There’s very little mystery remaining in high school football’s regular season. We’re two weeks removed from the district races and a week away from the postseason, and tonight’s local schedule consists of four games that have no bearing on either and are frankly pretty easy to predict.
The only question remaining that affects the postseason future of any area team will be answered tonight in eastern Kentucky, where a three-way tie will be broken in Class 5A, District 8. Clay County, Letcher County Central and Perry County Central are tied for second place behind district champion Whitley County, and one of them will be Mercer County’s opponent in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.
It won’t be Letcher, which has a solid lead in the points race that will break the tie, and Mercer gets the team that finishes last in that battle. Here’s how to determine which of the other two teams will be coming to Mercer:
- If Perry wins at Prestonsburg tonight, it will finish second or third and Clay will finish fourth and be matched with Mercer.
- If Perry loses, Clay will take third whether it wins or loses tonight at Harlan, and Perry will play at Mercer.
If you’re interested in such things, here’s a link to a KHSAA page that looks at all of the state’s three-way ties — there are surprisingly few this season — and how they break down going into this week’s games. The KHSAA’s standings page lists the playoff seeds for those races already decided.
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Here are the links to out-of-town preview stories on tonight’s area games:
Jeff Bastin of the Casey County News looks at Casey County’s final game tonight at Mercer County.
The State Journal of Frankfort previews the Garrard County-Frankfort game as part of its preview package, and Linda Younkin looks at the Panthers’ rebuilt offensive line.
Other preview packages include glances at the Paul Dunbar-Boyle County game from the Lexington Herald-Leader and at the Lincoln County-Hopkinsville game from the Kentucky New Era of Hopkinsville.
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As I said, tonight’s picks look pretty easy on paper, which means I’ll probably take a beating:
- Boyle County over Paul Dunbar
- Frankfort over Garrard County
- Hopkinsville over Lincoln County
- Mercer County over Casey County
Last week: 3-2; season 41-9 (.820.)
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