[nekysportsfan]

Let's look at the two teams out-of-district schedules:

Johnson Central lost 28-21 to Capital (WV), who is a good team this year at 6-1. They beat Henry Clay 33-21, a good 5-3 6A team, and also beat Moore 49-21, a decent 7-1 4A team. They beat South Charleston (WV), a not-so-great 2-5 team, by a score of 43-13. Johnson Central played all of their out-of-district games at home.

Ashland beat a bad 2-5 5A Harlan County team 49-6, a good 1A Raceland team 21-14, and a mediocre 5-3 3A Russell team 41-0. Those games were played at Putnam. They went on the road to beat an average 3-4 George Washington (WV) team 50-28 and to beat a rising 6-2 Ironton (OH) team 14-7.

Both Johnson Central and Ashland completely clobbered their district competition, so not much can be gathered from those games.

From the stats, Johnson Central puts the load squarely on the shoulders of senior Joe Jackson, who carries the ball 17 times a game for 159 yards a game. Juniors Devin Johnson and QB Riley Preece are the other 2 main offensive weapons on the ground. Johnson Central's passing attack hasn't been much to speak of this year as they've only thrown it 9 times a game. The QB Preece has thrown 3 TD's and 4 INT's.

Ashland has a more balanced attack by utilizing senior QB Braxton Ratliff, junior RB Blake Hester, and sophomore RB Keontae Pittman about equally. Each player gets about 7 carries per game. All 3 have breakaway speed. Ratliff throws the ball 14 times per game. He's thrown for 14 TD's and thrown 4 INT's on the season. He should get his big play receiving threat back this week in senior Cade Brandt who was very explosive in the 3 games he played. Ratliff also throws a lot to senior TE Russell Rogers and junior WR Andy Layne.

I think Johnson Central's defense is physically stronger than Ashland's defense. Johnson Central's defense is led by senior LB brothers Alex and Matt Horn. Ashland's 2 leading tacklers are smallish LB sophomore Caleb Tackett and junior Steele Workman. The LB corps is probably the biggest weakness on the Ashland team and since Johnson Central is going to run the ball all evening, this doesn't look like a good matchup for Ashland. At the same time, I don't think Johnson Central's defense has faced a QB as good as Ratliff this season.

The players each team can't do without are seniors Jackson and Ratliff. They are the 2 game changing players in this one.

I initially thought Johnson Central would likely clobber Ashland like usual largely based on the past, but after looking at all the matchups, I think it will be a closer game than I thought. These are clearly the top 2 teams in the east in 4A. Both have a lot of strengths and a few weaknesses. As usual, these 2 teams should be playing again a few weeks from now in the playoffs. The winner of this one will determine where that game is played. This should be a great game to watch.