FOOTBALL WEEK 1

The Corbin Redhounds will open their football season Friday night with a road game to Harlan. The two participated in the Southeastern Kentucky Conference Grid-O-Rama last week at Campbell Field with the Redhounds beating the Harlan County Black Bear, 14-6 and the Green Dragons downing Cumberland Gap, Tenn., 14-7.

Coach Steve Jewell’s Redhounds enter the season ranked in the Class 2A top five with high expectations. The Redhounds ended last season with a loss to Newport Central Catholic in the state semifinals.

Harlan won only three games last year, but two of those came in district play and finished behind Hazard to earn a home playoff berth. The Green Dragons defeated Allen Central, 46-6, then lost to Pikeville the following week 27-7.

The Dragons lost only three players from that time and will return 13 seniors. Coach J. B. Donahue has high expectations for his team as well.

“They are a big physical ball club,” said Corbin Coach Steve Jewell. “They have a couple of backs that run the ball extremely well. I was really impressed with the fullback on tape, he runs the ball extremely well.”

“They have three or four lineman that are 6-2 to 6-5 that run 265 to 300 lbs. They will probably be the biggest team we face all year,” said Jewell.

“I don’t think there will be any surprises in what they will try to do,” said Jewell. “They will line up and try to challenge you and run against you. I think that’s their game plan.”

“I will be one of the most surprised people in the stands if that’s not what they try to do,” said Jewell.

The Dragons return leading rusher Andrew Link, who led Harlan in scoring, rushing and yardage last season. The senior tailback rushed the ball 252 times for 1,471 yards and 13 touchdowns. Senior teammate Kenny Pennington is also back. He had five rushing scores on 113 carries for 409 yards.

Pennington scored both touchdowns in the Dragons win over Cumberland Gap last week. The Dragons may start slow on offense, but their defense will make it tough on the opposing team. They return most of their defense intact led by Pennington, senior Evan Dagger, senior Cody Johnson, senior Eric Robinson, senior Ben Cornett, Sophomore Vince Bianchi played well last week when he picked off a pass.

The Redhounds will open the season without senior Ryan Fritts. “He has a little bit of a strain and we want to bring him along slow. We don’t want to rush him after last year’s surgery. We don’t fell like he will be ready to go this week,” said Jewell.

“I feel like we have made a little bit of improvement but we’re still no where we need to be at this time of the year,” said Jewell.

During the scrimmage against Harlan County Jewell said. “At times we played well defensively. We had an opportunity after our turnover to go out and make a stop and we didn’t make a stop defensively.”

“We’ve got to be able to go out there and make those game changes,” he said.

“Offensively, we put 14 on the board real quick then we sputtered the rest of the night. Our consistency is not where it needs to be if we want to get where we want to be at the end of the road,” he added.

Caleb Watkins and Matthew Taylor came up with long runs for touchdowns against the Black Bears last week.

But, Jewell would like to see his passing game show improvement. “We’re still working on that,” he said. “We are trying to find some identity there. No matter what, with the type of running game we’ve got we are going to have to hit some short passes.”

“We’re trying to work on Mitchell’s (Roman) confidence,” said Jewell. “He’s got to keep throwing the ball. The kids are going to have to make good catches and Roman is going to have to take what the defense is giving him.”

“The other night he tried to hit a couple of long ones that wasn’t there,” he said. “The short ones were there and to me a short pass and running 30 yards down the field goes down as a 40 yards pass completion.”

Williamsburg at South Laurel

The Yellow Jackets and South Laurel Cardinals are coming off opposite type performances. The Jackets ran up 402 yards in a 38-16 win over the Jellico Blue Devils while the South Laurel Cardinals had trouble getting their offense in gear against the Letcher Central Cougars, losing 34-6.

“They are bigger, stronger and faster than we are in every position,” said Williamsburg Coach Jerry Herron. “We’ve got to lineup and play solid football. They have more numbers and a lot going on up there. We’ve had time to look at what they are doing we just have to execute our game plan.”

Yellow Jacket quarterback Ryan Moses had a big night against the Blue Devils. He ran for 99 yards and one touchdown and hit on 17 passes for 184 yards and two TD’s.

Senior Daniel Pettit was the recipient of those two TD passes. He had six catches for 102 yards.

Junior Travis Thomas had a big night in his first start as a Jacket, scoring two touchdowns on 14 carries for 125 yards.

Although the South Laurel offense sputtered, it was the Cardinals defense that caused some trouble for Letcher Central quarterback Logan Johnson. South Laurel’s Tyler Vaughn picked off a pass and returned it 41 yards for the score.

“We’ve got to make sure we protect the ball and not make those kind of mistakes,” said Herron.

Depth and inexperience concerns Herron when it comes to a big school like South Laurel. “We’ve got to overcome those things and some kids have got to step up and implement our game plan,” he said.

Whitley County at Lynn Camp

The Colonels will try to bounce back at Lynn Camp this week. Whitley County lost to the Lexington Catholic Knights last week, 43-33 after holding a 33-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Colonels had over 600 all-purpose yards and ran all over the Knights. Whitley County had 43 rushes for 384 yards and hit on three of nine passes for 101 yards while holding the Knights to 183 yards on the ground.

Lynn Camp had trouble holding down the Clay County Tigers in a 48-0 loss in the Pioneer Bowl. Senior running back Noah Reid scored two touchdowns while running for 166 yards on 10 carries. Quarterback John Hooker hit on 9 of 11 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns.

The Wildcats managed 118 yards on the ground and 14 yards through the air.

In Whitley County, the Wildcats will face more of a running team.