[PHSForever]

First of all, this is to New O from the closed thread. You said:

"I noticed them putting time back on the clock....in Pikevilles favor at the end. Great job Valley. Pikeville had the game won and let the pressure get to them. I really hate excuses. "

When they put time back on the clock in Pikeville's favor at the end (and you are right, they did), it happened right in front of me. When the player went out of bounds and the ref motioned for the clock to be stopped, the time was 58.4 and the clock kept running. After they finally stopped it, refs conferred, etc., the clock was reset to 1 minute. So yes, we did gain a second and a half back. Not denying that at all. But let's talk about an earlier play as an even WORSE example that ended up in Valley's favor.

On a kickoff, Valley tried an onside kick. Pikeville recovered, ref blew the whistle and motioned for the clock stoppage, it kept running. Then, Valley coach comes out and begins yelling at the ref, and all of a sudden he changed his mind and motioned Valley recovered the ball. After the ensuing confusion, they put time back on the clock (which they should have), but ended up putting more time on the clock than there was WHEN THE KICKOFF STARTED. It was right near the end of the 3rd qtr, time was 2:04 at kickoff, it was reset to 2:10. When the ref stopped play on the recovery, it was 1:59, that is what it should have been reset to, but they gave Valley 11 extra seconds. I can't speak to who actually recovered it, because it was over on the Valley sideline away from me, but I noticed he never conferred with any other refs about the recovery call, just the time. So Valley got the ball on a changed call, PLUS they got more time on the clock than there was to begin with. Like I said, those are two examples of poor clock keeping, and it happened several times (both ways) during the night. Some for Pikeville, some for Valley.

Or, how about the ghost blocking in the back on the 97 yard INT return in the first qtr on Valley's first drive? The flag was thrown AFTER the Pikeville player went into the endzone, was thrown back at the 20 yard line where there were NO Valley players to even be blocked. The Pikeville player and 2 teammates blocking for him had outrun the last defender around the 30 yard line.

As I said in my post on the other thread, I am NOT taking anything away from Valley's boys. They won, but it was a horribly officiated game (both ways), and the Pikeville coaches failed to recognize a simple misdirection play that Valley ran over and over. It was so simple to recognize and defend. Every time they ran the play, they sent #4 wide to the side they wanted to run to to clear the defensive back for Pikeville out of the area, sent another player in motion the opposite way, then ran to that side (#4's) either by QB keeper or handoff. Simply staying in 4-4-3 and only allowing your front 4 to push while shifting to the gaps with the linebackers shuts that play down every time. The coaches wasted 2 timeouts and didn't even bother to point this out to the boys to stay in their gaps.