial state championship contender. Mayfield is third in the 2-A RPI and is in District 1.
Catholic hosts Elizabethtown in its Oct. 28 regular-season finale. Mayfield travels to Murray on Friday, and the Cardinals will host Madisonville-North Hopkins to finish the regular season on Oct. 28. Mayfield is the only unbeaten team left in 2-A at 8-0.
Owensboro High School needs to keep winning, keep improving and stay healthy. The Red Devils are 6-2 going to Grayson County on Friday. Running clocks initiated by the Red Devils have been numerous this season.
They will have a much-needed test in the last game of the regular season at Henderson County on Oct. 28. This should be an excellent matchup, with both teams getting what will be a true measure of where they are as the postseason will begin a week later.
Owensboro is in the top 10 in Class 5-A in calpreps.com rankings and is No. 11 in the RPI.
OHS has dominated its district, but it hasn't given the Devils much traction in the RPI. OHS losing to Catholic 21-17 on Sept. 9 also had an adverse affect on its RPI.
The Devils had the third-best RPI in 5-A in 2021. OHS won't finish the regular season close to that this time.
Daviess County is No. 12 in Class 6-A in calpreps.com and No. 13 in the RPI. Henderson County is No. 4 in 6-A RPI, but it has to win at McCracken County on Friday to lock up its District 1 championship.
DC will host Apollo in the annual rivalry game Friday. The Panthers (5-3) will try to regain some momentum after falling 73-35 at Henderson County last Friday. DC is a strong favorite over Apollo (2-6). The Eagles got a key district win over Marshall County last week (48-14).
As with everybody right now, football teams want to find that late-season spark — or just try to keep a good thing going — with the playoffs looming in two weeks.
