Published: November 16, 2008 10:52 pm            

Six area teams reach second round

Old rivals, new rivals and familiar rivals will be a part of northeastern Kentucky’s playoff landscape this week.

Six of 13 area high school football teams survived round one, setting up some interesting matchups Friday night.

Raceland, the top-ranked team in Class A, will play host to neighborhood rival Fairview in one of the most intriguing games. The Rams will be trying to run their record to 11-0 with a second win over Fairview, which is 8-3 after winning a playoff road game for the first time in school history last Friday.

Raceland defeated Fairview 37-12 earlier in the season and holds a 29-8 advantage in the series, including eliminating the Eagles from the playoffs last season.

Two other area teams will be home for the second round. Johnson Central, ranked No. 5 in Class 5A at 10-1, plays Covington Catholic on Friday. Those teams met for the first time two years ago with Covington Catholic prevailing 38-14 in the region finals.

Boyd County (7-4) will also be at home against playoff newcomer Knox Central, which whacked Rowan County 47-0. It will be the first meeting between schools.

The rest of the area teams will be on the road including Ashland at Fort Thomas Highlands, Russell (7-4) at Class 3A top-ranked Belfry (12-0) and Paintsville (6-5) at Hazard.

The Tomcats (7-4) renew a rivalry with Class 5A top-ranked Highlands (11-1). The teams haven’t met since 1992 and Ashland hasn’t beaten the Bluebirds since 1954. Highlands holds a 17-5 advantage in the series.

Russell and Belfry and familiar foes, meeting in the playoffs from 2004-06 and 20 times overall. The Red Devils have a 12-8 series advantage but seldom meet this early in the playoffs. The last three battles have come in the state semifinals.

Paintsville battles Hazard on the road. These rivals have played 24 times (Paintsville leads the series 14-10), most recently in 2005 and 2006 when the Bulldogs ended the Tigers’ season.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.

        

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