[BlackcatAlum]

Prestonsburg come out of the gate and ran the ball well early, made a few mistakes, but so did Pikeville and Prestonsburg was fortunate enough to convert on Pikeville's mistakes in the first half.

Second half Prestonsburg got simply whipped all over the field. Pikeville ran the ball at will, not sure why they kept attempting to pass? They ran the ball so well all game and every time they threw it, seemed like it come a hair from being picked off. On the other hand, Prestonsburg just couldn't get anything going. Credit Pikeville's defense too - they were tough and kept the pressure on Jarrell all night.

Special teams for Prestonsburg was an absolute train wreck also. Jarrell cannot be punting out of shotgun. That kind of trickery will work against teams that aren't well disciplined, but Pikeville isn't one of the those teams.

This also is one of the worst conditioned Prestonsburg teams I've ever seen. Prestonsburg has never really rotated guys in and out much, usually about 15 are all that play and those guys go just as hard in the fourth quarter as they did in the first. This team looked winded in the second quarter tonight and the effort just wasn't there late in the game. Jarrell couldn't get any help from his receivers, as they jogged their routes about all night. They desperately miss Grant Anderson. He would've been huge tonight, but he made the best decision for himself and his family and I can't blame him for picking baseball over football.

Prestonsburg definitely has things to work on, but things weren't as bad as I expected. There are things they can build on. They ran the ball decently well all night, it was much better than the passing game. Defense was bad, but it wasn't good either. If these guys will just realize that they aren't world beaters and just play fundamental football they'll be alright. If they play like they did tonight they could be in for a long season.

Congrats to Pikeville!