How unusual is it for so many local football teams to start the season with losses? I can’t tell you, because the Advocate’s game-by-game records don’t go back far enough to find the last time that only one area team won its opener. It hasn’t happened in at least 20 years, and who knows how long before that?
In the last 20 years, there were three occasions in which five local teams lost on opening night — the most recent was in 1999 — but there were more teams then, before Harrodsburg merged with Mercer County and before Kentucky School for the Deaf dropped football.
In the ‘99 openers, Lincoln County beat Mercer in a head-to-head clash of area teams, Boyle County won at Pikeville and KSD beat North Carolina School for the Deaf. Casey County lost to Bethlehem, Danville lost to Franklin-Simpson, Garrard County lost to Corbin and Harrodsburg lost to Lexington Catholic.
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Lincoln County fans will have to wait an extra day to see if their team can turn things around after its loss to Bell County, because the Patriots’ game against Bardstown in Woodford County’s Governors Bowl is on Saturday. It was initially listed as a Friday game on the KHSAA’s master schedule, but it will be played at 5 p.m. Saturday (followed by a game between Tates Creek and Woodford).
Whenever we learn of a schedule change, we update the information on our high school football page at amnews.com, which is also where we’ll stockpile the stories on all six area teams throughout the season.
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Now for a couple of football links:
Most Mercer County fans don’t have much intelligence on Greeneville (Tenn.), the guest for the Titans’ home opener Friday. But the team has plenty of information on its Web site, which is way better than average. And from The Greeneville (Tenn.) Sun, here are details of Greeneville’s season-opening win.
It seems they can’t go more than a few weeks without some sort of controversy in Somerset. The latest one revolves around Pulaski County coach Johnny Hines, who told The Commonwealth-Journal of Somerset that his players were treated “like a red-headed stepchild” at Somerset’s Ray Correll Bowl. (Where, incidentally, Pulaski’s 62-49 win over Somerset ended well after 2 a.m. Saturday.)
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The Danville boys and girls soccer teams are heavy favorites once again in the 15th/16th Region All “A” Classic. Here are the schedules:
Boys (all games at Danville): Somerset vs. Danville, 6 p.m. Thursday; Corbin vs. Oneida Baptist, 8 p.m. Thursday; championship, 7 p.m. Saturday.
Girls: Danville at Somerset, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5. These are the only two girls teams entered, so it’s one game to advance.
The winners advance to the All “A” state tourney, which was moved up two weeks this year. It’ll be played Sept. 15-16 in Frankfort.
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