[charlie22]

Not really. I was just eager to see how Highlands fans (including your adoptee, Stardust) would rationalize Mueller' decision to run up the score and risk injuries to Towles and the other Bluebirds starters by playing them the fourth quarter of a blowout win. The double standard is exactly what I expected.

I assume that the Highlands supporters who are not defending Mueller know good sportsmanship when the see it - and when they don't.

Since some may think I fit in the category you were describing, I want to make it clear that I had no problem with Dale keeping the starters in as long as they did. Once the Mercy Rule kicked in, they came out. We saw what could happen when Highlands pulled it starters: JC kept it's starting O in the game; Gound had a nice long TD run; and did it pretty quickly. Give JC too many opportunities to do that (as a result of no Mercy Rule) and the score gets uncomfortably close. If that would have happened, I'd have really been disappointed with Dale.

By the way, the Gound kid is fast. He looked pretty good throughout the game. Kid is a sophomore, correct? If so, he should be a very good one the next couple of years. Reminded me of the former JC QB. JK Hall if I remember the name correctly.

Sorry to see Sanor and Jude graduate. Both exceptionally good high school players that I enjoyed watching. Best of luck to both of them in their future endeavors. I know Jude is going to be wrestling in college; what are Sanor's plans? Whatever happened to Tanner Bratton? Is he at college? If so, is he playing ball? My all time favorite JC player.

Nice game Birds. O and D executed pretty darn well. I hate singling out one or two players because all the kids played so darn well, but Devon Bruns was absolutely outstanding Friday night. Absolutely outstanding. Well done young man. Birds had lots of penalties but that had a lot to do with the fact that refs from different regions "interpret" rules differently. That's the same with all sports. Some region's basketball refs "let them play"; other regions' refs hate the way basketball has become so physical, so they call ticky tack fouls. Birds just need to do better adjusting to the style of the refereeing. While the Birds fans were lathered up about all the calls (and I wondered about a couple of them myself) most of the penalties called against the Birds involved refs from the Lex area calling penalties that the N. Ky refs let go. I can't say the refs (or the penalties) were wrong; they just interpret the rules differently.

On to CovCath. Birds have to execute much better this time than they did in the first game. We made some uncharacteristic unforced errors in the first game that must be elimintated. CovCath will again be trying to strip the ball every time they can. They practice it during the year and preach it the week of the Highlands game. Ball security will be extremely important.