The Paintsville Tigers (4-5) travel to “Buckleys Creek” to take on the Pike Central Hawks (3-6) on Friday. The Tigers looking to bounce back after a tough loss to District rival Raceland.
The Tigers bring one of the best running backs in the Mountains with Senior Harris Phelps. Phelps has rushed for 1,096 through the first 9 games for a a 121 yard per game average. Senior AJ James steadies to Tiger offense throwing over 1200 yards on the season. The Tigers are loaded with big play receivers such as Jonah Porter, Austin Allen and Conner Fugate. Look for the Tiger offense to put up some points.
Defensively for the Tigers watch for Cain Grim and Austin Allen with 79 and 50 tackles respectively. On Special teams the star for the Tigers is Carson Holbrook. My automatic is 26 of 27 on PAT’s for the season.
Pike Central will rely heavily on the ground game as they have only attempted 18 pass attempts on the season. For the Hawks keep an eye on all star running back Matt Anderson. Anderson has over 7.6 yards per carry and averaging 143 yards per game. Anderson is already nearing the 1200 yard mark.
Defensively for the Hawks, they are led by Isaac Blankenship with 66 tackles and Patrick Mandrell with 40.
