Redhounds christen new stadium with 6-0 victory over Frederick Douglass

Many words could be used to describe the events of Friday night, Sept. 15, in Corbin. Thrilling. Historic. Moving. And, perhaps most appropriate, poetic.

Just days after the announcement of the passing of one of the greatest Corbin High School athletes of all-time, Coach Roy Kidd, the Redhounds rose up to defeat the Class 6A Frederick Douglass Broncos, who were crowned state champions in Class 5A last year, by the final score of 6-0.

The win, which improved Corbin to 4-0 on the season, came on a night where seemingly the entire town was on hand to help christen the school’s newly remodeled football stadium. As part of the festivities, Redhound history was celebrated as many former student-athletes joined legendary broadcaster Don Estep at the 50-yard line during halftime to view a special video that recounted the football program’s many accomplishments over the past 100 years.

Estep also returned to the announcing booth, marking the first time that he has called a game in over 30 years.

With so many eyes on this week’s contest between the Hounds and the Broncos, neither team wanted to walk off the field with the loss. In the end, however, it was the Corbin Redhounds who were able to make magic by pulling out one of the biggest wins in program history, adding yet another memorable chapter to what is already one of the state’s greatest football stories.

Friday’s game was a defensive battle throughout, with both teams punting back-and-forth to each other until the Hounds were finally able to put a scoring drive together that was capped with a 1-yard dive into the end zone by quarterback Kade Elam with just 19 seconds before the half. The PAT attempt was blocked, leaving the score 6-0.

The defensive struggle continued into the second half of play until Frederick Douglass looked like they were finally going to put a scoring drive of their own together with just minutes to go in regulation. The Corbin defense bowed up when it mattered most, though, keeping the Broncos out of the end zone with a late-game goal line stand to secure the victory for the home team.

“We said in the locker room that we play for each other, and we play for this town,” said Mikey Neal, one of the Redhounds’ senior leaders on defense, after the game. “We have to give back to this community, making sure that we play for the ‘C’ and not ourselves.”

“All week in practice we were preparing for fourth-and-five situations,” Neal said. “We want to make sure that nobody scores on us, so when we line up our defense we make sure that everything is going to be covered. That is what we’ve worked on in practice all year.”

When asked about the big push that allowed Elam to break the goal line for what would end up being the game-winning score, senior offensive lineman Franklin West said, “We work together as a unit. We were just thinking what this means to us. If we can win this game, we’re the number one team in the state. We defied all the odds, put our minds to it, and we got it in there.”

And as for scoring the first points on the new turf at Campbell Field, Elam said, “It felt great. All of the tradition, and the fan base that we have here, it feels great to be the first one to score [on the new field], but more importantly, we got the win. That’s really all that matters.”

Speaking about preparations for the game against the Broncos, senior wide receiver Carter Stewart said, “It was probably the hardest-working week of practice that we’ve had. We’ve been focused all week, trusted in the process, believed in each other, and we came out here tonight and played as one.”

After the game, the night was made even more special by the fact that the Smith twins, Jacob and Jerod, announced that they have decided to commit to play for the University of the Kentucky. The two defensive ends had previously been verbally committed to play at Michigan.

Corbin will enjoy this victory before going back to work on Monday, when they will begin preparing for a road trip to play the Hazard Bulldogs next Friday, Sept. 22. They will be back in action at Campbell Field again on Friday, Sept. 29, against the Johnson Central Golden Eagles.

To see more from Friday’s game against Frederick Douglass, be sure to pick up the Sept. 20 print edition of the News Journal!