KHSAA commissioner says football, girls’ basketball title games will be back in BG
By CHAD BISHOP, The Daily News, cbishop@bgdailynews.com/783-3241
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 11:30 AM CDT
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Alex Slitz/Daily News
Allen County-Scottsville’s Jacob Costello (right) catches a pass on the way to scoring a touchdown Dec. 3 against Boyle County in the 2010 Class 4A KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl at Houchens-Smith Stadium. The city of Bowling Green will host the state championships again in 2011.
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Bowling Green wanted to keep its high school sports championships, and it looks like it got its wish.
Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett confirmed to the Daily News this morning that both the KHSAA football state championships and the KHSAA girls’ basketball state championship will be back in Bowling Green this upcoming season.
“We will be scheduling an announcement coming in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “We are trying to work out the final details of the sponsorship arrangements with a couple of the new entities in Bowling Green.”
The city’s contracts for football – played at Houchens-Smith Stadium at Western Kentucky University – and girls’ basketball – played at E.A. Diddle at WKU – expired this past season.
It was almost a given that the Houchens Industries KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen would return after a record 43,679 fans watched 15 games during four days in March.
But the football title games, played on the first weekend in December, saw fewer than 48,000 fans walk through the gates at WKU. A little more than 13,000 of those fans attended the Class 4A final between nearby Allen County-Scottsville and Boyle County.
“The most important thing we had to have was the corporate community step up,” Tackett explained. “Like it or not, it’s increased travel for a lot of our participants to come to Bowling Green. When you deal with land mass, it’s one thing as far as who’s east and west, but when you deal with population, (Kentucky’s is) primarily in the east. So we’ve tried to work that out so we could help with the travel expenses, et cetera. The Bowling Green people have stepped up.”
Tackett would not release the details of the negotiations or the specific sponsors that allowed the two championship events to stay at WKU.
“We have had some people step forward, some old friends of ours, and (Western Kentucky University) has stepped forward and we very much desired to keep those two championships in Bowling Green,” he said. “If I were the people down there, I would plan on the traffic jams at the same time of year.”
By KEVIN WEAKS
Josh Forrest almost gained as many yards as the entire Southern Illinois team. It could certainly be argued that he beat the Southern team by himself.
Turning short passes into long touchdowns, Forrest had the big plays that led Western Kentucky to a 14-12 win in the two regions’ seventh annual high school football all-star game Friday night at Saluki Stadium on the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale.
Western has now won two in a row in the series and now trails the overall record 4-3.
Forrest, the former Paducah Tilghman standout and University of Kentucky signee, broke a scoreless deadlock just before halftime when he grabbed a Macoryon Tandy pass and then broke a tackle on his way to a 59-yard touchdown.
His second score covered even more ground when he turned a reception from Trigg County’s Andrew Stewart into an 83-yard foot race to the endzone on the second play of the fourth quarter.
Forrest finished with 145 yards on three catches, 22 yards less than seven ball-carriers, three quarterbacks and three receivers combined to total on 54 offensive snaps Southern Illinois.
Marc Wynstra, one of five members of the Mayfield senior class “Dream Team” that posted a 15-0 record and won the school’s eighth state championship back in December, booted two extra points.
Those proved to be vital, too, as Zach Crawford, one of six Graves County players included on the roster, sprinted around Southern’s left side to block an extra point attempt on the Illinois stars’ first touchdown. That key special teams play forced Southern to attempt a two-point conversion on its second touchdown, which came with just seven seconds to play in the game.
The run to the right side was stuffed by several Western players, preserving the two-point lead.
Forrest’s two TDs helped Western overcome inconsistent play on offense. The Kentucky stars gained 275 total yards to just 167 for Southern but lost a fumble and gave away an interception. Of Western’s 24 rushing attempts, which netted just 79 yards, eight were stopped for negative yardage.
Still, Western did enough things right, led by Forrest’s two scoring plays on third-down situations.
In addition to Forrest, Tandy, from Christian County, ran eight times out of the “Wildcat’ formation for 32 yards. And, Wynstra showed his legs were useful for more than just kicking when he took a punt fake 44 yards for a first down. It was the longest run of the game for either team and left Wynstra as, statistically, his team’s leading rusher.
It was a double-duty week for Wynstra and Cardinal teammate Taylor Sullivan, who will play in the KHSAA Baseball State Tournament on Monday afternoon. The Cardinals will play Owensboro Apollo 12:30 p.m. Central on Monday in Lexington.
Neither team managed much offense in the first half as Western gave up an interception on the play following Wynstra’s run while Southern punted five times and picked up only one first down, that coming via a Western penalty.
But, Forrest showed every one in attendance at the new home of SIU football — Saluki Stadium opened for the 2010 season —why he’s headed to Lexington on a scholarship by hauling in the Tandy pass on 3rd-and-5 and going 59 yards for the score with 25 seconds to play in the first half.
Southern looked poised to tie the game after opening the second half with a successful onside kick and then riding that momentum to the Western 22-yard line.
But, Deno Montgomery of Hopkinsville picked off a pass from Blake Deaton of Mt. Vernon in the endzone to end the threat.
Southern’s passing game was nearly non-existent much of the game as three quarterbacks combined to hit on just 7-of-23 passes. Montgomery’s catch was Deaton’s only completion in eight chances.
One Southern completion was a big one, though, as it put the Illinois prep stars in position to tie the game.
That came at the end of an exciting fourth quarter that saw Western get its second score only to see Southern rally with two TDs of its own.
Another 3rd-down play, this one 3rd-and-11 from Western’s own 17, led to another big play from Forrest as he covered most of the 83 yards on the ground after catching a pass from Stewart with 11:01 to play in the game.
Southern jumped on the shoulders of Logan Rogers for its first score as Rogers carried six straight times and scored on an 8-yard run with 4:16 to play in the game.
The score stayed at 14-6, however, when Crawford made the big special teams play to block the extra point kick.
Despite a couple of sacks on QB Brady Harre, the Kentucky stars could not keep Southern out of the endzone in the final seconds as Harre found Gannon Mammel for a 37-yard touchdown pass with seven seconds left in the game.
A tie was not in the cards, though, when Rogers was stood up and stopped trying to take a 2-point conversion to the right side.
Forrest was named the Bob Karnes Offensive Most Valuable Player.
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WESTERN KENTUCKY 0 7 0 7 — 14
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 0 0 0 12 — 12
SCORING
2nd Quarter
W Ky — Josh Forrest 59 pass from Macoryon Tandy (Wynstra kick). 0:25
4th Quarter
W Ky — Forrest 83 pass from Andrew Stewart (Wynstra kick). 11:01
So Ill — Logan Rogers 8 run (kick blocked). 4:16
So Ill — Gannon Mammel 37 pass from Brady Harre (run failed). 0:07
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W Ky So Ill
First Downs 8 11
Total Offense 275 167
Rushing 79 91
Passing 196 76
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RUSHING: Western Kentucky — Marc Wynstra 1-44, Macoryon Tandy 6-32, Brandon Sigler 8-15, Matt Deese 2-9, Dejuan Edmonds 1-4, Devin Foster 1-4, Andrew Stewart 5-(-27). Southern Illinois — Logan Rogers 15-64, Cameron Williams 6-17, Blake Deaton 1-12, Neil Kellerman 2-4, Taylor Fitzgerald 2-4, Gannon Mammel 1-2, Brady Harre 4-(-12).
PASSING: Western Kentucky — Andrew Stewart 7-14-1—137, Macoryon Tandy 1-2-0—59. Southern Illinois — Brady Harre 6-11-0—69, Adam Irvin 1-4-0—7, Blake Deaton 0-8-1—0.
RECEIVING: Western Kentucky — Josh Forrest 3-145, Alex Hill 2-13, Blake Clark 1-18, Macoryon Tandy 1-15, Brandon Sigler 1-5. Southern Illinois — Gannon Mammel 4-61, Nathan Butler 2-13, Craig Dalman 1-2.
All Kids In
c/o WK&T
P.O. Box 649
Mayfield KY, 42066
To Whom It May Concern:
Because of the economic obstacles that many families have faced over the last few years, it has become more difficult for parents to afford for their children to be involved in an athletic program. The economic struggle has resulted in a growing number of children within our community who are unable to experience the joy of playing sports.
"All Kids In" was founded in 2003 by a group of concerned local citizens in order to raise money for under privileged children who live in this area. We have aided many families by providing their child or children the opportunity to become a member of a team and make memories for a lifetime.
"All Kids In" has had the pleasure of working with many athletic groups throughout the years and we are very pleased to announce that this year all proceeds from the event will benefit the little league programs that each of our local high schools oversee plus a local soccer association. The children who receive the scholarship from "All Kids In" will be provided any needed equipment and all uniform requirements at no cost to them.
Donations are what aid us in providing these scholarships to the children. We are asking that your organization make a contribution towards this wonderful cause.
Please mail all donations to "All Kids In", c/o WK&T, 237 North 8th Street or P.O. Box 649, Mayfield KY 42066.
If you would like to discuss "All Kids In" or how you can provide us further assistance, please contact me at (270) 856-1000.
Sincerely,
Trevor Bonnstetter
President.
by Jody Demling
There’s a ton of talent across the state of Kentucky in the sophomore class.
Perhaps the best prospect in the western portion of the state is Mayfield High School linebacker/running back Johnathan Jackson.
The 6-foot, 195-pound Jackson is already hearing from Kentucky, East Carolina and Oregon among several other schools.
“He’s a leader and as a sophomore that doesn’t happen very often,” Mayfield coach said. “We’ve had a lot of good players over the years at Mayfield. He’s up there at the tops, if not the top.”
Jackson ran for 71 yards and two touchdowns and had 8.5 tackles, including two sacks to help Mayfield to a 47-6 victory over Hazard recently in the Class A state title game.
On the season, Jackson led the Cardinals in tackles and rushed for 1,356 yards and 17 TDs.
While he excels on both sides of the ball, Jackson said he “likes defense better” and projects at the Division I level as a linebacker.
Jackson said all the attention keeps him grounded.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” Jackson said of the college attention. “I know I have to keep my head up always. You never know who is watching.”
By Matt Mulcahey
Enquirer contributor
Football is often a game of inches, tiny increments that can determine victory and defeat. But sometimes it’s instead the enormous swings that define a game – seismic shifts in momentum that tilt a contest one way or the other.
On Friday, it was those enormous swings that doomed Beechwood as it fell at home in the Class A state semifinals, 38-14, to unbeaten Mayfield for the second consecutive year.
The Tigers (10-4) have advanced to the semifinal round seven of the last nine years, including state championship runs in 2004, 2007 and 2008. Those achievements did little to lessen the sting of Beechwood’s playoff exit for coach Noel Rash.
“Our expectations are state titles. That’s exactly what this senior class expected,†Rash said. “We just came up short. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and find a way to beat (Mayfield) and that’s not going to be an easy task.â€
The first of the game’s enormous swings came on the opening possession when Beechwood running back Cameron Vocke fumbled after the Tigers had driven all the way down to Mayfield’s 28-yard line. The Cardinals took full advantage, marching 78 yards in the opposite direction capped by a 57-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Luke Guhy to Javarius Richardson.
The next swing came late in the second quarter after a 28-yard Tiger touchdown pass from Michael Colosimo to Corey Cruse cut Beechwood’s deficit to14-7 with two minutes left to play in the half. That was more than enough for the Cardinals, who needed only 80 seconds to advance down the field and score to take a 21-7 halftime lead.
“(That touchdown) gave us some breathing room and got our guys pumped up in the locker room,†Mayfield coach Joe Morris said.
The Cardinals’ touchdown before the break forced the run-first Tigers to take to the air. Colosimo, who averages 14 pass attempts per game, threw 30 times on Friday. Mayfield’s lead also effectively took Vocke out of the game. The junior halfback entered the contest with 1,841 yards and 32 touchdowns. He managed only 47 yards on 10 carries versus the Cardinals – all of them in the first half.
The final swing in momentum arrived late in the third quarter. A 9-yard touchdown pass from Colosimo to Cruz pulled the Tigers to within 24-14. On the ensuing kickoff Mayfield senior Devin Jones muffed the return, but managed to scoop up his fumble at his own 1-yard line and bolt 99 yards for a touchdown.
“That kickoff return was the dagger. We got a little momentum swing and then they just stuck it too us,†Rash said. “It was a few things here and there, but that’s what (games) always come (down) to You’ve got to make breaks for yourselves and we didn’t.â€
