Joe Angolia, a 1998 Boyle County graduate, has been named the KHSAA’s new communications director.
Angolia has spent more than 10 years in collegiate sports information, including the last seven years as sports information director at Arkansas-Little Rock. He also worked at Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky.
He replaces Elden May, the KHSAA’s sports information director since 2009.
Friday night’s final scores for Advocate-area high school football teams:
Now it’s on to the playoffs. Here are the first-round matchups for Friday, Nov. 2 (all times TBA):
Not all of the Advocate-area football teams are playing on the final Friday of the regular season, but all of those that are playing tonight face tough and interesting tests on the way to the playoffs.
District races are over and playoff seeds and matchups have been determined for the six local teams, but that doesn’t render tonight’s finales meaningless by any means, as the four that are playing will try to either extend the momentum they have built in recent weeks or get some going in time for the start of the postseason next week.
And that won’t be easy. Three teams are playing opponents from higher classifications, and the one that isn’t is playing a ranked team.
We’ll start with the latter game, which finds Danville at Frankfort in what has been a good small-school battle for several years, going back to the period when they shared the same district. Frankfort, ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, brings a high-powered passing game and a defense that has played well against just about every opponent except Franklin County, a team no one can seem to stop. Danville brings a banged-up team, which means the Admirals would like to turn in another good performance but would also like to avoid any names to the injury list.
Boyle County handled Whitley County last year at home, but the Colonels appear to be better equipped for the rematch tonight in Williamsburg. They have had a successful season, finishing second in their 5A district to powerful Harlan County, and they will be a handful for the Rebels.
Garrard County will have its hands full with Madison Southern, another 5A school that finished second in its district, and particularly with sophomore sensation Damien Harris, a running back who is already making recruiting visits to places like Michigan. The Golden Lions haven’t been lighting up the scoreboard this season like they did last year, but their defense has been good. It’ll have to be really good to contain Harris and the Eagles and avoid a track meet.
Finally, Mercer County heads to Lexington to face Paul Dunbar, a 6A school that beat the Titans by a single point last season. This year’s meeting looks like just as much of a toss-up, as both the Titans and Bulldogs try to bounce back from losses last week.
Casey County and Lincoln County are sitting this week out, having played all 10 of their regular-season games.
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The picks:
Last week: 4-1; season: 35-13 (.729).
The Mercer County boys soccer team’s historic season ended tonight with a 4-0 loss at Paul Dunbar in the first round of the state tournament.
No. 9 Mercer was shut out for only the second time this season, and No. 2 Dunbar scored more goals against the Titans than any other team this year.
The Titans won their first regional championship last week. Their season ends at 21-4-1.
The end of district play tonight sets the playoff picture for the six Advocate-area football teams. None of the local teams won district championships, but Boyle County and Danville will open the playoffs at home after finishing second in their respective districts. Meanwhile, Casey County, Garrard County, Lincoln County and Mercer County will be on the road when the postseason opens Nov. 2.
Here are the first-round playoff pairings for regions including area teams (games are listed in bracket order with teams’ district seeds, overall and district records in parentheses):
Class 2A, Region 4
Class 3A, Region 2
Class 3A, Region 3
Class 4A, Region 3
Class 5A, Region 4
Tonight’s final scores for Advocate-area high school football teams:
And a look ahead to the schedule for Friday, Oct. 26:
Casey County and Lincoln County have an open date in week 11.
The penultimate week of the regular season is the final week of district play, and even though no Advocate-area team is in line for a district championship, almost every one of them has something to play for tonight.
The most-watched game — and among the most important — is the Mercer County-Boyle County game. There’s an obvious story line at Rebel Stadium, as Mercer coach Chris Pardue returns to face the school where he once coached for the first time. But there’s also a lot on the line, as the winner will take second place in District 4A-5 and will host a first-round playoff game against Clay County or Rockcastle County, while the loser will finish third and go on the road for the playoffs to Russell County or Knox Central.
Danville faces the same scenario in its home game with Lexington Christian, which will decide second and third places in District 2A-7. The loser faces a trip to Prestonsburg or Leslie County; the winner hosts Shelby Valley or Betsy Layne.
Lincoln County hosts North Laurel in a game that will decide third and fourth places in District 5A-7. The winner will probably play a first-round game at Perry County Central or Whitley County; the loser seems headed for Harlan County.
And Casey County and Corbin are playing for third and fourth places in District 3A-4 tonight at Casey. One team will open the playoffs at Central, the other at LaRue County.
The only local team that isn’t playing for position tonight is Garrard County, which is locked into the No. 3 seed in District 3A-5. The Lions could fall into a tie if they lose to Estill County tonight at home, but they would win any possible tiebreaker. That No. 3 seed leaves them facing a game at Russell or Fleming County.
Now for this week’s picks:
Last time out before the blog went offline (week 8): 5-0; season: 31-12 (.720).
The soccer and volleyball district and regional tournaments have come and almost gone while we were off line, but there’s still a little action left. The biggest news from the postseason came Thursday night when the Mercer County boys defeated West Jessamine 2-0 to win the boys 12th Region Tournament, giving the school its first regional soccer championship.
The ninth-ranked Titans’ fourth win over West Jessamine this season sends them on to the state tournament, making theirs the fourth Advocate-area program to make state. They’ll travel to No. 2 Paul Dunbar or No. 11 Woodford County, who play for the 11th Region title Saturday — for a sub-sectional game at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The winner of that game advances to the quarterfinal round Oct. 27 at Henry Clay, and that will narrow the field to the final four, which will play at Paul Dunbar on Nov. 1 and 3.
The Lincoln County girls are also playing for a regional title, as they’ll face No. 18 West Jessamine in the girls 12th Region Tournament final at 7 p.m. Saturday at Boyle County. It’s the first appearance in a regional final for Lincoln, which will be the underdog against a West Jessamine team that ended Boyle’s run of four straight regional championships with a win in Thursday’s semifinals.
This little corner of the sports world has been closed for roughly two weeks due to technical problems that I can’t properly explain and that you probably wouldn’t understand anyway. But we’re back online now — as you can plainly see — and open for business again.
Look for the Friday Football Digest, featuring quick takes on the upcoming high school football games, a little later this very afternoon, as well as a few more updates as we play catch-up. Thanks for coming back.
The good thing about good rivalries is that they tend to go back and forth over a period of years. One team will seem to be getting the better of the other for a few years, and then the second team will turn things its way for a while.
So it is with the Danville-Somerset rivalry, a hundred-year war (at least) that has certainly seen its share of swings over the years and decades. And the momentum currently sits with Somerset, which has won four straight games against Danville over the last three years, including regular-season and playoff games last year when the teams were placed in the same Class 2A district.
The Briar Jumpers are certainly good enough to make it five in a row, and the Admirals appear to be good enough to end the streak, which sets the stage for a compelling game tonight at Admiral Stadium.
At least some of the Somerset players’ thoughts will be elsewhere, however, after two Jumpers, senior tight end-linebacker Will Hinton and sophomore tight end-defensive lineman Jacobi Gilmore, were seriously injured in an auto accident just after leaving practice Thursday. The two players, both of whom are starters, were taken by helicopter to a Lexington hospital. Media reports today said both boys’ injuries are expected to pull through, but both will require or have required surgery. That’s very good news out of what appeared to be a dire situation yesterday, when it was said that their injuries were life-threatening.
As for the game, Danville has something to prove, but Somerset is the champ until that happens. Look for a relatively low-scoring battle between two teams that don’t want to give an inch, and look for the two teams to meet again in the postseason for a second straight year.
Garrard County’s game with Bourbon County was also expected to be a key district showdown as well, but the Golden Lions faltered against Bath County in their 3A-5 district opener, and they don’t look to match up as well with Bourbon as it might have appeared before the season.
On the other hand, this is the toughest opponent to date for Bourbon, which led by Garrard County alumnus and former Boyle County assistant John Hodge, who is in his first year as the Colonels’ coach. It’s a statement game both for Bourbon and for Hodge, who will have his players ready to go from the moment the bus pulls into the parking lot in Lancaster.
Elsewhere, Lincoln County should finally get off the district schneid in its home game with struggling South Laurel, Mercer County returns to district play with a winnable game at Marion County, and Casey County faces another tough game at Wayne County, which Casey coach Sam Marple calls the best team in that district.
The picks:
Last week: 4-1; season: 26-12 (.684).
