9-12-12 —     The Wayne County Cardinals, 4-0 on the season and coming off a 22-21 overtime win at Madison Southern, host Lincoln County this Friday  night at Jewell Field.   

The Patriots are off to an impressive 3-1 start coming off a 19-18  win at rival Garrard County.

    The match up marks the second ever meeting between the two schools,  with Wayne County holding a 1-0 series edge, after rallying for a  21-14 win at Lincoln County,  in 2011.    "Lincoln County is another big 5A school on our schedule and after  

our game last year they have been on quite a roll.  They won a  

playoff game last year after winning five of their last six games to  even make the playoffs and they are off to a good start this season  with a big win over Garrard County last week," said Wayne County head  coach Shawn Thompson.

    The Cards are coming off an offensive performance that totaled 281  yards on 53 plays and 12 first downs, in the overtime win at Madison  Southern.

    "We are making strides in our passing game and hopefully our offense  is starting to click. Last week we moved the football pretty well,  but had too many negative plays and some costly penalties.  We had  two turnovers as well and both of those were big momentum plays, so  

we certainly have some things to work on.  We still want to be able  to pound the ball with the running game, so our play up front will be  a big key," said Thompson.

    Wayne County's Tyler Guffey is coming off a 12 of 23 performance  

that totaled 188 yards and 2 touchdowns against one interception.

    Sophomore wide out Logan Gardner added a season high 5 catches for  123 yards, which included a 46 yard touchdown reception.

    The rushing attack was limited to 96 yards on 31 attempts, paced by  the 28 yards of Guffey.

    "We want to continue to keep defenses guessing with a good mix of  

the run and pass. Lincoln County plays an aggressive 4-4 defense and  

their size and strength are both very impressive on film. We have to  match their intensity up front and be cleaner in all areas of  

blocking," said Thompson.

    The Patriots are allowing 23 points per contest while the Cards have  totaled 155 points in four games for a 38.8 average. On the flip of  that Wayne County's defense is giving up 10.5 points per contest,  

while Lincoln has totaled 114 points in four games for a 28.5 average.

    "They are a Multiple I formation team and they have a very nice  quarterback that throws the ball pretty well and their running backs  all hit the hole hard, so this will be another tough Friday night.   Both sides of their lines are very big and physical, so it will once  again be a battle in the trenches.  Last year we were down 14-0 at  halftime, so we know Lincoln County is a very good football team,"  said Thompson.

    The Cards defensive unit is coming off a pretty decent effort in  last week's win, as the squad allowed 7 first downs and 283 yards of  offense on 39 plays.

    "Madison Southern has one of the fastest backs in the state and we  felt as a coaching staff that he was good enough that even if we play  

pretty well, he would still break a couple of big plays which he did,  but other than those couple of plays we played pretty well.  Lincoln  County has a good set of offensive backs and we have to be focused on  our assignments and play with a great intensity" said Thompson.

    Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Wayne County's Jewell  Field.

    "We continue to receive excellent crowd support and hope we have  another big crowd turn out this Friday.  This is a big game for our  kids and it's big in the fact we start district next week and want to  

head into that with as much momentum as possible," said Thompson.

    Check out next week's Outlook for all the details, stats and pictures.