[AtlPirateFan]

Still feels good this morning. I will be less humble and gracious than most for the next few days, especially about the schedule conversation.

A good football team is born in practice but championship teams are made with strength through adversity. The strongest steel is forged by the fires of hell. Pounded and struck repeatedly before being plunged back into the molten fire.

To continue to deny that Bell County played a schedule that hurt them last night is shortsighted. A schedule like Bell played allowed two things, a nice win total and some big stats for your star athletes. What it does not do is sharpen instincts, humble your players or force your team to actually get better. Ask KCD how their schedule prepared them for Paintsville, better yet ask Eminence (one of the winningest programs in the state since 1986) how their regular season schedule and success prepares them for a run every year. Hint they've won a single playoff game, and consistently win 8 or more games every year.

Bell County was in last night's game by the sheer determination of London Stephany and London Stephany alone. Had that kid not been on the field it would have been a worse night for Dudely than it already was. 1400 yard rusher Brandon Baker was nowhere to be found, most of Bell's designed plays failed and Stephany was able to recover and turn it into something. Bad snaps all night long that he was able to make into something, the first fumble-TD for instance. All week we heard how he would be chasing down Belfry's backs and all I saw was Issac Dixon blow right by him several times. Hunter Bailey and the defense that recorded 72 TFL on the year could get nowhere near the backfield let alone disrupt the mesh point. The Bell D line was manhandled all night long, Belfry had guys in Bells backfield all night as well credit to Stephany for avoiding most of that pressure. Peyton Hensley quietly racked up 100 yards. Belfry did what they do and rushed for over 370 yards just like they have all year because they were prepared.

In the end, the great Dudley Hilton coached a bad game. He brought an ill-prepared team to Lexington that had not faced adversity and therefore did not know how to deal with it. Poor play calling and he left 3 timeouts on the field. He made a bad decision to receive to open the game because he knew the MO all year has been score first, score fast. When things started to break down it became the London Stephany show and had he passed more out of the RPO we may be talking about a different ball game this morning.

In the end, the 3A title game was a really good football team forged in the fires of adversity vs a really good football player whose coach failed to have his team ready to support him when the easy wins of the weak scheduled regular-season ran out and it was time to step up.

Some say this game was closer than the score, I say the opposite Bell is lucky it wasn't worse.

Enjoy the crow.

[ArJay]

Still feels good this morning. I will be less humble and gracious than most for the next few days, especially about the schedule conversation.

A good football team is born in practice but championship teams are made with strength through adversity. The strongest steel is forged by the fires of hell. Pounded and struck repeatedly before being plunged back into the molten fire.

To continue to deny that Bell County played a schedule that hurt them last night is shortsighted. A schedule like Bell played allowed two things, a nice win total and some big stats for your star athletes. What it does not do is sharpen instincts, humble your players or force your team to actually get better. Ask KCD how their schedule prepared them for Paintsville, better yet ask Eminence (one of the winningest programs in the state since 1986) how their regular season schedule and success prepares them for a run every year. Hint they've won a single playoff game, and consistently win 8 or more games every year.

Bell County was in last night's game by the sheer determination of London Stephany and London Stephany alone. Had that kid not been on the field it would have been a worse night for Dudely than it already was. 1400 yard rusher Brandon Baker was nowhere to be found, most of Bell's designed plays failed and Stephany was able to recover and turn it into something. Bad snaps all night long that he was able to make into something, the first fumble-TD for instance. All week we heard how he would be chasing down Belfry's backs and all I saw was Issac Dixon blow right by him several times. Hunter Bailey and the defense that recorded 72 TFL on the year could get nowhere near the backfield let alone disrupt the mesh point. The Bell D line was manhandled all night long, Belfry had guys in Bells backfield all night as well credit to Stephany for avoiding most of that pressure. Peyton Hensley quietly racked up 100 yards. Belfry did what they do and rushed for over 370 yards just like they have all year because they were prepared.

In the end, the great Dudley Hilton coached a bad game. He brought an ill-prepared team to Lexington that had not faced adversity and therefore did not know how to deal with it. Poor play calling and he left 3 timeouts on the field. He made a bad decision to receive to open the game because he knew the MO all year has been score first, score fast. When things started to break down it became the London Stephany show and had he passed more out of the RPO we may be talking about a different ball game this morning.

In the end, the 3A title game was a really good football team forged in the fires of adversity vs a really good football player whose coach failed to have his team ready to support him when the easy wins of the weak scheduled regular-season ran out and it was time to step up.

Some say this game was closer than the score, I say the opposite Bell is lucky it wasn't worse.

Enjoy the crow.

If Dixon hadn’t been on the field for Belfry the game would have been different. That’s what happens when you have stars. They are difference makers. Bell 3 years ago was the worst team we had in 30+ seasons. No one expected us to turn our program around this fast. Be critical all you want but we are on the rise. Next year we return our whole defense minus Stephney.

[AtlPirateFan]

Credit where it is due Bell was better than three years ago and they are on the rise, but if you keep playing cupcakes it won’t matter.

Agree to disagree on Dixon, you would have gotten a heavy dose of Bentley who quietly put up 50, Hensley who pounded your for 100 and one of the other backs waiting in the wings. Dixon may have gotten the big gains but the others were capable against your run D

[BobcatPride74]

Watched the film just to see if some of your comments are correct! Dixon and 55 were great ! London always does a good job !! I watched our center his snaps were good all night He hit our quarterback center in his hands all night one snap was off but don’t think it was him just caught off ! You won with a good team so why would you get on here and say thing about our players to make them look bad ! No one has said a negative thing toward your team ! Why feel the need to say this .

[BobcatPride74]

Belfry was great !! But just don’t get on here and put down kids there really is no need to be that way

[AtlPirateFan]

You get me wrong , nothing against your players, great season. Your coach failed them.

[BobcatPride74]

You get me wrong , nothing against your players, great season. Your coach failed them.

Maybe so but you pointed out several kids by name no need for that ! You know they read these boards and your facts were not correct on the center not fair judgment! I watched play by play and his snaps were in his center hands all night ! One bad one and I think London caught it off guard ! I will agree we need stronger schedule and that is not the kids fault !! Enjoy your win ! I am happy for your kids but spend your time praising your boys and don’t spend time putting other kids down!

[Pack2Pirate]

Well said I told everyone from beginning we’re going be alright when everyone gets healthy, like you said this this team has face so many challenges never back down or shy away from them. Ethan is a wonderful young man my son is a freshman he’s always spoke high of big E thinks a lot of him hopefully those younger guys paid attention to him ca bro what it take get back next year.

[AtlPirateFan]

Maybe so but you pointed out several kids by name no need for that ! You know they read these boards and your facts were not correct on the center not fair judgment! I watched play by play and his snaps were in his center hands all night ! One bad one and I think London caught it off guard ! I will agree we need stronger schedule and that is not the kids fault !! Enjoy your win ! I am happy for your kids but spend your time praising your boys and don’t spend time putting other kids down!

Look, I’m sorry I hurt your feelings in 2019. Yes I mentioned names because they were factually the names who were on the field. They were the names that were thrown out all week as to why Bell was superior to everyone in 3A. Call it poor coaching, bad game plan whatever you want they were put in bad positions all night long.

Maybe by mentioning names, those kids will go to Dudley and say “thanks coach, you abandoned us with time to go.” You had an explosive offense all year, you had 3 timeouts, down by only 10 and he conceded. He also had Belfry’s kryptonite successfully working with the passing game. Dudley is exactly who I thought he was.

[STIFFY]

when juveniles like All pirate fan speak it diminishes your all’s well deserved victory again I will repeat no matter who we played this year during the season it doesn’t factor in when the team your facing is better than you

[STIFFY]

He’s probably a student we’ll all overlook him
No hard feelings toward the adult Belfry fans

[AtlPirateFan]

when juveniles like All pirate fan speak it diminishes your all’s well deserved victory again I will repeat no matter who we played this year during the season it doesn’t factor in when the team your facing is better than you

And the team you are facing is better than you because your coach failed to compile a schedule that allowed you to be better than them.

[AtlPirateFan]

He’s probably a student we’ll all overlook him
No hard feelings toward the adult Belfry fans

Does it hurt?

[Pack2Pirate]

Well said I told everyone from beginning we’re going be alright when everyone gets healthy, like you said this this team has face so many challenges never back down or shy away from them. Ethan is a wonderful young man my son is a freshman he’s always spoke high of big E thinks a lot of him hopefully those younger guys paid attention to him ca bro what it take get back next year.

[Piratefan#40]

I honestly think the score should have been a lot worse than what it was u take back a questionable pass interference call a fumble by the receiver that was never blew dead ball till after the fact the coach started hounding the ref and a touchdown called back for a hold and there u go but hats off to London and the rest of the team

[bcpc]

Dudley is who he is... He made sure interrupted Haywoods interview Knowingly to look like a good fella. If you watched it. He looked at what was goin on before and walked in and had to get some Air time. This was several minutes after the game had ended. There is one thing about it. As long as he gets his face in there in a good/bad way he is happy.

[Hatz]

If Dixon hadn’t been on the field for Belfry the game would have been different. That’s what happens when you have stars. They are difference makers. Bell 3 years ago was the worst team we had in 30+ seasons. No one expected us to turn our program around this fast. Be critical all you want but we are on the rise. Next year we return our whole defense minus Stephney.

I think it will be interesting to see how Stephney is able to be replaced. I'm not sure Bell has ever had a QB like him before and likely won't have one following.

[smoke1015]

Belfry most impressive was last week. This was expected tonight.

Last night was a very good football game. Belfry could score, sometimes in just one play, or two. Bell adjusted some and slowed Belfry down, but Bell's defense simply is not as good as their offense. Offensively Belfry couldn't stop Bell either, really, but slowed them down. I mean Bell marched time off and went down field, slowly but surely. I think they got away from Stephney using his feet, and also his feet to setup passes, on 2 drives, and hurt themselves. But what I expected was Belfry to win by 3 TDs and maybe Bell not move the ball much. To me it wasn't as expected, other than what I figured would be the result of Belfry winning. I just thought it'd be "easier". It was not easy.

[STIFFY]

Does it hurt?

Why are you diminishing what the Belfry kids accomplished by saying if we had played a harder schedule we would have beat y’all

[smoke1015]

Very proud my friend. And thank you for the kind words. I'll make sure to let Ethan know.

Your son played awesome! Maybe the biggest compliment was I was surrounded by Bell fans and they were upset with him all night long! Lol! Great game, great player.

[ArJay]

Belfry has the better team. Everyone I was around at the game was proud of our players and coaches but acknowledged Belfry was really good and tipped our hat to them. Coach Haywood is a class act. It has been an outstanding season. We are back to being a great football program. That is exciting.

[AtlPirateFan]

Why are you diminishing what the Belfry kids accomplished by saying if we had played a harder schedule we would have beat y’all

Nothing is diminished, the trophy doesn’t shrink, the score doesn’t change, no flags are going to be thrown. Your opinion may change but much like my opinion it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of life.

If you would have played a better schedule you would have been more prepared to be competitive when your coach realized his game plan of riding a single player to a win wasn’t working. Talent alone does not win tough ball games.

[smoke1015]

Congrats to your son and to you. You’ve been the epitome of class on here and I admire you for it. :Thumbs:

Thought you’d like this.

This video proves, or should, to Northern folks, or Western counties, etc.. These guys aren't a bunch of redneck "dummies". These guys answer these questions and are articulate and precise with their opinion on a game. Don't let accents fool you. Just brought to mind that Boyle county comment. I don't know any of these guys but they are obviously intelligent and thoughtful young men. Great football players for sure. I thought Bell was bigger than them, or looked like it, but these guys had technique, were stronger, and just more physical. IMO

[smoke1015]

Wrong again as usual

I have to say I love to watch that guy coach. I'm about to be 46 and Hilton gets around better than I do and seems to have twice as much energy. We have about the same "fire" and temper. Lol. But when he called his line over and just lit them up, in a timeout and Bell marched right in the endzone after that I was like wow. He is legit and has nothing to prove to any of these idiots. Same with coach Haywood. Both these coaches are in rare company.

[smoke1015]

Still feels good this morning. I will be less humble and gracious than most for the next few days, especially about the schedule conversation.

A good football team is born in practice but championship teams are made with strength through adversity. The strongest steel is forged by the fires of hell. Pounded and struck repeatedly before being plunged back into the molten fire.

To continue to deny that Bell County played a schedule that hurt them last night is shortsighted. A schedule like Bell played allowed two things, a nice win total and some big stats for your star athletes. What it does not do is sharpen instincts, humble your players or force your team to actually get better. Ask KCD how their schedule prepared them for Paintsville, better yet ask Eminence (one of the winningest programs in the state since 1986) how their regular season schedule and success prepares them for a run every year. Hint they've won a single playoff game, and consistently win 8 or more games every year.

Bell County was in last night's game by the sheer determination of London Stephany and London Stephany alone. Had that kid not been on the field it would have been a worse night for Dudely than it already was. 1400 yard rusher Brandon Baker was nowhere to be found, most of Bell's designed plays failed and Stephany was able to recover and turn it into something. Bad snaps all night long that he was able to make into something, the first fumble-TD for instance. All week we heard how he would be chasing down Belfry's backs and all I saw was Issac Dixon blow right by him several times. Hunter Bailey and the defense that recorded 72 TFL on the year could get nowhere near the backfield let alone disrupt the mesh point. The Bell D line was manhandled all night long, Belfry had guys in Bells backfield all night as well credit to Stephany for avoiding most of that pressure. Peyton Hensley quietly racked up 100 yards. Belfry did what they do and rushed for over 370 yards just like they have all year because they were prepared.

In the end, the great Dudley Hilton coached a bad game. He brought an ill-prepared team to Lexington that had not faced adversity and therefore did not know how to deal with it. Poor play calling and he left 3 timeouts on the field. He made a bad decision to receive to open the game because he knew the MO all year has been score first, score fast. When things started to break down it became the London Stephany show and had he passed more out of the RPO we may be talking about a different ball game this morning.

In the end, the 3A title game was a really good football team forged in the fires of adversity vs a really good football player whose coach failed to have his team ready to support him when the easy wins of the weak scheduled regular-season ran out and it was time to step up.

Some say this game was closer than the score, I say the opposite Bell is lucky it wasn't worse.

Enjoy the crow.

One part of your comment I definitely find wrong. "Dixon blowing by Stephney"...No. Stephney was moved to corner and Haywood simply ran away from him. Or a couple of instances Stephney was trying to work around a wide receiver block and Dixon made a heck of a cut, etc.. Stephney definitely made several tackles. But once they started putting him at corner instead of safety he wasn't gonna recover to make tackles all the way across the field. By that time Dixon was getting slowed down, but still popping off 4, 7, and 15 yard runs. Dixon wasn't the only Belfry back that was tearing up yards. They ran behind their center and guard and just dominated. The rare time there wasn't a nice o line push, the backs simply ran out of tackles for 2 to 4 yard gains. Stephney was definitely the fasted kid on the field, but one man can't do everything. Luckily football is a team game.

[jax]

Proud of our Bobcats. We lost to a better team. The majority of the Belfry fans are a class act. I said all year if we had to lose I would rather loose to Belfry. Now, as far as scheduling, ours was weak, no denying that, but we cannot help who is in our District, WE HAVE TO PLAY THEM, nor can we help who we meet in the playoffs, not up to us. As far as the rest of the schedule, we always play Whitley, Harlan Co. and Knox Co., we always have and those games are good for the area. Some of you can rip us all you want to, but the fact is we lost to a better team, not because of who we played and who they played, but because they were better. Plain and simple. Congratulations to the Pirates.

[STIFFY]

Let’s hope all pirates 9th grade English teacher gives them a pizza party to top off the victory. Great season Pirates Great season Bobcats. Hope we can do it again in the future

[bigben7]

Dudley will find another Tennessee q-back to come help him go 14-1 again.... 2nd place. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Ragnar]

How many starters will Belfry return next year? I think they lose 14 or 15 Sr. Just wondering how many of them were full time players.

[Cattleman]

What about the other games? The reason is Dudley wants the wins, NO other reason. He will take wins over what is best for team.