For the third straight season, Lewisburg Banking Company is letting football fans get a good look in one evening at the teams representing the Land of Logan this year.
While they entertain unfamiliar opponents in the Lewisburg Bank Bowl at Cougar Field Friday, they appear to have more players with consequential varsity experience than do the visitors,
The Panthers will kick off the season against Daviess County at 5:30 p.m. Both teams are named Panthers and they both show short rosters on KHSAA Scoreboard, but that’s about all the similarities.
Note these differences:
*Russellville is in Class 1A, reserved for the smallest football-playing schools in the state. Daviess County is Class 6A, home of the schools with Kentucky’s largest enrollments.
*RHS ended 2024 by winning four of its last five regular season games, won its district, and beat Bardstown Bethlehem in the first round of the playoffs before falling to state semifinalist Campbellsville 49-24. The only other loss in the last two months of the season was to Class 4A state champion Paducah Tilghman. On the other hand, Daviess County went 1-10 last season.
*Russellville outgained its opponents both on the ground and in the air last year. DCHS completed only 885 passing yards while giving up 2,062 aerial yards.
*The Panthers from the Owensboro area only return four players who were near the top of their statistical categories. RHS returns seven players who had good numbers, and some of them were in more than one category.
Players returning with high numbers last year for RHS are quarterback Jerius Coleman; running backs Jamarion Gardner and Labryan Nourse; receivers JaCovean Temple-Dickerson and Nourse; kickers Alex Arnold and Madden Bloodworth; and defenders Christian Woods and Coleman.
Russellville’s roster on the KHSAA Riherd’s site shows 24 players, half of them seniors.
One of the names on that roster, however, is not junior Takyon Darden, who was the leading tackler in ’24 with 82 hits, 26 of them main tackles. He is now at South Warren High School where his brother, former Panther and WKU star TaCorian ‘Coco’ Darden, is now on the Spartans coaching staff.
*Mikie Benton is beginning his ninth season as head coach of his alma mater, having starred at Rhea Stadium before becoming a starter in the UK backfield. Quadarious Wallace is in his first year leading the Daviess County Panthers.
Logan County’s opponent, Hart County, is coming off a tremendous season in 2024. Coach Chad Griffin’s Raiders went undefeated before losing 41-21 to Union County in the third round of the Class 3A playoffs.
The Cougars, however, suffered their first losing season in eight years. They did still qualify for the Class 4A playoffs for that eighth consecutive year.
What’s important in Friday’s game is who’s playing key roles this year, and Logan County seems to be way ahead of the Raiders in several areas.
*The Cougars return 11 players who worked their way to near the top of most statistical categories, some of them in multiple categories. The Raiders return two. No one who threw a pass last season is back.
*The published Cougar roster lists 64 players, all with a uniform number. Hart County has 40, exactly half of them without numbers when the roster was submitted
*This is Athletic Director Todd Adler’s 10th season as the Cougar head coach. The winningest coach in LCHS football history, he also was a star player for the Cougars. His 2021 team reached the 4A Final Four. Chad Griffin is in his 11th season as Raider head coach or co-head coach. They got their first playoff win in 2022 and then began a great 25-2 two-year run that saw them lose by two points in the state 3A finals two seasons ago before going 12-1 last year.
Cougars returning with impressive credentials include running backs Christian Helle, Carson Carlock, Cooper Parker and TySean Thomeczek; receivers Thomeczek, Helle, Jeramiah Washington and Isaac Christian; placekicker Caiden Kirby, and defenders Elijah Sells, Michael Hammonds, Parker and Jackson Kemplin.
One statistical leader who could have returned and didn’t is senior quarterback Ridge Holman, a two-year starter who completed 144 passes for 1,606 yards and 17 touchdowns with 7 interceptions last season. He has transferred to a high school in Tennessee, according to Coach Adler.
The starting Cougar QB is expected to be sophomore Luke Rogers, who completed 16 varsity passes last year for 164 yards and 3 TDs with an interception.
Game time for Russellville vs. Daviess County is 5:30. The Logan County-Hart Count contest is expected to start about 8.
WRUS will carry both games live online, 610 AM and 104.9 FM. Countdown to Kickoff begins at 5 p.m.
Parking information from Athletic Director Todd Adler
With a lot of the construction wrapping up, much of our parking has reopened. To improve accessibility, handicap parking has been relocated to behind the school (see map).
Enter handicap parking through the tennis courts/softball field entrance.
The area by the main stadium gate will be closed to vehicle traffic.
Barricades will block the back of the school. Only team buses, officials, and vehicles with handicap passes will be permitted to drive through.
Pedestrian traffic is welcome in this area.