[Hoot Gibson]

The reason that I expect Johnson Central to race to a large lead tonight is that Harlan totally dominated the time of possession in the first match up between these teams. Jim Matney and his staff have had plenty of time to rework their defensive game plan for the rematch and I do not believe that Harlan County will move the ball as consistently as it did in the first game.

JC's offensive stats for the first game had the Golden Eagles running only 17 plays for 328 yards of total offense. That works out to an average of over 19 yards per play. I doubt that JC will match that yds/carry average but if they can force a few punts or force a couple of turnovers early, I believe that they will more than double their offensive plays over the first game. If the times of possession between the two teams is close, then the score will probably not be close.

I cannot remember seeing stats where a team averaged nearly 20 yards per play and scored only 33 points. Despite getting shutout, HC's offense deserves a lot of credit for limiting JC's possessions in the first game. I just do not expect them to be able to match that performance tonight.