Last season Glasgow captured the Class 2A, Region Two title in the comfort of its home stadium as the Scotties defeated Monroe County 40-14 before falling to eventual state champion Danville in the state semifinals.
The Scotties will look to defend their region title on Friday night when Coach Jeff Garmon’s squad makes the three-hour trip up to Walton-Verona High School in the Cincinnati metro area.
Walton-Verona (10-2) is rolling into the Glasgow game with plenty of momentum as the Bearcats have won five straight games, including victories over Metcalfe County and Monroe County.
Offensively the Bearcats have a very balanced attack. Peyton Smith leads all rushers with 674 yards and 10 touchdowns while Micah Alford has 654 yards and 12 scores to complement Tyler Schrader’s 531 yards and five touchdowns. Overall Walton-Verona has six different players with 100-plus rushing yards, and 14 different Bearcats have found the end zone this season.
But where Walton-Verona has really found success is on the defensive side of the ball.
The Bearcats are the fourth-best defensive team in all of Kentucky as they surrender just 7.6 points per game—Coach Jeff Barth’s team giving up just 14 combined points during the midst of their five-game win streak. That defense is led by senior linebacker Grant Grubbs, who leads the team in both sacks and tackles with 7.5 and 90, respectively. Grubbs has also recovered two fumbles and notched an interception.
However that stingy Walton-Verona defense will be tested against a very potent Glasgow offense. The Scotties are averaging 41.2 points per night, and Glasgow has scored 282 points during its current six-game win streak.
Glasgow (10-2) is led by the duo of running back Nick Mitchell and dual-threat quarterback Tanner Abernathy. Mitchell is statistically the 10th-best rusher in all of Kentucky with 1,948 touchdowns and 29 touchdowns, and a large part of that is due to a solid offensive line led by senior and University of Alabama commit Tanner Bowles.
Bowles and the other members of the Scotty line have also done an excellent job in giving Abernathy room to work with. Abernathy is the team’s second-best rusher with 720 yards and six touchdowns, and he has also completed 81-of-144 passes for 1,097 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Defensively Glasgow is led by the ball-hawking senior Ryan Jones, who has recorded five interceptions this season to claim himself a spot on the state leaderboard. As a team the Scotties have given up just 14 combined points in their first two games of the playoffs against Owen County and Carroll County.
Kickoff between Glasgow and Walton-Verona is slated for 6:30 p.m. CST at the Walton-Verona Athletic Complex in Verona.
