South Warren will look to keep its dominant season rolling while Grayson County will be looking to avenge a 41-7 home loss to the Spartans when the two face off on Friday evening in the second round of the Class 5A Playoffs at Warren Central High School in Bowling Green.
The move from Spartan Stadium to Warren Central’s Joe Hood Field was announced on Thursday morning after expected rain was feared to put a damper on the grass playing surface at the Spartans’ home stadium. Warren Central is one of the two stadiums within the Warren County Public School system to boast a turf field, along with Warren East.
Luckily for the two teams, the rain will likely not put a damper on the offenses.
The Spartans and Cougars have found tremendous success running the football throughout the 2018 season, anchored by South Warren’s Cameron Harrison and Grayson County’s Q’Daryius McHenry.
Harrison – one of the many talented seniors for the Spartans (11-0) – has racked up 1,082 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns on the season in a balanced South Warren offense that has also posted 1,982 passing yards and 36 combined passing touchdowns. Depending on how the weather will cooperate with the kickoff time, Harrison’s workload may have to be dramatically increased against the Cougars.
Sophomore running back McHenry has carried a much larger role with run-heavy Grayson County (8-3), who has racked up 2,879 rushing yards on the season. McHenry has accounted for 1,498 of those yards and 21 touchdowns to go along with four games with over 200 rushing yards.
McHenry notably made waves in last Friday’s first-round win at Graves County, slashing the Eagle defense for 357 yards and six touchdowns on 32 carries. McHenry did not play when the teams met in Leitchfield on Sep. 14.
Should the rain hold off, South Warren’s offense will be at full strength behind the arm of senior quarterback Gavin Spurrier, who has 1,863 yards and 32 touchdowns to just three interceptions on the season.
Senior WKU commit Clayton Bush has been the leading target, catching 24 balls for 540 yards and nine touchdowns. Tanner Gallahair and Tomi Mustapha also have nine combined receiving touchdowns.
Pete Cross leads the Spartans on defense with a team-high 97 tackles. Notre Dame commit Jacob Lacey has a team-high 26 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. Bush leads the Spartans with seven interceptions, two for touchdowns.
Quarterback Noah Bullock has thrown for 764 yards and eight touchdowns for Grayson County. McHenry and Cameron Harris have been on the receiving end of six of those, each with three touchdown catches. Bullock has also run for 485 yards and nine touchdowns.
Cooper Terry has 68 tackles to lead Cougars on defense while Ryan Mode has a team-high 11 tackles for loss. Ethan Cates has five sacks.
South Warren advanced with a 48-0 win over Apollo last Friday. The winner of this Friday’s contest will face the Bowling Green-Owensboro winner, which will be decided on Friday evening at Rash Stadium in Owensboro.
Clay Manlove; @ctmanlove58
