[EKUAlum05]

No one said Pikeville wasn't capable of winning...not properly planning/coaching had nothing to do with it. The coaches can't play a down for the kids...
I don't consider two onside kicks as proper adjustments, and i seriously doubt it was a part of the Pikeville gameplan, although in both cases they worked. The first one maybe because of the 12-0 defecit, but the second one was probably just a gamble which worked.
And to be honest, there was no dominance by either team in the game other than Raceland jumping out to an early lead.

Bottom line was Pikeville came back & won...Hats off to them; they have a classy coach & program. Having said that, i don't think last year's playoff game will have any bearing on a future playoff game between the two teams.

The decision to onside kick (twice at that), the execution to do it precisely (twice), the timing of when to do it (twice), and the ability to piggyback that momentum into scoring drives are unequivocally a testament and credit to Pikeville's coaching staff and their preparation.

You can argue whether Raceland's staff was at fault or not.. I prefer to simply think that in the moment it wasn't that the Ram staff failed...but the Pikeville staff simply coached better. It takes guts to call an onside kick against a team you are losing to.. takes even more to call it a second time once the element of surprise should be gone. WADR, you don't see "bad" teams or poorly coached teams convert onside kicks in the playoffs at critical times. I would argue that Special Teams may very well be the ultimate barometer of coaching aptitude at the HS level.

The adjustment aspect comes in the way Raceland's staff was not able to counter or break the Panther momentum to stop them from scoring and taking over the game. Nether onside recovery scored a TD, Pikeville still had to finish the drive and put it in against a team that prior to that had done a very good job of keeping them out of the endzone. Noone can dare deny those recoveries were not the catalyst for momentum on a short field... but nonetheless it still requires offensive execution to finish the drive, then defensive execution to keep Raceland at bay so you can continue to close the gap.