Somerset — So much for Pulaski County’s curse in the annual Ray Correll Bowl.

Yes, the Maroons did indeed come into their 2010 season opener on Friday night against the Black Bears of Harlan County as losers of four out of their last five Ray Correll Bowl games.

But that was old news on Friday night as PC simply took Tom Larkey’s club to the woodshed.

Zach Eastham threw four touchdown passes, while Steven McQueen scored on a 63-yard punt return and set up one of Alex Abner’s four touchdowns in the contest thanks to a 72-yard kickoff return, as PC kicked off its defense of a regional championship in fine fashion by blowing Harlan County out by a final tally of 40-7.

After limping out of the gate over the course of the last two seasons with 0-2 starts, PC made that a distant memory on Friday evening, giving head coach Johnny Hines about as complete of a performance for a first game of the season as any coach could ask for from a football team.

“It was a huge win for us and honestly we didn’t know coming in what we were going to have, because we were still unsure in a lot of areas,” stated a very jubilant coach Hines immediately following the game.

“I know that Harlan County is a really good football team and they are a lot better than the scoreboard shows tonight,” continued the PC head coach. “People will wake up tomorrow and see this score and think to themselves that Harlan County is down this year, and I don’t think that at all. I think Harlan County is a pretty good football team.”

Well, it that’s indeed the case, then 2010 is going to be another fun year for the guys in maroon and white uniforms.

PC, while it got out to somewhat of a slow start offensively on Friday evening, left little doubt by the conclusion of this game that the Maroons were going to pick up where they left off in 2009.

After their first couple of drives sputtered early on, Hines and company finally got rolling late in the first quarter of play, as senior quarterback Zach Eastham hooked up with another talented senior — Alex Abner — for a 9-yard scoring toss.

This Batman and Robin duo would hook up a bunch in this one before the night would be through, but that score with just :21 left in the opening period of play would get the Maroons off and rolling with their first score of the evening.

Late in the first half, Abner scored the second of what would be four touchdowns on the night, as his 3-yard run straight up the gut through the Harlan County defense with 1:32 remaining on the clock extended the PC advantage out to 13-0 at the intermission, thanks to Drew Patton’s PAT.

The Black Bears meanwhile had a golden opportunity to knot this one up early in the second period, only trailing the Maroons 6-0 at the time, but on a third and goal from the PC five, Harlan County’s Marcus McMillain couldn’t come up with a wide pitch from quarterback Jordy Brewer, and the result of the play was a 14 yard loss.

On fourth and goal from the 19, Brewer’s pass was incomplete, and PC had dodged the proverbial bullet early on, thanks to the Maroon defense making a huge stand in front of the shadows of its own goal line.

“That was a key part of the game right there on that defensive stand early in the second quarter, because it allowed us to grab control of the game and the momentum,” Hines pointed out.

“I thought our kids defensively were outstanding tonight,” remarked Hines. “I thought Logan Joseph was outstanding tonight defensively, and I thought Alex Abner was outstanding defensively as well. Mason Flynn had a very good game in the middle, Zach Stolz played well on the outside, and Jared Hawk playing in his first game at strong side linebacker was outstanding also.”

Leading Harlan County by that 13-0 margin at the half, in a sign of things to come on this night, Pulaski County overcame mistakes and penalties to cash in its opening drive of the second half.

After overcoming penalties to convert a pair of third and long’s, PC had a 25-yard TD pass from Eastham to tight end Cody Wesley nullified when Wesley was called for offensive pass interference.

No problem for the maroon and white.

On the very next play, Eastham hit Abner on a deep pass over the middle for a 40-yard scoring pass, and just like that PC had extended its lead to 20-0.

After forcing Harlan County to punt the football away, the Maroons special teams and PC’s team speed came to the forefront in this affair.

Senior wideout Steven McQueen fielded a Black Bear punt at his own 37-yard line, and after a couple nifty moves and a juke here and there, the speedster was gone for a 63-yard score.

That made it 27-0 in favor of the Maroons, and Harlan County all of a sudden was dead in the water.

After Harlan County finally had something positive go its way — a 3-yard scoring run by McMillain with 10:21 remaining in the game that whittled the PC lead down to 27-7, the Maroons came right back with an emphatic answer.

On the ensuing kickoff, McQueen once again hurt the Black Bears with his speed, returning the ball 72 yards all the way back to the Black Bears 8-yard line.

A horse collar penalty on the tackle of McQueen moved the ball half the distance to the 4-yard line, and a couple of plays later, Eastham hit Zach Stolz for a 2-yard TD pass, and PC led Harlan County 33-7.

“I’m proud of our team that we came back and punched them in the mouth every time they punched us in the mouth,” stated coach Hines.

“Tom Larkey-coached teams are physical, rough teams every time you play against them, and I think our kids stepped up tonight and played just as rough and just as physical,” added the Maroon head coach. “I’m very proud of them for that. As far as special teams go, speed kills is about all I can tell you, and when we’ve got fast guys — I’m a better coach. I’m a smarter coach when we’ve got faster guys out there, and in all honesty, we probably work more on special teams than any football team in the state.”

Already with the game well in hand thanks to that 33-7 lead, PC closed this one out on another Eastham to Abner hookup from 9 yards out with 7:20 left in the contest, giving the Maroons their final margin of victory at 40-7.

Abner, named the game’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player, kicked off the ‘10 season with a big night — scoring four touchdowns — 1 rushing and 3 receiving.

Abner led the Maroons with 89 yards in receiving on the strength of five receptions, while Eastham had a monster night as well, hitting on 11 of 19 passes through the air for 189 yards and 4 TD passes.

Not a bad way to kick off the 2010 season while ending a two-year curse at the Ray Correll Bowl all at the same time; nice to end the talk about 0-2 starts out of the gate for a change, huh coach?

“To me it was huge and to our team it was huge for three reasons,” Hines noted.

“Number one, we wanted to get off to a good start this season, because none of us like 0-2’s,” stated the PC head coach. “Number two, it’s the Correll Bowl. At one time, we had a coach around here that used to say this game was our Super Bowl. Well, OK it is. We love playing in this bowl game and it is the Super Bowl to us. And, the third reason, that was a really good football team we just beat.”

With the win, the 1-0 Maroons will come home this Friday, and will put an 18-game home field winning streak on the line as Pulaski County will host 6 A powerhouse Henry Clay in the second annual Don Marshall Bowl.

That game is slated to kickoff at approximately 8:30 p.m. from Pulaski County High School.

In the first game of the doubleheader beginning at 6 p.m., the 0-2 Southwestern Warriors will be looking for their first win of the season, as Dale Anderson’s club will square off against East Jessamine.



HC   0  0   0   0 — 7

PC   6  7  14 13 — 40



First Quarter

PC—Abner 9 pass from Eastham (Kick failed)

Second Quarter

PC—Abner 3 run (Patton kick)

Third Quarter

Abner 40 pass from Eastham (Patton kick)

McQueen 63 punt return (Patton kick)

Fourth Quarter

HC—McMillain 3 run (Jenkins kick)

PC—Stolz 2 pass from Eastham (Kick failed)

PC—Abner 9 pass from Eastham (Patton kick)



RUSHING—HC, McMillain 15-101 TD, Taylor 10-42, Milton 3-26. PC, Eastham 11-93, Abner 9-29 TD.

PASSING—HC, Brewer 0-6  0. PC, Eastham 11-19 189 4 TD’s.

RECEIVING—PC, Abner 5-89 3 TD’s, McQueen 2-25, Haste 1-37, Wesley 1-25, Hall 1-11, Stolz 1-2 TD.