10-31-12 —     The Wayne County Cardinals, 9-1 on the season and coming off a 31-14  road win over East Jessamine, open the Class 3A state playoffs this  

Friday night at Jewell Field hosting Henry County. The Wildcats,  wrapped up the regular season with a 3-7 mark, coming off a 21-0 loss  at Spencer County, last week.

    The contest marks the first ever meeting between the two schools,  but the head coaches are far from strangers at all as Shawn Thompson  and Jason Spencer both played together and coached together at Wayne  County before Spencer left to accept a teaching position and  

assistant's job at Southwestern.

    "We are excited to host a playoff game and ready to start the  postseason portion of our schedule. I guess it's odd that of all the  matchups we face a guy that I know very well and consider a friend.  Watching Henry County on tape they have a very dangerous football  team with all the right ingredients. They have great size on both  their offensive and defensive lines, plus I like their skill kids, so  

this is an extremely tough opening round game. At this point everyone  is 0-0 and other than establishing home field, anybody can beat  anyone regardless of regular season accomplishments," said Cards head  coach Shawn Thompson.

    The Wildcats own wins over Walton-Verona (27-24), Bellevue (13-6)  and claimed their district's number 3 seed with a (21-7) win over  Elizabethtown. Losses have come to a strong list of schools  including: North Oldham (38-7), Woodford County (42-6),Shelby County  

(21-0), Bullitt Central (21-7), LaRue County (42-15), Central (35-0)  and last week at Spencer County.

    "Henry County has a very tested football team and has played an  extremely good schedule, so if we try and read anything into their  record, that would be a big mistake. Looking at their schedule,  they've played some very good football teams and have defeated a  couple of really nice teams, so it will take a big effort in all  areas of the game.

    Spencer in his second year at the helm posted a 2-9 mark in 2011,  almost pulling the upset in last year's opening round of the  playoffs, dropping a 14-7 decision at Corbin.

    "We know they played Corbin a great game last year and we expect it  to be a big challenge this year.  We were able to go on the road as a  three seed last year and win at LaRue County, so this will be a tough  match up for both teams," said Thompson.

    This year the Henry County offense is led by 5-10 160 lb. senior  quarterback Brock Fish and the offensive running game is paced by 5-9  185 lb. sophomore running back Mason Fish.

    "Offensively they have shown some Split Back and some Spread, so  they run a multiple look, depending on the matchups and opponent.   

Brock Fish runs their offense well and is a very athletic  

quarterback, while his younger brother Mason leads the ground game  and is a very good hard-nosed runner. I also really like their size  up front.  They have excellent size and it will certainly be a tough  battle in the trenches," said Thompson.

    The Wildcats are allowing 25.7 points per contest while the Cards  have totaled 366 points in ten games for a 36.6 average. On the flip  of that Wayne County's defense is giving up 13.4 points per contest,  while Henry County has totaled 96 points in ten games for a 9.6 ppg  average.

    "Defensively they play a 50 Look and are very sound on that side of  the football, plus on tape I was very impressed with their special  teams," said Thompson.

    The Cards will look to junior quarterback Tyler Guffey to pace an  

offense that used 55 plays to total 365 yards, in last week's 31-14  

win at East Jessamine.  Guffey leads the team with 65 completions in  

122 attempts for 1111 yards with 15 TDs against just 4 interceptions,  

plus has rushed for 288 yards and 3 scores.

    "We had one of our better running games of the season and I thought  

our passing game kept East Jessamine honest.  We were able to pass  

for two scores and rush for three, so I continue to like our  

offensive mix.  We are getting good production from our running backs  

and also making some big plays with our passing game," said Thompson.

    Wayne County is led by the 383 rushing yards and 6 scores of senior  

Cody Rhule, while D'Vantae Dixson has tallied 379 yards and 7 TDs.   

Junior Ruiz has 337 yards with 5 scores, while Jason Perkins and  

Logan Gardner pace the receiving corps. Perkins leads the team with  

454 yards and 7 TDs on 19 receptions, while Gardner has 20 catches  

for 315 yards with 3 scores.

    The Cards' defensive unit is coming off a pretty solid effort in the  

win over East Jessamine, as the squad allowed 9 first downs and 265  

yards of offense on 52 plays, with 98 of those yards coming late  

against the junior varsity.

    "Defensively we have to be very aware of their skill kids and match  

their size and strength on the line.  We want to swarm the football  

and play very aggressive, plus as always be solid in all three phases  

of the game," said Thompson.

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

Field.

    "We have had just unbelievable support throughout the season and  

hope another big crowd comes out and supports these guys, I am  

extremely proud of our team. I know we'll play hard and give our  

best, so we'll see what happens," said Thompson.

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