Weekend Recap

Well, football has officially started at every school in the area now. A lot of exciting football was played this weekend.. I got a chance to check out the Bob Allen Pigskin Classic, and saw one of the finest rushing performances in recent memory.

*Game one featured Rockcastle County vs. Boyle County. The Rock jumped out to a 7-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. But Boyle County quickly rallied and took a demanding 28-7 lead in the second, scoring 4 straight td's on 6 possessions. Boyle went on to win the game 42-22.

Boyle was led by running back Rees Macshera. Macshera ran for 344 yards on ONLY 13 carries. That's a nice 26 yards per carry average. I'd say Macshera firmly planted himself on the Mr. Football shortlist with that performance.

*Danville won the second game 22-8 over Franklin County. A nice bounce back win for the Ads, after getting crushed by Mason County last week. Danville was also assisted by a nice running game. Patrick Brand ran the ball 18 times for 186 yards.

*In other area action, Garrard County won a thriller in game two of the PBK Bank Death Valley Bowl, scoring with six second left to win 41-35. The Golden Lions are now 1-1.

*Mercer County fell to 0-2, losing a heart breaker to Tates Creek. Mercer trailed 22-7 at halftime, they rallied and took the lead in the 4th quarter. The Titans couldn't hold on and eventually lost 41-36.

East Jessamine 34 LC 12
Tates Creek 41 Mercer County 36
Boyle County 42 Rockcastle County 22
Danville 22 Franklin County 6

LC Loses Opener, 34-12

The Death Valley Bowl wasn't kind to the Pats again this year. Lincoln County really has a hard time winning this game, and their luck didn't change in the 2009 version of the PBK Bank Death Valley Bowl. The Patriots lost the home opener by a margin of 34-12 to East Jessamine.

East got the scoring started in the 1st quarter on a 41yd touchdown run by Austin Hager. The Pats did a decent job on Hager, but the other backs really hurt LC. East piled up 286 yards rushing and 307 total yards.

Lincoln County was led in rushing by junior quarterback Austin Hinds. Hinds had 15 carries for 76 yards. He added 75 more yards through the air. Including two touchdowns and one interception. Hinds has a lot of potential at QB, he just needs experience. I think he could have a big year as a dual threat QB.

The changing point in the game happened right before halftime. LC was driving down the field trailing 13-7 with under two minutes to go in the half. Hinds threw a pass in the direction of a receiver that never turned around to locate the ball. The pass was intercepted and returned inside the red zone. East went on to punch it in for a touchdown with only 8 seconds left in the half. LC went from having a chance to tie or take the lead to trailing by two touchdowns. The deficit pretty much stayed at 2 touchdowns until East scored with 44 seconds left in the game on a 1 yard run by Seth Hunt.

The Pats showed some good and some bad, but they never gave up and definitely showed their potential. I was most impressed by the offensive line. They did a great job of protecting the QB, and got a pretty good push most of the night. The line has a chance to be very good.

Here is a look at some stats:

Rushing:

Calhoun 10-29
Hinds 15-76
Graham 4-10
Carrier 4-25

Passing:

Hinds 3/13 75yds 2TD's 1 interception

Soccer & Volleyball Update

*First and foremost. I need help covering soccer and volleyball. I don't get a chance to go to the games, and the scores are hard to locate. So, anyone willing to give me boys and girls soccer updates please email them to our email at patriotsportstalk@gmail.com.

*The boys are off to a tremendous start this soccer season. They are 3-2, and have won their last three matches.

*The girls season is also underway, they have started the season 0-3-1. Their one tie came against Pulaski County.

*The middle school boys are 2-1 so far in regular season play, with wins over Boyle County and Anderson County.

*The volleyball team has also got their season off and running. They are 1-4 so far in this young season. Their next match is Thursday at Pulaski County.

Know Your Foe

Week 1 Foe: the Jaguar (n.) A large feline mammal (Panthera onca) of Central and South America, closely related to the leopard and having a tawny coat spotted with black rosettes.

This Friday night kicks off the football season for the Lincoln County Patriots. First up this season, the East Jessamine Jaguars. The Jaguars are a 4a school. They are in district 1, region 6. They play in a very tough district along side Boyle County and Lexington Catholic.

East Jessamine enters this contest with a record of 0 wins and 1 loss. This will be the first game for LC. East lost to Spencer County last week in a barn-burner by a final score of 35-34. East is a heavy run team, they didn't have any passing yards in their first game. They ended up with 356 rushing yards in week one, most of those going to running back Austin Hager. Hager ran the ball 34 times for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns. Stopping him will be the key to success for the Patriots.

East has dominated the series between the two. They are 5-1 all time against LC. LC last won against East way back in 1999. Hopefully, that will change this Friday night.

LC 0-0 (0-0 district)
East Jess. 0-1 (0-0 district)

News & Notes

*The first coaches show of the year was aired on 102.9 WPBK-FM today at 5:30. The show was hosted by Tim Estes. Coach Settle did a great job of breaking down the schedule and talking about the roster. WPBK-FM does a great job of covering LC sports. The was broadcast from Uncle Bob's downtown Stanford.

I love to hear Coach Settles talk about building the program. One thing he said that stood out to me was when was talking about his staff and mentioned moving Daniel Foster to offensive coordinator. He said, "Daniel has been here for a while, and he's not leaving." That is a very important mindset to have. Keep the good guys at home.

Coach also talked about the freshman team. This is the first time the school has had a freshman team in a long time. He said they currently have 21 freshman practicing. That's fantastic news! He also discussed the youth camp that was held this past weekend. 80 kids showed up for the camp.

*Former Patriot standout Braxston Miller has move from defense to offense. He got his first shot at running the ball for WKU this past weekend during a scrimmage. Miller ran the ball 4 times for 96 yards. Good luck to Miller and Calhoun, both Hilltoppers, in the upcoming season.

*The PBK Bank Death Valley Bowl is now only four days away.

Death Valley Bowl Preview Show

102.9 WPBK-FM will be airing the Death Valley Bowl preview show this Sunday afternoon at 3pm. The show will be hosted by the Patriot radio team of Kevin Bandura and Tim Estes. They will be interview coaches from all four teams (Lincoln Co., Rowan Co., East Jessamine, Garrard Co). They will also be interviewing players from all four schools.

Tune in and get ready for all the action that will take place next weekend.

Area Football

Well, we're getting closer to the kickoff of the Pats football season. The Pats will open the season one week later than most schools. The Pats will kick off the season next week against East Jessamine in the Death Valley Bowl.

If you can't wait until next week there are plenty of games around the area to check out. Boyle County and Johnson Central should be a battle of two teams that have postseason aspirations. Anderson County will be travelling to Lancaster to play the Golden Lions. That would be good chance to see what Garrard County has, having already seeing what Anderson County is capable of that game might be a good barometer.

The game I'd most like to see is the Mercer County vs. Breathitt County game. This is an interesting game for a couple of reasons, one to see what Mercer County has. They are a district foe and it's always nice to see what the competition looks like. And secondly, to see Mr. Football front runner (and University of Tennessee recruit) Channing Fugate. Fugate is a great running back, he ran for over 3,000 yards and scored 36 touchdowns last year.

Friday, August 21:

Anderson Co. @ Garrard Co.
Danville @ Mason County
Johnson Central @ Boyle County
Caverna @ Casey Co.


Saturday, August 22:

Breathitt Co. vs. Mercer Co. (Campbellsville)

Scrimmage Notes

First and foremost, I was really impressed with the energy of the team and the crowd. The team showed a lot of energy before the game and to start the second half. They just need to find a way to sustain that energy on the field. The crowd was just as impressive. A really big crowd for a controlled scrimmage on a hot summer night. The Lincoln County faithful always show up.

Now for the game. LC had a hard time getting anything going on both sides of the ball. The offense had a lot of three and outs, and the defense was having trouble containing the Anderson County pass attack.

The Pats failed to score a TD in the first half, but came out and put a quick score on the board to start the second half. Julian Calhoun sprinted around the end and broke a nice run for a score.

It's hard to gauge a controlled scrimmage. It is close to a real game, but you can't do some things that are really important. That being said, Anderson County controlled the game. They were the better team. That's not a bad thing, Anderson County is one of the better teams in their class, and they will have a very successful season.

*Only two weeks until the real thing, can't wait!

Anderson County @ LC (scrimmage)

The long wait is over for football fans. The first live action of the school year will take place this Friday night at Death Valley. Anderson County will be travelling to Lincoln County to scrimmage the Patriots this coming Friday night (Aug. 14th) at 6:30 pm.

Anderson County will be a good test for the Pats, they are expected to be very good this year. They run a wide open offense led by quarterback Jacob Russell. Russell has been hearing from a lot of schools including Indiana University, Purdue, UofL, WKU and UK.

Come out and watch the Pats get the season underway, should be an exciting night for football.

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News and Notes

*Practice is underway at the high school and middle school levels. It will probably be easier for the coaches to get in their routines now that school has started. Man that seems ridiculous. I remember when school started the day after Labor Day. Labor Day was the dreaded holiday because you knew it symbolized school starting back. Last I heard the high school had around 50 kids practicing and the middle school also had a lot of kids out for practice.

*The scrimmage against Anderson County has been moved up one week. It will be in two weeks (August 14th) at Death Valley.

*The football team will be leaving for a weekend camp this Friday. They will return on Sunday. Hopefully this will give the boys some time to bond and come together as a team.

Annual Pig Roast

The annual Lincoln County football boosters pig roast is approaching. The event will be held on August 22, @6 pm at Lincoln County High School. As usual, feel free to bring your corn hole boards and footballs to pass around. Most importantly, bring your appetite. They are planning on having a live auction this year too, so bring your wallet too and help out the 2009 football Pats.