Louisa, Ky. — Lawrence Co. ( 7-3 ) will open the Class 3A football playoffs Friday night at Luke Varney Jr. Memorial Stadium against Magoffin Co. ( 6-3 ).
Head Coach Alan Short leads his team onto the field before the Greenup Co. game earlier in the year.
The two district rivals met in Louisa on September 17th with the Bulldogs winning 43-14.
The Dawgs scored 36 points in less than 16 minutes of game action to start the game and never looked back.
Lawrence Co. is coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss at Raceland 21-20 and Magoffin Co. is coming into the playoffs off a 28-26 victory over Morgan Co. in Salyersville.
The Dawgs are averaging 35 points per game and only allowing 16.3 points per game. They have rushed for 2425 yards this season and passed for 635 yards. On defense they have only allowed 1275 yards rushing and 478 yards passing.
The Bulldogs have four players with at least 500 yards led by Blue Fletcher with 634, Dylan Ferguson 605, Dougie Hall 570 and Alex Strickland with 500 yards. Ferguson has scored 12 touchdowns, Fletcher 11 touchdowns, Hall 9 touchdowns and Strickland with 5 on the ground.
#65 Dylan Whitt blocking as #11 Alex Strickland reads the defense as #8 Dylan Ferguson awaits the handoff.
Through the air Strickland has thrown for 630 yards and 4 touchdowns, Kaden Gillispie is his favorite target with 13 catches for 348 yards and 3 touchdowns, Nick Collinsworth has 6 catches 155 and 1 touchdown, Fletcher has caught 7 passes for 92 yards.
#44 Will McDavid #35 Cody Crum and #25 Austin Hall await the offense.
On defense the Dawgs are led by Caden Ball and Cody Crum, they have recovered 9 fumbles on the year with Gillispie recovering 3, Strickland 2 and Blue Fletcher, Luis Chicko, Crum and Derek Rakes one each. Talon Pollack has 2 interceptions and Strickland one.
For Magoffin Co. the Hornets are scoring 32 points per game and allowing 30.8 per game. They like to throw it more than run it and have thrown for 1830 and ran for 1216 yards.
The Hornets are led by QB Lucas Litteral who has thrown for 1708 yards and 16 touchdowns and has ran for 628 yards and 13 touchdowns. His favorite target is Aden Barnett with 25 catches 756 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The winner of this game will play the winner of Belfry ( 4-6 ) and Pike Co. Central ( 3-8 ) next Friday night. The two teams met October 22nd with Belfry winning 58-8 on the road.