What looked like the best game of the third week of high school area football play turned out to be a runaway quickly. Last year, John Hardin and Elizabethtown was suppose to be the premier game of the final week of regular season play until it was cancelled. This time around the teams look a lot different especially on the Panthers side. With nearly 90% of their starters graduated, the Panthers held on for much of the first half, but they were no match for the Bulldogs rushing attack of Keyandre Strand, who ran for 259-yards (he came into the third week of play as the leading rusher in KY) and a touchdown, while Tre Brown ran for 88-yards and 2-TDs and Devon Rogers rarely went to the air (just 2-for-2) and the Bulldogs special teams got a score off a blocked punt return for six as well as John Hardin built a 26-6 halftime lead. Elizabethtown did come to life after the Bulldogs added another score to make it 39-6 as Trey Durbin threw for a couple of touchdowns (to go with his touchdown rushing early in the game) to make the final score 39-27.
Neither team will have much time to recover as Elizabethtown (1-2) will host Bardstown (2-0) this Friday while John Hardin (2-1) will welcome unbeaten Central Hardin. The Bruins will be a great test for Doug Preston’s team as they looked sharp against Apollo in their 43-13 win. Central Hardin built a 29-7 halftime lead on a superior running game (274-yards rushing) and Zakery Spurrier’s 10-for 16 passing for 128-yards and a six to Carter Robinson.
LaRue County finally got a digit in the win column last week with a 20-13 victory over Casey County last week. The Hawks actually trailed early, but a 10-yard run by Conlee Crossno and a Quarterback keeper by Cutter Boley put the Hawks up 12-6 at the half. Casey County retook the lead 13-12 in the third quarter, but another Crossno touchdown run and a successful two point conversion made the final score 20-13.
North Hardin is discovering that life on the road in 2021 has it’s problems as they traveled to DuPont Manuel last week and came away 35-7 losers again. The Trojans other loss was to South Warren in Bowling Green, 30-7. This time around, the unbeaten Crimsons built a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter before the Trojans were able to respond. North Hardin’s only score was on a Manie Wimberly’s touchdown pass to Shaun Boykins to cut the deficit to 21-7, but Manuel added 14 more and despite North Hardin moving the ball downfield were unable to score. The Trojans will next travel to Apollo to figure things out before coming home to face John Hardin.
Bethlehem rebounded from their 10-point loss to Eastern the previous week to knock off Thomas Nelson, 44-7 last week. Eagle quarterback Stone Cooper had a fine day with 218-yards passing and Ladarion Montgomery rushed for 107-yards and two touchdowns in the win. The Eagles are averaging over 40-points a game and will face Washington County next.
