Games of the week: No easy ones for Pikeville, which visits Boley and Lexington Christian

The Pikeville Panthers are no strangers to tough regular season games.

As a seven-time Class A state champion and now two-time defending championship program, Pikeville Coach Chris McNamee finds few takers for the open dates on his schedule.

Often, the only teams answering a phone call from the Class A No. 1 Panthers are the state’s big-time high school football programs.

Pikeville has already taken down Class 5A top 10 Pulaski County and Class 4A top 10 Johnson Central this season.

Next up comes Class 2A No. 3 Lexington Christian on Saturday at the LCA Bowl sponsored by eCampus.com.

“It’s been a stressful summer and first few weeks of the season,” McNamee said. “And we’ve got Raceland next week and Belfry the week after that, but I’ve always felt like if you come out healthy, you’re going to get better, win or lose. You’re going to learn something.”

The Eagles, led by Kentucky-commit quarterback Cutter Boley, toppled Class 5A No. 1 Bowling Green to start the season and pushed Class 4A No. 1 Boyle County to the brink in a thriller last week.

“Watching them and Boyle, (LCA)’s got all the pieces,” McNamee said. “They’ve got guys up front and they’ve got skill offensively and defensively and they’re playing really well right now. I don’t know. I just kind of hope we can hold our own to be honest.”

Modesty aside, Pikeville has held its own against LCA in its six meetings over the last six years, beating the Eagles 60-21 last season.

The Panthers’ running back by committee led by Brenden Anthony, Blake Caudill and Tayvian Boykins has already piled up 472 rushing yards and six TDs in two games. And 6-foot-4 junior quarterback Isaac Duty is pulling double-duty this week as scout team QB to try to come close to replicating LCA’s 6-5 Boley.

LCA-Pikeville kicks off at 8 p.m. Saturday as the second part of a bowl game doubleheader with Bowling Green coming to town to take on Bryan Station at 5:30 p.m.

Despite Bryan Station’s 0-2 start, that’s another matchup of two of the state’s top teams. And it’s indicative of a trend of big-name games that seem to be more prevalent in the years since the Kentucky High School Athletic Association began using its RPI system to seed the later rounds of its football playoffs.

Like Frederick Douglass in Lexington, Pikeville did not have enough takers to fill a 10-game regular season schedule.

“I think some of it has to do with RPI,” McNamee said. “For us, especially, just our location means a lot of people don’t want to come down this way. It’s been hard. We only have a three-team district and finding another eight games … well, this year, it was impossible.”

Corbin brings star power to Lexington

Corbin, last year’s Class 4A runner-up, added a couple of highly recruited senior defensive standouts this offseason that make the Redhounds an even more formidable opponent for Lexington Catholic on Friday night.

Jacob Smith, a 6-5, 230-pound edge rusher, and his twin brother Jerod Smith, 6-4, 260-pound defensive lineman are both four-star recruits who committed to Michigan on July 13.

But a number of recruiting services have indicated the University of Kentucky could still be in the running as their college destination.

After defeating Cincinnati’s Hughes 47-12 to start the season, the Redhounds had a bye week to prepare for Lexington Catholic. The Knights (1-1) smashed Madison Central 47-0 last week.

Corbin and Lexington Catholic kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Rivalries of the week

All games Friday, unless noted.

▪ Boyle County at Danville, 7:30 p.m. Despite Boyle County’s recent run of tremendous success, its rivalry with Danville still conjures up the nostalgia of “Title Town,” a community that has 22 state football championships — 11 for each school.

This will be Danville Coach Frank Parks’ first foray into the battle between the Class 2A Admirals (0-2) and the Class 4A Rebels (2-0). Boyle has won three straight in the series, which skipped a couple of years due to COVID-19 issues.

▪ Madison Southern at Madison Central 7:30 p.m. The Battle of Madison County will give one of these teams its first win.

▪ Mayfield at Paducah Tilghman, 7 p.m. The Cardinals (2-0) have won 17 straight against the Blue Tornado (2-0) in Kentucky’s second oldest high school football rivalry.

▪ Male at St. Xavier, 7 p.m. In each of the last two seasons, the winner of this regular season matchup has lost to the other in the playoffs. Both are 2-0.

▪ Other rivalries: Thomas Nelson at Bardstown, 7:30 p.m.; Hopkinsville at Christian County, 7 p.m.; Owensboro at Daviess County, 7 p.m.; Bullitt East at North Bullitt, 7:30 p.m.; Logan County at Russellville, 7 p.m.; Cooper at Ryle, 7 p.m.

Other Lexington games

▪ North Oldham at Tates Creek, 7:30 p.m. The Commodores (2-0) will get their first game on a newly installed turf surface at Roy G. Walton Stadium. Coincidentally, North Oldham (2-0) will have a new and shockingly teal turf field at its home stadium when it hosts South Oldham next week.

▪ Sayre at Ludlow, 7:30 p.m. Spartans looking for 3-0 start after impressive performance in first two games.

▪ Other games: Great Crossing at Henry Clay, 7:30 p.m.; Conner at Lafayette, 7:30 p.m.; Collins at Paul Laurence Dunbar, 7:30 p.m.

▪ Bye week: Frederick Douglass.

Should be a good one

▪ Hazard at Paris, 7:30 p.m. The Greyhounds (2-0) have topped 50 points each of the last two weeks while holding one opponent without a score and the other to 12 points. But the preseason No. 4 Bulldogs (1-1) will be their toughest test yet.

▪ Johnson Central at Belfry, 7:30 p.m. The Golden Eagles (1-1) take on another Pike County powerhouse after losing to Pikeville last week. Belfry (1-1) will look to rebound after a home loss to George Rogers Clark on Saturday.

▪ Pulaski County at George Rogers Clark, 7:30 p.m. A win here for the Cardinals (1-1) would indicate GRC won’t be a pushover for district foes Frederick Douglass and Bryan Station.

▪ West Jessamine at Harrison County, 7:30 p.m. Thorobreds quarterback Kaydon Custard is worth a watch.

▪ Greenwood at Owensboro Catholic, 7 p.m. The Aces (2-0), one of Class 2A’s best, jump up in class to battle a very good Greenwood (2-0) team.

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