PRE-GAME HUDDLE

 Football teams with five or more in their districts start the seeding process for the upcoming playoffs Friday night. Whitley County will hit the road to take on the Harlan County Black Bears while Lynn Camp goes to Campbellsville. Williamsburg will be at Berea. Corbin will have a non-district game with highly regarded Hazard.

 •The Colonels will take on the Black Bears in their first district game of the season. Coach Jim Black says it is important for his team to get off to a good start in the district. The Colonels will play three district teams on the road and if they want to win the championship they will have to win those games. “This is a very tough district,” said Black.

“They are a big strong team that is well coached,” added Black of the Black Bears. “I know all of those coaches up there and I know they will have them ready to play.”

“We have to play a good game and we can’t turn the ball over like we have in the past. We need to maintain ball security and not allow any big plays to keep the game close,” he said.

“If we do that we will be in the game at the end and hopefully we can win it,” said Black.

The Colonels will take a 1-3 non-district record to Harlan County with losses to Lexington Catholic, Bell County and Belfry. The Colonels own a 62-13 win over Lynn Camp.

Harlan County, on the other hand, is 3-1 with wins over Lee County, 40-14, Leslie County 53-0 and Powell Valley, Va., 36-7. The lone loss came at Pulaski County, 40-7 in the season opener.

The Black Bears present a balanced attack with Marcus McMillian leading the team in touchdowns with seven. He has 38 carries and 307 yards. Quarterback Jordy Brewer has 30 carries and 263 yards on the ground with four touchdowns.

In four games Brewer has not passed for a touchdown. He has hit on 12of-22 passes for 202 yards, but he has five receivers that have got passes. Jake Middleton leads the team with 68 yards on three catches. McMillian has three catches for 61 yards.

On the ground there are hosts of Black Bears that have run the ball with six different players scoring for Harlan County. “They have a lot of weapons they can throw at you,” said Black.

“Every district game is important because if you don’t come ready to play, you will end up on the wrong end of the scoreboard,” said Black. “Everybody has talent to win every weekend, so you better be prepared to play.”

Jim’s pick: Whitley County 26-20.

•The Williamsburg Yellow Jackets banged up and bruised from a 55-8 loss to Hazard will play at Berea Friday night.

The Pirates come in somewhat of a mystery team. Berea opened the season with an 8-6 win over Clinton County and jumped out to a 1-0 record in the district.

However, since playing their opener at home, the Pirates have lost four games in a row. They lost to Walton-Verona in the Grant County Bowl, 34-20, lost to Pineville, 48-14 and defeated at Nicholas County, 55-12. Last week they lost to the Bath County Wildcats, 21-14. All of those games were on the road. Berea will only play three games at Duerson Field this season.

Senior quarterback Trenton Phillips leads the Pirates. Phillips had a hand in both touchdowns last week against the 2A Wildcats. Phillips scored on a 14-yard run then threw for the conversion to Jacob Rodrain, a senior wide receiver.

Junior Darius Whitaker was on the end of a TD pass from Phillips as well. “They are up and down,” said Williamsburg Coach Jerry Herron. “They didn’t get a couple of their players eligible until after the season started, so they are a different team than started out the season.”

“They like to spread you out and they will do what you give them,” said Herron.

“They have a very athletic team,” said Herron. “We have to be ready to play.”

Williamsburg will be without starting quarterback Ethan Powers and wide receiver Cejay Jones.

Jim’s pick: Williamsburg 22-14.

•Lynn Camp is coming off a lopsided win over Harlan will travel to Campbellsville. Clinton Jackson had a tremendous night, rushing for three touchdowns and 250 yards. You better believe the Eagles will be waiting on Jackson and the Wildcats.

Campbellsville started the season with a close loss to the Breathitt County Bobcats, 16-6, but followed that with a loss to Russell County, 25-6. The Eagles beat rival Taylor County, 22-0, but lost to Bardstown Bethlehem 7-6. They took a hard loss to Green County, a top 2A ranked team, last week 43-8.

Tashaun Hoskins is the team’s leading rusher with Robbie Lamer a close second. Alex Brunnelle is the Eagles’ quarterback with his main receivers Dennis Novak and Joe McKenzie.

“They have a very athletic team,” said Lynn Camp Coach David Mitchell. “They have a lot of team speed and that concerns me.”

Campbellsville is averaging 9.6 points per game while allowing 18.2. Lynn Camp is averaging 17.4 against some very tough teams. They have given up 37.4 points per game and that has to be a concern of Mitchell.

Jim’s pick: Campbellsville 22-20.

•Corbin will take its 3-1 record to undefeated Hazard (4-0). This game looks to be an offensive juggernaut against a stingy defense. The Bulldogs are averaging 52 points per game while Corbin is allowing 15.5 points per game. Take away the 42 points against defending state 4A champion Boyle County and the Redhounds have allowed just 20 points.

“They have a ton of athletes,” said Corbin Coach Steve Jewell. “They will be ready to go after we beat them on our field last year.”

“I’ve been pleased with our defense the past couple of weeks,” said Jewell. “We just have to keep playing hard on both sides of the ball.”

The Redhounds will have another big task of stopping a strong passing game. The Bulldogs are led Jon Combs who has thrown for 17 touchdowns and 1,131 yards. He is 52-of-64 and has only been intercepted one time in the first four games.

Combs’ has a variety of players he can count on. He has thrown touchdown passes to six different players with Austin Johnson and B.J. Combs grabbing five TD passes each. Jordan Olinger, Corey Slone, Nathan Higgins and Zack Blanton have two passes for scores.

Hazard is not too shabby on the ground either. They have rushed the ball for 923 yards and 12 touchdowns with Zack Blanton and Corey Slone leading the Bulldogs.

Jim’s pick: Corbin 27-26.