[OutlawJoseyWales]

First off....congrats to Ashland. They were the better team tonight. Ashland appeared to be more focused and hungrier than the Pirates. While it was a physical game.....
Belfry did not bring their physicality with them from Pond Creek. I'll definitely have to eat crow on the field condition. I didn't think the field could be in poor enough shape to negate Dixon's effectiveness....but it was. Belfry's O-line got no push up front. Ashland definitely had something too do with that...but the field conditons certainly didn't help. However....I said early in the year.....after the Pikeville game that this Belfry team HAD TO FIND A FULLBACK. Unfortunately....they never really did. Way to one dimensional tonight. Coleman made some nices runs from the QB spot....but that was really the extent of it. In the pregame thread i mentioned 4 areas to watch:

YAC yards
Tackling
Penalties
Turnover

Belfry dismembered Ashland last year in YAC yards. Not tonight. Ashland won that battle easily. Ashland also won the tacking battle. Belfry spent alot of the night trying to strip the ball instead of wrapping up. Belfry also lost the penalty game....especially the face mask call on a no gain 3rd down deep in Ashland own territory. That was a huge penalty. Turnovers were about even.

Bottom line is this......ashland looked like a team that was hungry to get back to a championship game after a 30 yr drought. Belfry looked uninspired, slow and even confused at times offensively. Ashland was the better team tonight.

side note......whoever chose the individual running the clock......should be fired. The blatant clock errors in the first half were simply egregious and competely uncalled for. Without a doubt.....the Ashland timekeeper ran off 3-4 game minutes by either a) not understanding the basic rules or 23) simply didnt care about the rules. Either way.......that was totally uncalled for.