Somerset —
Last night may have been homecoming for the Pulaski County Maroons, but it was Lincoln County who was feeling right at home early on in the district opener for both.
The Patriots raced out to a 9-0 lead over Johnny Hines and crew less than five minutes into the contest, but after that quick deficit, it was Pulaski County that was enjoying ‘Home Sweet Home’.
Pulaski County — after falling behind the Patriots 9-0 with 7:18 left in the opening stanza — reeled off 28 consecutive points, got three fourth quarter touchdowns from Aaron Smith, and as a result, cruised to a district-opening, 35-17 win over the Pats.
“We didn’t start well tonight — we gave them the safety, and then we set them up in good field position for their first touchdown,” stated Hines, after his team moved to 1-0 in district play and to 3-2 overall with the victory.
“The thing that I like about this team and the attitude of it, was they were kind of irritated at that point when we got down by that 9-0 score,” continued the PCHS coach. “I like to see that in them. Their intensity picked up and nobody panicked because we were behind.”
Much like last week’s win over Rockcastle County, the Maroons fell behind early due to allowing a safety.
After a three and out deep inside their own territory to begin the game, Pulaski was guilty of firing the snap over punter Jacob Denney’s head, and he kicked the ball out of the back of the end zone, giving the Patriots a quick, 2-0 lead with 10:03 remaining in the first quarter of play.
After the ensuing PC kickoff, Lincoln County took over the ball at the Maroons’ 47-yard line, and a few plays later, Connor Patterson scored on a 1-yard plunge, and with the PAT, Lincoln County led PC 9-0 with 7:18 remaining in the first stanza.
However, at that juncture, Hines’ club produced arguably its biggest drive of the night.
Pulaski County methodically drove the ball downfield, chewing up 4:44 off the clock, going 80 yards for a score.
That drive culminated with Riley Hall hooking up with Aaron Hall on a 13-yard scoring toss , cutting the deficit to 9-7 with 2:34 left in the opening stanza.
Pulaski County then took the lead for good early in the second frame, thanks to an 8-yard scamper by tailback Tyler Goins, giving the Maroons a 14-9 lead with 11:07 remaining in the first half of play.
At that point, Pulaski’s defense dug in, and much like in last week’s win over Rockcastle County, the Maroons ‘D’ held the Pats at bay until the midway point of the fourth quarter.
For the game, Lincoln County ran 59 plays for a total of 213 yards — good enough for just an average of 3.6 yards per play.
Not a bad night indeed for a Pulaski County defense that seemingly is getting better and better with each passing week.
“This was a very good effort by our defense and I’m really, really proud of them,” pointed out Hines.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Lincoln County — they’ve got a lot of pride and played hard the whole game — but toward the end of the game our intensity slipped a little bit when we thought we had the game already in the bag,” Hines remarked.
Leading the Pats 14-9 at the intermission, the score remained that way until late in the third period when Riley Hall raced virtually untouched for a 69-yard touchdown run that would have put the Maroons up by a 20-9 margin.
However, that score was nullified thanks to a holding call, meaning PC only led the Pats by that 14-9 margin headed into the fourth quarter of play.
And that’s when junior Aaron Smith took the game over for Pulaski County.
In a three-play sequence, Smith caused a turnover and scored two touchdowns, taking a close, 14-9 PC lead out to a 28-9 bulge.
With 11:08 left in the contest, Smith hauled in a 10-yard pass from Hall for a score that did count, extending the Pulaski County lead out to 21-9.
After the ensuing Maroon kickoff, on the first play from scrimmage, Smith intercepted Logan Hubble’s pass and returned it 23 yards down to the Lincoln County one-yard line.
On the very next play, Smith scored on a 1-yard run, giving the Maroons a 28-9 advantage with 10:53 left in the contest.
At that juncture, the Maroons were eyeing a 1-0 district start, and Lincoln County was in big-time trouble.
After Lincoln County’s Marvin Robinson scored on a 40-yard run, and added the two-point conversion run, Smith tallied his third TD of the fourth quarter with 4:16 remaining in the game, on a 33-yard score giving the Maroons the 35-17 victory.
“The touchdown that Aaron caught right before his interception was just huge,” stated Hines. “It was 14-9 at that point and it was still anybody’s game. That was a big, big drive.”
“Aaron’s (Smith) a very good football player,” continued the Maroons head coach. “He can play a lot of positions. He played quarterback last year and did a great job, and he can still do that as he showed tonight on the one-yard run. He can play a lot of positions and does a lot of things for us.”
With the win, PC improved its record to 3-2 on the season, but more importantly, the Maroons held serve in their district opener, by winning a crucial game at home over the Patriots.
Pulaski County will be on the road in back to back games, beginning next Thursday night at North Laurel in a game that has been moved up a day.
With back to back road games at North Laurel, and the next week at Madison Southern, Hines was quick to point out how important the win over Lincoln County was to his club, considering what the PC coach perceives as a great deal of parity within the Maroons district.
“We said to our players that after tonight everybody in the district will either be 0-1 and looking up, or 1-0 and looking down, and we wanted to be one of those 1-0 teams, so this game was huge,” Hines pointed out.
“We got that accomplished, and I was really pleased with the way our guys responded tonight and got a big win for us,” added the PC coach.
Pulaski County will face North Laurel next Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in another pivotal district contest for both clubs.
First place within the district will be on the line, as both teams will bring 1-0 records in district play into that game.
The Jaguars picked up a win last night, by knocking off South Laurel by a 35-10 score.
That PC-North Laurel game is set to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday night in London.
LC — 9 0 0 8 — 17
PC — 7 7 0 21 — 35
FIRST QUARTER
LC — Team safety
LC — Patterson 1 run (Baird kick)
PC — R. Hall 13 pass to A. Hall (Burgett kick)
SECOND QUARTER
PC — Goins 8 run (Burgett kick)
FOURTH QUARTER
PC — R. Hall 10 pass to Smith (Burgett kick)
PC — Smith 1 run (Burgett kick)
LC — Robinson 40 run (Baird kick)
PC — Smith 33 run (Burgett kick)
RUSHING — (LC) Robinson 8-97 TD, Martin 13-30, Patterson 6-24. (PC) Goins 21-94 TD, Smith 2-34 2 TD’s, Wooldridge 2-24.
PASSING — (LC) Hubble 7-14 75 INT. (PC) R. Hall 13-23 134 2 TD INT.
RECEIVING — (LC) Cress 1-27, Coulter 1-19. (PC) Cox 4-42, Goins 3-29, A. Hall 3-24 TD, Smith 2-22 TD.
Local Sports
Related Photos
-
Pulaski County High School freshman quarterback Riley Hall looks for a receiver in the Maroons’ 35-17 district win over Lincoln County High School on Friday night. David Rogers Photo
Pulaski upends Lincoln Co., 35-17
- Local Sports
-
-
Lorman, Henderlight keep Pulaski alive
Facing a four-run deficit and down to their last three outs, elimination looked inevitable for the Pulaski County High School baseball team on Monday night in the opening round of the 47th District Baseball Tournament at Charlie Taylor Field.
But a Pulaski last-inning rally capped off by a Henry Lorman bases-loaded clearing double off the left field wall and a Chris Henderlight walk-off RBI base hit propelled the Maroons to a 7-6 comeback win over Rockcastle County High School. -
Warriors down Monticello, 11-1
It takes five wins to make it to the Forcht Bank/KHSAA Baseball State Tournament.
The Southwestern Warriors are one-fifth of the way there now, as they took down Monticello in the first round of the 48th District Baseball Tournament on Monday night at Warrior Stadium. With the five-inning, 11-1 victory over the Trojans, the Warriors advanced to the championship game and next week’s regional tournament.
Alex Eaton’s ball club did exactly what they needed to do to make it back to the regional tournament once again. The third-year Southwestern coach is hoping that his squad can come away with the program’s first regional title since 2004. -
Lady Warriors advance to finals; looking for 8th straight district title
So far in the 2013 high school softball season, McCreary Central has had their way with Southwestern in their two regular season match-ups.
The Southwestern Lady Warriors will get a chance to get a little revenge against McCreary Central, as the two teams will meet up in the 48th District Softball Championship. -
Somerset cruises to 15-1 win over Rebels
After a slow start in the first two innings, the Briar Jumpers put it all together with a 10-run third inning en route to a 15-1 (5 inning) win over Casey County High School in the first round of the 47th District Baseball Tournament at Charlie Taylor Field.
The Rebels scored in their very first at-bats, and the Jumpers countered with a three runs of their own in the bottom half of the first after Jumpers’ junior Charlie Dishman blasted a three-run homer to left field to plate Jacob Pelston and Addison Thompson. -
Mills, Cheuvront, Goldson win state titles
Local track and field athletes turned in one of the all-time best efforts at the state level in Saturday’s Class A and Class AAA Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Track and Field Championships at the University of Louisville’s Owsley Frazier Cardinal Park.
Somerset High School garnered two state crowns in the Class A state meet, as junior Cam Cheuvront won the 100-meter dash and sophomore Maranda Mills won her second consecutive triple jump state crown.
Later in the day in the Class AAA state meet, Pulaski County High School junior Jimmy Goldson ran away with the 800-meter state title. -
Sammy Jo Bullock places 7th in nation
Shopville Elementary fifth-grader Sammy Jo Bullock fired a 284 in the National Archery in Schools National Championships to place seventh in the girls elementary division. Bullock, who peirced the center circle 16 times, was third n the nation among her fellow fifth-graders.
-
Pulaski downs Corbin on Senior Night
On Tuesday afternoon at PC Field, the Pulaski County Maroon baseball team bid farewell to Taylor Gover, Eric Jones, Dustin Vaught, Henry Lorman, Tyler Wesley, and Tyler Hail on senior night before Danny Masten’s club took on a Corbin team that had earned a shutout victory over PC earlier in the year.
On Tuesday however, it was the Maroons that would not be denied on senior night, and it was those seniors that lead the way for Masten and company.
Taylor Gover notched two doubles and drove in a career-best six RBI in the game, while fellow senior Henry Lorman hit the first homerun of his varsity career and drove in three more runs. -
Somerset seniors help down Warriors, 3-1
Prior to their cross-town match-up with Southwestern, Somerset seniors Parth Patel and Heath Ehrsam were honored for their years of hard work with Senior Night festivities.
Patel and Ehrsam continued to shine on their special night at the ballpark, as the pair of Briar Jumper seniors played a pivotal role in Somerset’s 3-1 victory over the Warriors last night at Charlie Taylor Field. -
Lady Jumpers turn Silver into Gold
When everything was calculated and the results came in at the Class A Region 6 Track & Field Championships at the University of the Cumberlands on Saturday, the girls team from Richmond Model had apparently won the region team title with 144 points — Somerset High School Lady Jumpers finishing a close second place with 143 points. The one-point loss would have put an end to the Lady Jumpers’ hopes of a fourth consecutive regional team title.
“It was really tough to swallow that we lost by a single point,” Somerset track coach Steve Wallace commented. “So many scenarios run through my mind on points lost in different events.” -
Fourman does it all
When the final out was made in last night’s cross-town meeting at the War Path, the scoreboard read “Southwestern 2, Somerset 0.”
However, the scoreboard could have read “Sydney Fourman 2, Somerset 0,” simply because the junior did it all for the Southwestern Lady Warriors.
In the two-run victory over the cross-town rival Lady Jumpers of Somerset, Fourman blasted a pair of home runs, which turned out to be Southwestern’s only two hits in the game. On the mound, the junior struck out nine batters in a seven-inning shutout performance. - More Local Sports Headlines
-
