10-13-10 —    The Wayne County Cardinals hosted district foe Jackson County, last Friday night at Jewell Field, in the home finale on the 2010 schedule. The Cards entered with a 1-1 district tally and 2-4 mark overall, coming off a 21-12 home win over Casey County. The Generals owned a 0-6 record and were coming off a disappointing home loss to Garrard County. The contest marked the fourth meeting between the two schools, with Wayne County dominating the previous three games, including a 41-12 decision in 2009.

    The match up was billed as "Senior Night" but freshman quarterback Tyler Guffey made the most of his first varsity start, totaling 210 yards and 5 touchdowns. The 5-10, 165 lb. signal caller, starting for the injured Shawn Dishman, completed 6 of 10 passes for 110 yards with 3 scores, plus rushed for 100 yards with 2 more scores, as Wayne County totaled 503 yards of offense and rolled to the 55-6 district win.

    Wayne County rushed 41 times for 393 yards and tallied 17 first downs, without a punt, as most of the second half was played with a mercy-rule, running clock.

    "I thought our kids had a pretty focused week of practice and really played hard. We came out with the right intensity and I thought everybody that played contributed in a big way. Tyler Guffey bounced back from an early fumble and played well, plus all our running backs hit the hole hard. Just a good effort on both sides of the ball," said Cards head coach Shawn Thompson.

    Guffey completed scoring passes to three different receivers and scored on runs of 26 and 1 yards, while Devin Sloan added a solid night. Sloan, a 6-0, 180 lb. senior, rushed 17 times for a season best 143 yards with a touchdown, while classmate Travis Pace added 2 touchdowns and 81 yards, on just 5 attempts.

    "Jackson County plays a different style of defense and I thought our line controlled the line of scrimmage. We were close to having three guys go over 100 yards each. so it was a good night running and passing the football," said Thompson.

    Jackson County, which dropped to 0-7, was led by the play of freshman quarterback Jordan Fox. Fox rushed 13 times for 61 yards and completed 8 of 22 passes for 81 yards, plus completed a 16 yard touchdown pass to Josh Collins.

    "Jackson County has a young football team and Coach Carter has some good weapons to build on for the future. Jordan Fox is a very good looking athlete for a freshman, but I thought we pressured him pretty well most of  the game," said Thompson.

    The Generals totaled 46 plays for 152 yards and finished with 8 first downs, while each team finished with just one turnover.  Wayne County's only miscue of the night, was their opening drive, as a Tyler Guffey fumble in the end zone stalled an 8-play, 63 yard drive.

    "I was worried after the fumble that maybe Tyler would get down, or lose confidence, but he bounced back and made good decisions the rest of the way. He made some good throws and nice reads, so give credit to the offensive line for providing the time to do that," said Thompson.

    The Cards scored on eight of their next 9 possessions, as Travis Pace put the first score on the board with a 23 yard touchdown run. The 3-play, 35 yard march was capped-off by a Filip Hillhamer extra-point to push the score to 7-0, with 6:34 left in the first period.

    Wayne County added two more scores in the quarter, as Tyler Guffey connected with sophomore wide out Kyle Gehring from 33 yards our and Devin Sloan raced in from 3 yards out, as the host owned a 20-0 lead, after 12 minutes.

    The Cards used two, 2-play drives and a 5 play march to push the halftime lead to 42-0. Guffey scored on a 26 yard run, then connected with Chris Wright on a conversion pass, followed by a 39 yard pass and catch by the same duo, before freshman quarterback found Dagan Shelton in the end zone from 23 yards out, with just :32 left in the half.

    Filip Hillhamer finished the half 4 of 5 on extra-points, as Wayne County rolled to the 42-0 halftime lead.

    "We wanted to send our seniors out the right way, with a good focused effort and I thought we did that," said Thompson.

    The Cards forced the mercy-clock on their opening series of the third quarter, as Devin Sloan runs of 11, 12 and 27 yards setup a Tyler Guffey 1 yard touchdown plunge.

    Wayne County added another score with 1:20 left in the third quarter, as Travis Pace scored on a 5 yard run, to finish a 6-play, 40 yard drive. The extra-point failed, leaving the score 55-0, with still over a quarter left in the game.

    "We got to play a lot of people and anytime we can get our younger guys valuable varsity snaps, in a winning experience it's a plus. Our freshman same on Thursday was canceled, so we had a lot of guys ready to get in the game and mix it up" said Thompson.

    The Generals is made the most of their final possession of the night, as the visitors used 6 plays to travel 51 yards and score on Jordan Fox 16 yard pass to Josh Collins.

    Wayne County picked-up 3 first downs on the final series and ran out the clock, cruising to the 55-6 win, the Cards improved to 3-4 on the season and 2-1 in the district play, with a trip to #1 Somerset next up on the schedule.

    "We've put together back to back district wins and have some positive momentum, to go back on the road. We still control our own destiny and certainly have a huge challenge on Friday night. Somerset was 14-1 last year and State running-up with almost everybody back, plus they're 8-0 this year and the number one ranked team in all of class 3A, so yes it will be a big test," said Thompson.

    Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at The Briarpatch. For a complete preview of the match up see related story inside this edition of the Outlook.