Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rockcastle visits Death Valley

The Rockcastle Rockets will visit Death Valley this Friday night at 7:30. Both teams will be trying to shake a losing streak, the Rockets enter the contest 3-2 (losers of two straight) and the Pats are 0-4, searching for their first win of the season.

Rockcastle got off to a good start this season for first year coach Scott Parkey, but have struggle lately. LC has struggled for their first year coach too, unable to get a win in the young season. This a border county rivalry, and usually is a good game. Hopefully the Pats will continue to get healthy, and build off their first half performance from last week and put together a solid full game performance.

The key is health. The Pats are a competitive squad when they are full strength. The bad part is they haven't been full strength for a while.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Past LC Stars at Commonwealth

Forgot to mention last week, two of LC's finest played at Commonwealth Stadium last night for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Of course, I am speaking of Trent Calhoun and Braxston Miller.

They are both red-shirt freshman for WKU, and are already contributing. Calhoun made a big play in the second quarter last night for the Hilltoppers, downing the ball on the UK 1 yard-line. He also had a tackle on another punt, getting a pretty good hit on Dicky Lyons.

Miller was the only WKU player to make the effort to chase Derrick Locke on the 100 yard kick return. He came from the complete other side of the field and didn't give up. Both have a very bright future.

Miller had some interesting quotes about the Cats (comparing them to Alabama, WKU has played both teams) in the Advocate Messenger.

per the Advocate Messenger:

Despite the numbers between the two teams that indicate a possible close encounter next week, former Lincoln County standout Braxton Miller said Kentucky “wasn’t even close” to Alabama.
“To me personally, I didn’t think Kentucky was that good,” Miller said.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Pats Fall to Warriors

The Patriots got off to an impressive start, Friday night in Somerset, against Southwestern Pulaski. The Pats controlled the clock and the scoreboard for much of the first half, leading 6-0 with less than two minutes to go in the second quarter. That's when they fell apart.

The Pats allowed the Warriors to score a late touchdown and take the lead 7-6 leading into the locker room. (Easily the best half the team has played all year.) The Pats looked like a different team coming out the locker room. They went three and out. The bad part was the "out". The punt was a low snap, the punter bobbled it when he finally picked it up, he was met head-on by a SW defender and fumbled the ball. Southwestern took over on the six yard line and punched it in to go up 14-6 and never looked back.

LC wasn't able to get much going after that. They had a couple nice drives, but none that led to points. The big news was injuries. Chase Marcum left the game due to injury, and senior QB Tre Edwards seemed to take a big hit late in the game. The game really changed when Marcum left it. One bright spot was the return of Rob Conaster, he had an excellent game on defense moving back to his old spot at defensive end.

LC ran the offense out of the shot gun formation most of the night. It was effective at times, but there were way too many dropped passes. One thing that confused me was the lack of carries for Calhoun and Alcorn.

LC comes back home to play the 3-2 Rockcastle Rockets next week.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Lincoln Co. @ Southwestern

This game was supposed to be played last week, but a change in the schedule moved it to this Friday in Somerset at a special time of 7 PM. Most games start at 7:30, so take note of that.

Coach Settles and the Patriots will make the short trip south this Friday night to play the Southwestern Warriors at the "Reservation". This is always a tough team, especially on their home turf. They have very active fan base. So Patriot fans, load up the wagons and head down to Somerset Friday night.

The Warriors enter the contest at 2-2 (1-1 district). They are coming off a 35-21 loss to Mercer County last week. Mercer County is the only common opponent between the two. This is SW's third district game. They defeated South Laurel in a shoot out earlier this season to claim their first district win of the season. They defeated Somerset, in a blow out, to earn their other victory. Their other loss was to Danville.

They are averaging 30.5 points per game and giving up 33 per game. They run a wide open offense and have a very talented QB. Lincoln County is averaging 14 points per game and allowing opponents to score 39 per game.

LC's defense is going to have to really step their game up to slow down the Warrior offense. Hopefully they will do so, and this will be the week the Pats get their first win.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Interesting Concept

I was listening to the Lincoln County Coach's Recap on WPBK last night. Very cool show, live from Applebees in Danville. Coach Settles made the point that he is building a "program" . I have heard many say this lately, and to be honest I never gave it a lot of thought. But it makes sense.

The past couple of years, the team was very good. But there was really no "program". No JV games, no freshman games, etc. The question is why? Why did the old coach, who had a very successful varsity team, not implement a strong program from the ground up? The middle school and little league program were never directly linked to the high school. It appears that is a top priority for Coach Settles and his staff, and I am a big believer in it. I think creating the culture of a prideful, winning program starts at an early age and I think Coach Settles (given time) will make it happen.

Now, the only thing is how come no one was bringing this up the past couple of years? Hum... probably because the team was WINNING. Why were they winning? One word, TALENT. The past couple of seasons, the team has had some great talent. Two D-1 players and some great senior leadership. To sustain that kind of success, you have to develop from the ground (little league) up (high school varsity team).

Friday, September 12, 2008

OUCH!!!

Lincoln County-0

Mercer County-47

The Pats had -41 rushing yards. That's all you need to know. LC is idle next week, then they travel to Southwestern Pulaski the following week. Hopefully better luck there. The off week will give the team some valuable practice and healing time.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

District Battle

This week marks the opening of district play for the Lincoln County Patriots (0-2). The Pats need a big victory to get the season on track, and this Friday, when the Pats host the Mercer County Titans (1-1), will be a perfect chance to do so.

Mercer enters the contest 1-1. They are coming off a big win against another district foe, Pulaski County, last weekend. The Titans totally dominated that game, blowing out PC 38-7. According to most, these were supposed to be the two favorites to win the district, since they both returned so many players. The final score is misleading, PC was playing without their QB (who is their best player).

Mercer County is a hard team to get a grip on. They entered the season with high expectations, returning numerous seniors from last season squad. They opened up in the Bob Allen Pig Skin Classic in Danville against Madison Central, where they got thumped 25-0 by Madison Central. They followed that up with beat down on PC. So, which is the real team? One thing we do know is they will play Jagger's ball. Run, run, run and run some more. And play hard nose defense. The old cliche, three yards and a cloud of dust applies here.

This is an important game, a win for Mercer puts them at 2-0 in the district and off to a great start for the top seed in the playoffs. A win the Pats puts them at the top, and gets them going in a positive direction. Mercer will be gunning for the Pats who beat them twice last year, including a beat-down in the playoffs.

Nothing would be better than the boys getting this first "W" for Coach Settles this Friday night in Death Valley against the Mercerburg Pioneers... I mean Scotties .... I mean Titans.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

LC Falls to Tates Creek

The Pats fell to Tates Creek 34-13 Saturday night in the Governor's Bowl. The loss puts the Pats in a 0-2 hole to start the year, with district rival Mercer County (1-1) coming to Death Valley next Friday night.

The injuries just keep adding up for LC, a couple of key players were injured Saturday. Quarterback Tre Edwards left the game with an ankle injury and fellow senior Rob Contaster almost missed a lot of the second half with a dislocated elbow.

LC was led in rushing, for the second time this season, by freshman Jerril Alcorn who finished with 60 yards (on limited rushes).

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Governor's Bowl 2008

The Lincoln County Patriots will play in their second bowl game, of the young season, this weekend when they venture to Versailles to play in the 2008 Governor's Bowl at Woodford County High School. The Pats will play the Tates Creek Commadores at 5:30 Pm, the first game of a double-header that will feature Bardstown and Woodford County in the second game.

This will be LC's second consecutive appearance in the bowl. Last year the Pats narrowly escaped with a victory over Bardstown, a win that helped propel the team on a great run and a fantastic season. Hopefully, this game will have the same outcome and effect on the season.

Both squads, LC and Tates Creek, enter the contest at 0-1. Tates Creek lost their home opener, against Campbell County, 31-14. Tates Creek is a 6a program coached by Mike Harmon. TC finished last year with a record of 2-9, losing in the first round of the 6a playoffs to Henry Clay.

This should be more of the same for the Pats. They faced a spread offense in their scrimmage, and in their first game against Washington County. They defended it very well in the first half against Washington County last Friday night. However, after halftime, it was a different story. The Pats allowed Washington to rack up yards up the gut. Tates Creek shouldn't show them anything they haven't seen, the experience of the past two weeks should be very beneficial this weekend.

Everyone make the trip up and watch the boys try to make it 2-0 in the Governor's Bowl.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Everyone Go to Applebees Tonight

If you were looking for the Coach Mike Settles show on 102.9 WPBK FM Saturday morning, you never found it. It wasn't because Tim Estes overslept after the long night on Friday. It was moved to Tuesday, September 2. It is going to be a live remote at Applebees in Danville.

Applebees, WPBK FM and the Lincoln County football boosters have arranged a deal that allows the show to be aired live at Applebees in Danville, with a portion of the money made being donated to the Lincoln County football.

Load up the family, and head over to Applebees for dinner and a coaches show. Hopefully it is a big success tonight, and it will become a weekly thing.