Usually when the Logan County Cougars prepare for their final regular season football game against South Warren, the game’s score hasn’t matterrf. The biggest outcome from that game is, unfortunately, which key Cougar players have been injured as the playoffs are set to begin.
In recent seasons, quarterback Braxton Baptiste and versatile star Davin Yates have suffered consequential blows administered by the Spartans. Those setbacks affected the Cougars negatively in the playoffs, but before the game began they were already assured that they had qualified for postseason action.
The last seven seasons, Coach Todd Adler’s team not only has earned playoff berths, but the Cougars have also played the first round on their home field as the number one or two seed.
That’s not the case this year. Logan County (4-5 overall, 2-3 district) is in a three-way tied for the third/fouth seed. Warren East and Hopkinsville are also 2-3 in the district, and the three teams have recorded round robin wins against the other two. East beat Hoptown, who beat the Cougars, who beat East last week.
Last Friday, Logan wanted/needed two outcomes to guarantee a spot in regional action: 1) beat East and 2) Hopkinsville knock off second seeded Allen county-Scottsville. The past of it they could control, they did, with a dramatic come-from-way-behind 28-19 win over the Raiders. But AC-S refused to fold and held off the Tigers by two points.
If Hopkinsville had won, they would have been the two seed and AC-S the third. With its win over East, Logan would have been number four, and the Raiders would have stayed home next week, joining 0-5 Calloway County. (Undefeated Paducah Tilghman, the number one rated team in Class 4A which comes to Rhea Stadium Friday to play Russellville, is obviously the top seed in the district.)
Now, the tiebreaker is based on the Kentucky High School RPI standing. If that were decided today, East (.53202 RPI) would be number three, and the Cougars (.48802) fourth. Hoptown is right beind Logan at .48261.
But the tie won’t be broken until after this Friday’s games. East plays Claa 3A’s Franklin-Simpson (5-4, 55867). Most likely, the Wildcats would not only have to beat East but blow them out to drop the Raiders’ RPI below Logan’s or Hopkinsville’s.
Hopkinsville will take on visiting Pleasure Ridge Park from Louisville. The Cougars need the Tigers not only to lose this game but do fall by a big margin. Positives for that happening are that PRP is a Class 6A team, that Hoptown is only 1-2 when playing at home, and that the Louisvillians have a low enough RPI (.38286) to mean a narrow win by the home team might not raise their RPI significantly.
On the negative side, PRP s not a very good team. Coach Brandon Dunn’s Panthers are just 1-8, they have little incentive to win or play well, and they could be fatigued following the long ride.
All that makes it imperative that the Cougars play hard against visiting South Warren, which is 8-1 and ranked second in the state in Class 5A with an RPI of .67812. Their only loss was lopsided, but it was to Louisville Manual, the top rated team in Class 6A.
Positives for the Cougars include playing at home, South’s not having incentives for playing well, emotions being high for LCHS Senior Night, and the lack of expectations for the Cougars in the RPI, which means if they win or make the game close, their RPI could improve dramatically.
Also Logan’s late-game performance in turning a 19-point deficit into a win against East, including a final play defensive stand against the Raiders inside the Cougar 1-yard line. Coach Adler said on WRUS after the game that he liked what he saw in the determination and performance in that comeback, something he had believed was there all along but really didn’t come to light until the last three quarters they played a week ago.
If they can pull off the trick against South, the Cougars and their fans have a treat coming their way the night after Halloween.