Mountain top: Four Eastern Kentucky teams win state championships in two days
The 606 invaded Lexington this weekend, and it took no prisoners.
Teams from eastern Kentucky won four state titles — the most they could have claimed — as part of the UK Orthopaedics/KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl championships at Kroger Field.
Two mountain squads were guaranteed to win a title on Friday, as Paintsville and Pikeville met one another for the Class A championship and Belfry battled Bell County for the Class 3A trophy. Pikeville got the better of the Tigers, winning a 43-0 rout, in the weekend’s first game before Belfry defeated the Bobcats, 30-20.
Somerset, which has a 606 area code and is included in the coverage area of Hazard-based television station WYMT, on Saturday rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat western Kentucky challenger Mayfield, 34-31, on a game-winning touchdown with no time left on the clock.
Johnson Central, making its fifth straight appearance in a state finals, completed the Appalachia sweep with an 21-20 win over Boyle County. Both teams were unbeaten, but the Rebels were favored by the Herald-Leader’s Rating the State by Dave Cantrall and the KHSAA’s RPI rankings, used to seed the postseason for the first time this year. The Golden Eagles ended a two-game losing streak at state.
The remaining two state finals featured teams from Kentucky’s most-populated areas: Covington Catholic beat Frederick Douglass 14-7 for the Class 5A title and Male and Trinity fought for the Class 6A crown.
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 6:57 PM.
