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Wayne County blasts Knox Central 56-8 SHANNON HUTCHINSON Sports Writer The Wayne County Cardinals hosted Knox Central, last Friday night at Jewell Field, in a matchup of 2-2 teams. The Cards entered the Homecoming contest coming off a 38-14 loss at South Laurel, while the Panthers lost 7-6 at home to Harlan, one week earlier. The game marked the 11th meeting between the two schools, with Wayne County claiming a 41-0 win last season at Knox Central. Wayne County totaled 417 yards of offense, led by the play of senior runningback Matt Goff and raced to a 35-0 halftime lead en route to a dominating 56-8 win. Goff rushed for 226 yards on 30 attempts and scored five touchdowns on runs of 7, 2, 3, 4 and 1 yard. “Matt had a big night and ran hard. Matt gets a lot of recognition and deserves it, but you also have to give credit to the entire offensive unit. This was a team effort and I really like the unity this team shows. Unity and effort are two things we can build our program around,” said Cards head coach Shawn Thompson. Quarterback Ryan Steele rushed for a season high 45 yards on six carries, plus connected on 5 of 7 passes for 67 yards. “We added a couple of wrinkles offensively this week and Ryan’s ability to run really opened some things up in the first half. As an offensive unit we want to work to get better each week and this was an effort we can build on. I also liked the effort of our younger guys in the fourth quarter,” said Thompson. Knox Central, which dropped to 2-3, finished with only 125 yards of offense and 6 first downs. The Panthers failed to gain a first down until the final 3 minutes of the opening half. The Panthers were led by 6-1 195 lbs. junior runningback Matt Ramsey. Ramsey scored the visitors only touchdown on a 19 yard run and finished with a team best 63 rushing yards, on 10 attempts. “We certainly respect Knox Central and the improvement they’ve shown this year. They’ve won two games this year after not winning at all last year, so our focus and respect was evident at practice all week. We tackled a lot better this week and swarmed the football better, so our overall effort was improved,” said Thompson. Senior linebacker Josh Bell led a very balanced defensive effort with a team high 9 tackles. Junior defensive tackle Barry Cooper tallied 6 stops, while five other players finished with five total tackles each respectively. The unit also forced three turnovers, led by the interruptions of Matt Goff and J.T. Dodd. “We talked all week about not allowing Homecoming to become a distraction, but instead a chance to show improvement as a football team. It’s always special to play in front of alumni and I’m proud of the self discipline our kids showed this week,” said Thompson. Wayne County opened the game with the football and Ryan Steele capped-off a 10-play, 65 yard drive with a 5 yard touchdown run. Joey Coffey added his first of eight consecutive extra-points, as the Cards pushed to a 7-0 lead with 9:33 left in the first period. Knox Central failed to move the chains on offense and the hosts quickly added to their lead. Wayne County battled through two offensive penalties and marched 46 yards to score on Matt Goff’s 7 yard run. Ryan Steele set up the score with a 28 yard run, the long play of the drive, as Wayne County led 14-0 with 4:34 left in the first quarter. The Panthers once again couldn’t move the football and were forced to punt from their own 25 yardline. Wayne County answered with a 14-play drive that tallied 49 yards and ended on Matt Goff’s 2 yard touchdown run. The Cards pushed to a 21-0 advantage with 9:43 left in the first half. The Cards defense dominated the line of scrimmage on Knox Central’s next possession and after a punt, the Cards were again in business on the visitors 23 yardline. Tyler King returned the punt 39 yards to set up the next score. “We really won the battle of field-position and that’s a credit to both our defense and special teams. Our defense set up the offense all night and after a disappointing effort by our special teams against South, they really played well. We worked on kick coverage quite a bit this week and it showed in field-position,” said Thompson. Josh Bell rambled for 14 yards and then followed that up with a 3 yard touchdown run, as the Cards owned a 28-0 lead with 5:40 left in the second frame. The Cards forced their first turnover of the night on a Matt Goff interception on Knox Central’s next offensive series. Goff returned the Knox Central pass attempt back to the Panther’s 36 yardline. Wayne County needed just 4 plays to push the lead to 35-0. Matt Goff scored on a 3 yard run and Joe Coffey added the extra-point, with 2:52 still remaining in the opening half. Knox Central did manage a first down on the next series, but the clock expired with Panthers on their own 20 yardline and trailing 35-0, at halftime. The Cards opened the scoring in the third quarter, after a Knox Central punt. Wayne County traveled 65 yards on 7 plays and scored on a Matt Goff 4 yard touchdown run. The hosts pushed to a 42-0 advantage with 6:42 left in the third quarter. “Anything can happen with a half of football left, so I’m proud of the way our guys came out to start the second half on both sides of the football,” said Thompson. Junior defensive back J.T. Dodd picked up his second interception of the season late in the third quarter, which led to another Wayne County score. The Cards rolled 75 yards, in 12 plays and scored on Matt Goff’s fifth touchdown of the evening, this one from 1 yard out. The extra-point pushed the lead to 49-0 with 10:14 left in the ballgame. Goff now has 984 rushing yards on the season and 14 touchdowns, all on the ground. Goff is on pace to eclipse the school record 18 touchdowns in a season held by James Sloan, set in the 1989 season. The rest of the game was played with a running clock and gave the Cards a chance to play many of the younger guys on the roster. “Anytime we can get guys experience in a varsity game in a winning situation, it is a real positive. Our guys came in and played with the type of effort we expect and a lot of our inexperienced guys are showing improvement each and every day,” said Thompson. Freshman runningback Brent Gregory rounded out the Cardinal scoring parade. Gregory netted a career best 45 yards, on 7 attempts and added his first ever varsity score, on a 1 yard touchdown run, to cap-off a 6-play 20 yard march. Wayne County owned a 56-0 lead with 5:42 left in the final quarter. Knox Central answered with their only scoring drive of the night. Matt Ramsey tallied runs of 11, 7 and 9 yards, before scoring on a 19 yard run. Bob Blevins added the conversion run, which left the final score 56-8. The win improved the Cards to 3-2 on the season and 7-4 in the all-time series with Knox Central. Up next for Wayne County is an open date. The Cards have a week extra to prepare for their district opener on October 1 at Russell County. “We’ll get back to the basics this week and concentrate on the fundamentals, plus start working towards Russell County. We also have a junior varsity game this week, so while the schedule is open on Friday night, we’re actually pretty busy,” said Thompson. Russell County is 1-4 on the season and coming off a loss at home to Mercer County. The Lakers, under the guidance of second year head coach Vic Clark, have shown improvement each week and host Metcalfe County this Friday night. “Russell County has a new offense and from what I’ve heard they just get better with every snap of experience. We’ll get a good chance this week to start preparing for a very dangerous team. Our record is 0-0 and so is everybody elses, that has to be the way we approach the district,” said Thompson. For a complete preview of the Wayne and Russell matchup be sure to checkout next week’s edition of the Outlook. Add a comment |
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