Friday football digest, week 11
You’ll have to go 200 miles to find the best local football game this week. It’ll be in Hopkinsville, where Boyle County plays Christian County in one of the state’s marquee matchups in this final week of the regular season.
While some schools have reserved this non-district slot for rivalries, others have grabbed who they could get and still others aren’t playing at all, Boyle has landed itself an unlikely matchup with a powerful team from a higher class. Christian is ranked No. 6 in Class 5A, which still might be the state’s deepest class. However, the Rebels, who are ranked No. 1 in 4A, are ahead of the Colonels in all power ratings.
It’ll be a good test for Boyle, although I’m sure Larry French wishes this particular exam wasn’t so far from home. Add up the mileage of the Rebels’ previous five bus trips this season, and it comes to just over half the distance to this game.
It’s also a good place to play. Christian and Hopkinsville share the Stadium of Champions, a beautiful facility located within a large city park. I visited there in 2001, and it remains simply the best high school football facility I have seen in Kentucky, although I certainly haven’t seen all the good ones.
That 2001 trip was to see another Boyle game, an exciting 28-21 win over Hopkinsville in a Class AAA semifinal. The Rebels were very good, but also very lucky to win on that night.
Will they go 2-for-2 at the SOC and 10-0 for this season? The answer lies just 200 miles and three parkways away. Wave if you see me on the road.
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The Danville-Frankfort series has produced some pretty good football over the past four or five years, too, and they’ll play again Friday in one of the state’s great bandboxes, Frankfort’s Sower Field. And Garrard County and Lincoln County fans will probably find plenty of room to stretch out when the Golden Lions and Patriots renew their rivalry at Lincoln’s Death Valley.
It’s scoreboard-watching time for Mercer, which awaits the results of three games involving eastern Kentucky teams that will determine where it goes for the first round of the playoffs. The Titans will travel to Harlan County, Letcher County Central or Whitley County next week. This week, those teams are on the road at Bell County, Moore and Rockcastle County, respectively.
Check back early Saturday morning to see how the three-way tie shakes out and the playoff matchups relevant to all the area teams.
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Here are the links to this week’s available preview stories:
Boyle County at Christian County: Hal Morris’ story at amnews.com; a capsule preview from the Kentucky New Era of Hopkinsville. (There are other related stories at the New Era’s Web site, but most are available only by subscription.)
Danville at Frankfort: My story at amnews.com; a capsule preview from The State Journal of Frankfort.
Garrard County at Lincoln County: Morris’ story at amnews.com.
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Here are this week’s picks, following a perfect week 10:
- Boyle County over Christian County.
- Frankfort over Danville.
- Garrard County over Lincoln County.