If the 2020 Elizabethtown Football team on the way towards a Final Four showdown against Christian Academy of Louisville seems familiar, it could be because it is. In 2015, second year coach Mark Brown put together a veteran team with plenty of senior leadership in all the right places going into the new Class 3-A landscape which had just began Year One of a new realignment and the ten team’s scheduled to face the Panthers were simply no match for them.
The 2015 Elizabethtown schedule – Week one – West Jessamine (46-6)/ Week Two – Marion County (53-6)/Week Three – North Oldham (38-0)/ Week Four – North Hardin (34-28)/ Week Five – Bardstown (38-7)/Week Six – Edmonson County (33-8)/Week Seven – Hart County (49-7)/Week Eight – Adair County (43-15)/Week Nine – LaRue County (62-20)/ Week Ten – Glasgow (35-6)
Elizabethtown ran roughsod over nine of their ten regular season opponents. The only close game was against North Hardin in a game which they built a three touchdown lead, saw it disappear and won on a spectacular special teams play at the end.
The 2015 team was led by senior quarterback Jack Wilson, who threw for 1,533-yards and 22-touchdowns and only four interceptions. The running game was paced by senior backs Bernil Cecil (1,607-yards and 20-touchdowns) and Dalonza Cates (1,057-yards and 14-touchdowns) and a receiving corp of senior’s Peyton Payne (50-catches for 786-yards and 13-touchdowns) and Hunter Sullivan (17-catches and 7-sixes) behind a skilled offensive line which scored 572-points and averaged over thrity points in every game other than in week fourteen.
Many of the offensive skill players switched over to defense as well and allowed only 193-points in fourteen games, while coming up with 30-turnovers (13-fumble recoveries and 17-interceptions).
Perhaps the only argument from the players was that games were decided so early that most of the starters were riding the bench during much of the second half of blowouts or after the mandatory running clock rule set in also meaning it may have been the shortest season for football program during that time.
Compare the 2015 team to this year’s 11-0 team.
The 2020 Elizabethtown schedule- Week One – Central Hardin (20-14) /Week Two – Thomas Nelson (40-0)/ Week Three – Nelson County (76-0)/Week Four – West Jessamine (48-13)/Week Five – Meade County (36-6)/Week Six – LaRue County (53-20)/Week Seven – Bardstown (33-6)/ Week Eight – North Bullitt (55-41)
The stats are very close as offensively Elizabethtown scored 502-points and were led by senior quarterback Clay Games, who threw for 2,130-yards and 29-touchdowns against 0-interceptions and the running game is paced by senior Cameron McNeil (1,001-yards and 12-touchdowns), while seniors Kia Sherrard caught 27-passes for 615-yards and 8-touchdowns and Camden Williams latched onto 38 for 504-yards and 3-sixes behind an experienced O-Line led by center Ryan Pyles.
The Defense allowing just 156-points in just eleven games while forcing the same amount of turnovers (13-fumble recoveries / 17-interceptions) and aren’t finished yet.
Both the 2015 team and this year’s edition had one close call in the playoffs as Caldwell County had the Panthers down with seconds remaining until a long last second touchdown pass from Jack Wilson to Peyton Payne turned sudden defeat into instant victory. Bardstown nearly avenged an early season beatdown building a 14-point lead late until Elizabethtown ran a hurry up offense scoring three times in the fourth quarter to pull out a win.
Which brings us up to today. The 2015 Panther team made a Final Four trip and actually was the host team, but played a tough Lexington Catholic squad and had their undefeated season ended. This year’s team is just as talented and knows how to win in the clutch. A victory tomorrow would go a long way to squashing comparisons to 2015 and the current head coach Ross Brown knows a little about what it takes to get there in the first place. Brown was an assistant on the 2015 team under legendary dad Mark and would love to prove that getting to championship games runs in the family.
