Published: November 12, 2009 10:59 pm      

No. 2 Jumpers gunning for another regional championship game

Somerset — Somerset Head Football Coach Rob Lucas has a simple philosophy concerning the post season—one that looks past the surface niceties and statistics to get to the heart of the matter.

“When it comes to the playoffs it doesn’t matter who we play, because we still have to go out on the field and cash that check to earn another 48 minutes of football,” says Lucas. “We want to keep our seniors around with us as long as possible. And this is a tight-knit group that gets along well in the locker room and off the field. I know they don’t want to lose their teammates, and their focus is on keeping them as part of the team.”

The Briar Jumpers need only reflect back a year to the humiliation they felt on a virtual hog pen of a field, as the last group of senior Jumpers said goodbye to the purple and gold under the muddy heel of the Estill County Engineers in a 31-6 lashing. If it had been the Civil War, those seniors’ gravestones would be adorning some seldom seen corner of Estill County High School—the place where their football lives ended.

And the memory of their fallen brothers, as they walked slowly off the field of battle, through the freezing downpour last November--their numbers obscured by Estill County mud—still haunts the minds of this 2009 Briar Jumper squad.

Tonight the tables may turn as the Briar Jumpers host Estill County in the second round of the State 3A playoffs at Clark Field. We all know what Somerset has accomplished this season, coming into the game with a spotless 11-0 record. One of those eleven wins was the 27-14 verdict of September 18th, as the Jumpers returned to the scene of last year’s finale.

“We may have been a little flat in that one,” said Lucas. “We were coming off a big win over Danville, and Estill had gotten off to a slow start. It was one of the few times this season where I didn’t feel like we were as focused as we should be. They took the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and we dropped the first six or seven passes we threw. But we regrouped and took control from there—we just have to make sure we don’t come out of the gate that way again. This is the playoffs. There’s no excuse for it if we do.”

Estill County is not the same group of players that dominated the Jumpers last season. They returned only two starters from that squad, and they suffered growing pains early in the season. Their first two opponents outscored them 104-13 before they got it going with a 42-41 win over Garrard County in the week before the Somerset game. Since the loss to the Jumpers they’ve reeled off six wins in seven games to run their record to 7-4.

“They’re definitely a much improved football team from the start of the season,” said Lucas. “Mike Jones has done an excellent job with that program. To lose almost all your starters and come back with a 7-4 season is quite a feat.”

The first match up between the two schools was supposed to be a blowout, but even though Somerset held Estill County to under 100 yards of offense until the final drive of the game, the Engineers came away emboldened by the experience.

“We know they are looking forward to playing us,” said Lucas. “After the last game I went over to congratulate Coach Jones and heard him addressing his team. They set a goal to keep improving as a team and to eventually meet us again in the playoffs. Well, they’ve had a fine season and accomplished that goal. Now they’re going to get what they asked for.”

But if the thought of last season’s humiliation wasn’t enough to keep them from coming out flat in September, will it be enough tonight?

“I don’t think we’re going to look past them,” Lucas said. Why? There’s an extra little ingredient added to the stew that may give the Briar Jumpers the incentive to deliver a message on Friday.

When Jones was addressing his team after the loss to the Jumpers he was overheard telling his team that it had more heart than the Somerset Briar Jumpers football team. That was part of the rationale for wanting to make sure they got a rematch.

“He told them they had more heart than we did,” said Lucas. “And he was right. They played with more heart that night than we did. I totally understand why he said what he said. We just have to go out Friday night and prove him wrong.”

The same hearts that have been called into question undoubtedly are going to miss a fallen teammate who will now miss the rest of the playoffs. Joey Harris injured his leg in the second quarter last week and was taken to the hospital with a season-ending leg injury.

“Joey broke two bones in his leg, below the knee,” said Lucas. “They’ve put a rod and a plate in there to help it grow together correctly. It will be a long healing process for him, but we’re thinking he should be ready by the time next season rolls around.”

Somerset could have used Harris in this game, which promises to be settled in the trenches.

“They run that unique offense,” said Lucas, referring to the double-wing attack the Engineers have made their trademark. “They get as many bodies as they can to the point of attack. By the time you get there to make the tackle you may have 1200 to 1500 pounds of muscle to fight through. It’s an attack based on running the football primarily. We’ve broken down 311 plays on film and 299 of them were runs. Kenton Roberts is their main ball carrier and will see the ball on about half their plays. He has had another solid season.”

The KHSAA website only shows Estill County’s statistics through the first six games of the season. At that time Roberts had already amassed 797 yards and 11 TDs.

So what will we see from the 2009 Briar Jumpers tonight? Could they come out flat, expecting an easy win again, which never materialized the first time they played this season? Could they lose to the Engineers for the second straight season, sending a second crop of seniors into the world of life after football, carrying the thorn of having blown an undefeated season in a sub-par effort?

Don’t count on it. These Briar Jumpers have been all about taking care of business, despite the minor hiccup earlier this season in Irvine. And despite what Coach Jones told his kids earlier this season, the fact remains that, even in a lackluster performance, the score was within an eyelash of being 41-7 or thereabouts. Add in the fact that the Jumpers are out to prove that their tickers are second to none, and that they finally get to play them at Clark Field, where they will stay as long as they stay alive in the playoffs leading up to the finals in Bowling Green, and you might very well see a settling of the score for last season’s elimination.

Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m. at William Clark Field.