10-31-12 —     The Wayne County 7th grade football team met Louisville Farnsley,  last Saturday at Elizabethtown High School, in the championship game  of Region 2 in the KMSFA state playoffs.  The Cards entered with a  9-1 record and advanced into the matchup with wins over Glasgow  (20-14) and Monroe County (20-8).  The Wildcats, the champions of the  

Jefferson County Public Schools, entered with a perfect 8-0 mark.   Farnsley opened the playoffs as the #1 seed and received a bye,  before rolling to a 22-0 blowout win over East Hardin.

    The winner would advance to this Saturday's 7th Grade Semifinals at  Lexington Catholic and a matchup with Johnson County, a 20-18 winner  over Pulaski Southern in the Region 4 championship game.

    "Just an unbelievable experience for our kids and I was so proud of  our effort, especially the way we executed our defensive game plan.   

We worked on some things this week on both sides of the ball and that  preparation really helped us in a big way.  Farnsley has an extremely  athletic and talented football team, so we wanted to try and control  the football and keep their weapons off the field as much as  possible. Defensively only one team has scored on them all season, so  we knew it would be a tough day trying to move the football, but we  

just kept fighting," said Wayne County Middle School head coach Shane  Shoemaker.

    The 7th grade improved to 10-1 on the season and advanced to the  state semifinals with an impressive 16-0 shutout win over Farnsley.   The Cards used a Clay Shelton fumble recovery in the end zone and a  Shelton conversion run, to grab an 8-0 lead with 6:18 left in the  fourth quarter and added a Jake Wright 5 yard touchdown run with a  Lane Turner conversion pass to Matt Garner to push the lead out to  

16-0, en route to the championship win.

    "I thought we came out ready to go, but we couldn't get anything  sustained on offense, but I felt if we could ever score, it could  really take the momentum.  We finally did that, but it was early  fourth quarter before we managed to score a touchdown.  This is a  tremendous honor for our kids, our football program and I know it  will take a great effort, but we look forward to facing Johnson  

County and traveling to Lexington," said Shoemaker.

    The win advances the Cards into a Saturday morning match up with  Johnson County, at Lexington Catholic Stadium.

    "Any team that beats Pulaski Southern has a great football team, so  it will take another great week of practice, but I wouldn't trade the  effort and heart of our kids. We have grown up a lot the past several  weeks from hosting our first ever playoff game, to winning our first  

game, to winning on the road and now being region champs, so we must  get back to work, but enjoy this great experience. Hopefully we can  continue building on this season and our program's future," said  Shoemaker.

    Kickoff is slated for 9 a.m. this Saturday morning.

    For all the details on the 7th grade squad in the KMSFA State  Championships checkout next week's edition of The Outlook.