Battles Ahead in Week Three
It is not surprising whenever a high school or college football season has a few matchups in the third or fourth week with both teams undefeated.
As we enter week number 3 in the 2024 season, such a shakedown is going to occur. That’s because four of our games on GLICOD this week will be battles of unbeaten teams.
In one of these, Louisville rivals St. Xavier and Male are each 2-0. Players to watch include Louisville commit Antonio Harris and junior ball-carrier Chayce Burton for the Bulldogs, while the Tigers feature senior running back Manny Gray and one of Kentucky’s top junior recruits in receiver Marlon Harbin.
Up the road in Goshen, another 2-0 battle that we’ll cover has N. Oldham hosting Tates Creek out of Lexington. Our third broadcast has 2-0 Atherton, the surprise team last year in Louisville, traveling to Woodford Co., where they will take on the unbeaten Yellowjackets. Lexington’s Sayre School, under head coach and former NFL QB Chad Pennington, is 2-0 as they host 1-0 Ludlow in the fourth of our broadcasts.
While it’s no guarantee that Friday’s winners will stay undefeated the rest of the way, these will be pivotal matchups, to be sure.
Meanwhile, 3 of the 6 teams who were champs last year in Kentucky are also off to 2-0 starts. 6A’s Trinity, off wins over Lexington’s Bryan Station and Frederick Douglass, host Indiana 6A perennial favorite Center Grove. Boyle Co., the 4A winner, puts their state-leading 23 consecutive wins at stake with a game in Ohio on Saturday against that state’s defending big-school champion, St. Edward of Lakewood, in the Cleveland area. 3A’s best, CAL, hosts North Hardin out of 6A.
On the other side of the coin, two more of the 2023 champs are 1-1, with rebounding wins in the second week. 5A titleholder Bowling Green followed their loss to Frederick Douglass with a win over Owensboro, while 2A Mayfield, off a defeat by crosstown rival Graves Co., won over Hopkinsville, which is in its next-to-last season of play before merging into Christian Co. HS, with a new campus due to open for 2026. The only 0-2 team from last year’s football honor roll is 1A winner Pikeville, with defeats at the hand of 4A powers Corbin and Johnson Central prior to a matchup this Friday at Lexington Christian, which would be the nightcap of a doubleheader there.
Other 2-0 teams within the Louisville-to-Lexington corridor entering week 3 include Manual, who gets a visit from Douglass; Oldham Co. with a home opener against Fern Creek; Spencer Co. who will play at S. Oldham; and Jeffersontown, taking on Breckinridge County. Douglass, Fern Creek, S. Oldham and Breckinridge, by the way, each happen to have 1-1 records.
In southern Indiana, two teams that are each off to 2-0 starts are Providence and Silver Creek. Yet another of our live broadcasts this Friday has the Dragons hosting Floyd Central, who remained at 0-1 following a cancellation last Friday at Terre Haute South. The Pioneers, meanwhile, play host to Madison, who are 1-1.
While we look forward to finding out who will stay unbeaten, we must not count out Bryan Station. The Defenders from that northeast corner of Lexington have put such talented players as Kalen Washington, Jordan Haskins and Tae’Andre Clark to the test in their season-opening “Champions’ Trilogy”. With losses to Trinity and Boyle Co. out of the way, what Station does this Friday in the final leg of that trilogy versus Bowling Green will either begin their turnaround, or make their season more complicated than it currently is.
