[charlie22]

JC had a great season and played a good game against HHS! With that said I congratulate them. But Highlands was definitely a slightly better team. I think that teams need to be multi-faceted but it is not all that bad to rely on the run. But as has been already stated, you better be able to stay in the lead. The JC nor the Highlands Defense was very impressive. But maybe that was because the offense of both teams were good. But then Belfry seems to have a better Defense than either of these teams. What killed JC in this game was the BIG MISTAKE that allowed the Highlands D to score a TD. The Eagles were moving the ball and then suddenly found themselves down 2 TD's instead of being what appeared to be a soon to be tie all in the span of about 10 seconds.

Anyway, HHS played mistake free (unlike in the Bryan Station game) and JC had one mistake too many. That sums it up. Good luck Highlands the rest of the way.

Wouldn't necessarily agree that Highlands played a mistake free game. We too squandered some opportunities: ball on the JC one and we get called for holding, which moves that ball back to the 11 (we get no points out of the drive when we miss what should have been a chip shot field goal); ball deep in our territory, we throw a pass to Conner on the wheel route and he takes it out past midfield, we again are called for holding, eventually punt deep from our territory and give JC great field position which they used to score a td.

Otherwise, I agree with your post.

Game went pretty much exactly as I thought it would (heck I predicted the exact score in this game). Close to tied at half with Highlands depth starting to show in the second half. I figured JC would have two fumbles not one and got the interceptions backwards too as I figured JC would have one not two. I figured both offenses would move the ball well and would only get stopped when they stopped themselves, which is what happened for both teams.

Neither defense is set up to stop the type of O that they faced in this game. JC's D is set up to stop the power run oriented teams more prevalent in E. Ky. Highlands D is set up to stop the spread type teams more prevalent in northern, central and western Ky. Our linebackers are quick, but very small. Often times we'd hit the runner at or behind the line of scrimmage, but didn't have the body size to bring the runner down. Plus, we are taught to tackle the upper body (not the legs) which also worked to our disadvantage when our small lbers had to take on the big powerful runners of JC. It didn't help that our biggest and in my opinion most physical lber (Roller) was lost in the Ashland game with a season ending knee injury.

Both teams moved the ball well. While some can say it was Highlands passing game that hurt the Eagles, Highlands ran the ball well also. If my stats are correct, I think Highlands averaged about 7 yds per run, which forced JC to honor the run and opened up the passing game. It was a no brainer to me that if JC had to go with one on one man coverage that there would be some big passes completed. While Collinsworth gets all the attention as Highlands receivers, we have one of the deepest receiving corps in the state. Collinsworth was used as a decoy on the long passes and it worked to perfection.

Big congrats to both teams. The JC kids played exactly as I thought they would. They are tough, hardnosed kids. They had a great, great season. Highlands kids also played tough football and didn't back down from the physical play of JC at all. They came into a tough playing atmosphere after a long bus ride and played the kind of game that I expect of Highlands players.

Again, congrats to both programs for a very good football game. I hope we meet up again next year.