Shannon Hutchinson, Sports Writer
Monticello — The Wayne County Cardinals, 0-5 on the season and coming off a 21-14
district loss at Garrard County, return to district action this Friday night
at Casey County's Rebel Field. The Rebels, under the direction of long time
head coach Andy Stephens, are 2-4 and coming off a disappointing 60-9 home
loss to Somerset.
The match up marks the 28th meeting between the two rivals, as Wayne
County has won the past six meetings, including a 49-21 decision at Jewell
Field in 2008, to own a 21-6 all time series advantage.
"Casey County started a lot of freshman and sophomores last year, so
they are a much more experienced team this year. They have two wins under
their belt already this season and going into this year I felt they would be
a very dangerous football team," said Cards head coach Shawn Thompson.
The 2009 Rebels are certainly a hard team to figure out by looking at
their results.
The squad has been blown-out in losses to Perry County Central 57-0,
Bourbon County 49-6, Clinton County 24-0, and last week against Somerset
60-9, but has shown marked improvement in wins over Caverna 36-20 and at
Powell County 34-27.
"This is a typical Casey County team in the fact they play very hard on
both sides of the ball. Offensively they line up in the wishbone quite a bit
and play sound, power football. One thing about Coach Stephens' team is they
always compete for four quarters, so we'll have to match their intensity,"
said Thompson.
Casey County averages 14.2 points per game and faces a Cardinal defense
that allowed a season low 21 points and 201 total yards, last week at
Garrard County.
"I thought we played extremely well in the second half and other than
the first drive of the game, played pretty well on defense. Hopefully we can
build on that effort and continue to improve our tackling and assignment
this week," said Thompson.
Wayne County will face a Casey County defense that bases out of a 52
look and has allowed 39.5 points per game.
The Cards totaled 251 yards of offense last week, after having a season
best effort at Russell County and that can be pointed to improved play
up-front.
"I really think our offensive line play continues to improve each week
and that's a positive. This week a big key will be our ability to control
the clock and win the battle on the line of scrimmage," said Thompson.
A big key for the Cardinal offense, which averages just 13.8 points per
game, will be ball security. Last week the Cards had two crucial turnovers,
both on the Garrard County side of the field.
"Turnovers and busted plays have killed us, but especially turnovers.
Last week the difference in the game was turnovers and the botched punts,
which are like turnovers. Those things really count for a 21 point
turn-around, which was more than the difference in the game. Against Russell
County we lead by a touchdown at halftime and had zero turnovers, but second
half we had four and got outscored 29-6, so I don't think you have to be
Vince Lombardi to know we have to eliminate turnovers," said Thompson.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Casey County's Rebel Field.
Details in next weeks edition of The Outlook.