Nothing’s certain except death and taxes, but these football teams sure come close

Netflix transformed from exclusively a mail-order DVD service to the world’s top streaming content provider.

UK grew its men’s basketball championship total from seven to eight.

The KHSAA now awards six state football champions instead of four.

A lot has changed in the 13 years since Scott County last played St. Xavier, when the Tigers took a 49-9 decision over the Cardinals in the 2004 Class 4A state finals, but high-quality football being played by both remains something on which fans can count.

That was Scott County’s second loss to St. X that year — it opened with a 33-7 loss to the Tigers in Georgetown — and adjusted the Cardinals’ all-time mark against the Catholic powerhouse to 0-3 (the first meeting was a 38-6 St. X win in 2003). In the 13 seasons since that meeting, including this one, Scott County has won 82.4 percent of its games (136-29) while St. X has been on the winning side 76.3 percent of the time (132-41).

The Tigers have reached the state finals three times in that 13-year period while the Cardinals have done so twice. One will add to that total when they face off off in the semifinals of the Class 6A Russell Athletic/KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl playoffs Friday night in Louisville .

Scott County is the only school outside of Louisville to win a championship in the state’s largest classification since Nelson County did it in 1996, and is the only one to have done it since the move to six classes in 2007. St. Xavier has 12 championships to Scott County’s two, but the Cardinals’ last came more recently, in 2013.

The score makes it sound like Scott County was firing on all cylinders in a 45-13 win over Frederick Douglass in the region finals, but the Cards fumbled six times and lost two. The week before against Henry Clay they surrendered a 55-yard fumble recovery that pulled the Blue Devils within a single score with 5:18 left before shutting the door in a 42-20 outcome.

At this juncture, mistakes like that could cost Scott County its season.

“St. X has not been to the finals since 2009, so they are certainly hungry and will play with great effort but at the end of the day our focus has to be our team,” Scott County Coach Jim McKee wrote in an email to the Herald-Leader. “ … They are well coached, disciplined and tough — they are not going to beat themselves. We can’t make the self-inflicted errors we made the last two weeks and win.”

Road to St. X

Last year’s team — which was inches away from playing for a state title — graduated four offensive linemen and McKee had to retool what might have been the best front he’s had in his tenure. Defensive lineman-turned center Tano Trevino and right guard Nick Hickey, formerly a linebacker, have stepped up in their new roles this season. McKee’s proud of how far that unit — which also features Bryan Hudson, a junior whose long list of offers includes Alabama, Ohio State and UK — has come along in 2017.

A strong, agile line is crucial to running the Wing-T offense that’s become Scott County’s calling card. This year Austin Barnett (1,181 yards, 18 TDs) and Brice Fryman (1,538 yards, 14 TDs) have wreaked havoc out of the backfield while 10 other runners have contributed to the more than 4,000 total rushing yards generated by the team. Quarterback Josh Davis is among the most efficient in the state, throwing for 1,498 yards and 19 TDs with just two interceptions on 52 of 85 passing.

Scott County’s only two losses during the regular season were to Archbishop Moeller (38-28) and La Salle (28-14), both out of Cincinnati. McKee plugged holes in his schedule with those games in back-to-back weeks because he knew for Scott County to win a title this season it would likely have to knock off St. X and Trinity in consecutive weeks.

St. X is in the same category as both Ohio strongholds, McKee said.

“Moeller was a little more skilled but St. X has bigger line,” McKee said. “La Salle was a little faster but X has more depth. … I frankly was a little worried when Madison Central, Clark County, and Tates Creek all dropped us from their schedule. They were close games that we had played for years. But looking back, it has helped elevate our program to play the Greater Catholic League.”

Scott County this week will learn not only how far it’s come since those midseason defeats, but in the 13 years since it last matched up against a program that for much of its history has been widely considered either the best or second-best in Kentucky.

To McKee, beating St. X would take on a different kind of significance than it would have when he first arrived at Scott County in 1997.

“I am 48 years old, McKee said. “I want to see the joy on the kids’ faces if they can win, see their families hug, look at the beaming faces in the pictures they take, feel the joy within our community. I want to help others experience it.

“Twenty years ago I would have pounded my chest and said look at what we have done. What we have done this year is stay out of the way of some really good players and let them play. Football is a great sport that brings communities and families together. Our community will load the buses Friday night with a purpose to win and give it all we have and shake hands with great sportsmanship afterwards, win or lose.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Nothing’s certain except death and taxes, but these football teams sure come close."