[EKUAlum05]

I said it last year. The Pirates sleep walked in Hillard Howard thinking Pikeville didn't matter. The kids on that team looked at Pikeville like they looked at Pike Central, we the older generation might know and understand the rivalry between Pikeville and Belfry. We might know that Pikeville can be a force to reckon with at times but those kids had seen scores like these in their past

2014 29-20 Pikeville
2013 56 - 20 Belfry

I would warn not to fall into the trap of looking beyond the short term.

These are the only two games that give a clue because they are the only two games that involved players on these teams who contributed to the outcome.

Obviously we know what happened last year, but that 2013 score was a bit misleading as well. Belfry wound up cruising on the scoreboard but if I recall Pikeville had success moving the ball and had a couple cataclysmic failures that helped doom them.

The Panthers gained around 270 yards that game.. granted some came against reserves...but they did move the ball against the Belfry 1's and Chase Hall gained over 100 yards.

I also believe Belfry was a bit flat footed and the early fumble return for a score didn't help matters any. Once the Panthers got into a groove it was too late.