[PHSForever]

I understand that and it is frustrating,but at the same time the score at that point was Harlan 14-7 and if the runner was down why was the ball turned over to Harlan? If Harlan gets the ball then you have to give them 6 cause they took it all the way back. The beanbags came out and I have watched the video. All that aside,it would have been a great momentum change and probably would have led to a Harlan win. The problem i have with it is for you to say Raceland is better than Harlan when Pikeville could have lost that game just as easily as they won. Now I grant you that the game is in the books so I'll not address this topic again. My point in all of this is that Pikeville and Raceland and Harlan are about as close as three teams could possibly be at this point in the season. I believe any one of these three could beat the other at any given point. I also believe Fairview could possibly be there too but they have the weakest schedule of the four and they have yet to prove they deserve their rank. But that will pan out as the season goes along. I think they play raceland on 10/14 and that will tell the tale on them. I would love to get another shot at Pikeville in the semi's but unless Harlan can somehow come out of their region with a win over Hazard it will never happen. I think Harlan would have to beat them in regular season at Harlan and be able to get homefield advantage in the playoff's for that to happen. Before I go I'll say that if Harlan can't beat Middlesboro friday night then they probably won't be strong enough to beat Hazard for the region or at home in regular season. If Harlan losses to Middlesboro then I say we could only go 5-4 on the regular season because of the strong schedule we are playing. We have Mboro,Hazard and Corbin left this season along with Pineville,Lynn Camp,Jenkins and Leslie co..

Down by contact. Or we are talking about two different plays. And I mean no offense at all when I say Raceland is tougher than Harlan. I believe Raceland has more speed on their team, and were tougher running the ball than Harlan. Harlan opened up their running game with the excellent passing of Saragas, whom I believe, with all due respect, is a better QB than the Elkins kid from Raceland (don't hate on me, Rams fans, it is just my opinion). Raceland was far better at establishing the running game first than Harlan IMO. I will say this, I'd hate to have to see either one of these teams again in the playoffs, although I know we will likely have to face one or the other potentially.

And don't overlook the toughness of Pikeville's schedule too. So far we have played Harlan, Raceland, and Tellico Plains. While we were clearly a better team than Tellico, they played hard and physical, and we just had more speed than they did, and a better QB and kicking game that allowed us to establish field position. Our kicker gives us a tremendous advantage, as every team has to go the full length of the field almost every single time against our D.

Our games left are Sheldon Clark, Swain, NC (undefeated on the season so far and a 7 time NC state champion in their class), Belfry, Shelby Valley, South Floyd, Allen Central, and Phelps. That is 2 3A schools, a 2A school, and 4 1A schools left on the schedule. We have a tough schedule as well, VERY tough.