Cats growl big

The Lynn Camp Wildcats used its victory over the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets as a tune-up for this week. The Wildcats may have been a little over tuned-up as they rolled over the Jackets, 67-8.
Coach David Mitchell felt his team needed to play well and they responded with 570 total yards with 474 coming on the ground behind Jimmy Chaffin, Joe Roskopf and Josh Reynolds.
Lynn Camp (8-2) bolted out to a 33-8 lead in the first quarter and led at the half, 52-8. Roskopf led the way with 181 yards and three touchdowns followed by Chaffin with 134 yards and three rushing TD’s. He also scored on a 65-yard interception.
The Wildcats will host the Hazard Bulldogs in the first-round of the playoffs Friday night at 7:30. The Bulldogs bring in a potent air attack behind senior quarterback Durell Olinger, who has thrown the football for an amazing 3,001 yards. He has 34 touchdowns this season with this main target being Chucky O’Steen.
O’Steen has caught 41 passes for 1133 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Mitchell said it will be a huge shore stopping Olinger. “It’ll be a huge one,” he said. “We’ve got to put pressure on the quarterback. We want to keep him in the pocket.”
“He does a good job scrambling around, making something out of nothing,” said Mitchell.
The veteran coach said the Wildcats will have to be cautious of Olinger and Preston Smith running the ball. “They like to get you spread out and run the ball. They can hurt you running the ball, both of them are good athletes.”
It promises to be an exciting game with Olinger leading Class A in passing with a 291 yard average. O’Steen is second in receiving but Lynn Camp’s Chaffin is first in scoring in Class A football.
The teams are highly ranked in offense with Hazard the number three team with their 46.8 average. However, Lynn Camp is sixth with a 39.6 output.
The two have one common opponent and that was the Perry Central Commodores. Hazard started the season with a 38-20 win over their arch rivals while Lynn Camp beat PCC the third game of the season, 30-16.
The Wildcats may have played the tougher schedule with the likes of Leslie County, Middlesboro, Whitley County and a tougher district. Six teams off the Wildcats’ schedule are in the playoffs while only four teams made it from the Hazard slate.
The Bulldogs scored a season high 81 points against the Jenkins Cavaliers but gave up 63 points in a loss to Paintsville. They stunned the Pikeville Panthers with a 52-26 win in Hazard. Their lone loss game at the hands of the Paintsville Tigers, 63-27.
Lynn Camp on the other hand was stun in the season opener with a 44-18 loss to Leslie County, but only one other team scored forty points on the Wildcats and that was district champion, Somerset, 41-40.
The Wildcats had their biggest scoring night last week when they rolled past Williamsburg.
Mitchell hopes his team doesn’t get in a shootout with the Bulldogs. “We’ve got to come out and play a good defensive game.”