[ArmChairHC]

Wow. Did NOT see this one coming. 4A should be put on notice. Pikeville looked like they did against Raceland last year at their place and at times, in the title game last year. Bear with me…kind of a long post. But I have a lot of respect for Pikeville and from the outside looking in…this is what I found.

I did some digging, watching, and reading. What I found is a common thread among the Pikeville teams during their run the last several years. Pikevilles defense is NEVER not good. Their LBs are always big, fast, strong, and incredibly smart. Their DL controls the LOS without having to stunt their backers, which is why their backers are always so successful. But offensively? 2015 was the last truly balanced Pikeville champion that I feel like no matter how many times the game was played. They had enough to win it all and beat whoever was infront of them. Pugh, Batalie, and Hensley were unreal. That to me is the best Pikeville team in their current run.

Since then, Pikeville has lived on one player that was simply the best guy on the field each night and honestly the best player in the class. And in 1A ball, yes, one guy can simply make that much of a difference. It was obvious with Anthony in the title game last year. Without “that guy”, the Panthers seem to be grasping at straws offensively. Which makes absolutely zero sense to me. Their roster is absolutely loaded with talent. I went back and watched the 2022 Pikeville beat down of Raceland in the title game. Birchfield was the key. No one else offensively was consistent.

So there’s a common denominator in all of these Pikeville teams, and that’s offensively, all their eggs seem to be in one basket. A lot of the time it’s been enough. But last year in the title game, if you take Anthony out of the equation, that game ends the way the regular season game ended. But it didn’t…and now I move onto my next statement.

Pikeville will be fine in 1A. You Pikeville people are conditioned to having the ability to pretty much go toe to toe with anyone regardless of class size. Raceland has had that ability in recent years as well…this year we will take some beatings as well. Do I think Pikeville is as much of a favorite now as they were 2 weeks ago? No I do not. Do I think everyone in Pikeville is overreacting to this loss? 1000%. Are they still the best team in 1A? I’d say so. But there are definitely some dents in the armor. But just with their roster I can’t call them holes just yet.

I said it in the preseason that Raceland and Pikevilles schedule would make a lot of people try to write them off early. Both could be looking at a 1-4/0-5 record going into district play. Then they will both win their district with running clocks. And the playoffs will look about the same as last year.

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Pikevilles lack of control in the box is what surprised me the most last night. JC is an animal this year. I was more impressed with them than I was unimpressed with Pikeville.