The Jackets Road to Louisville!!!

Game 1. The Jackets road to Louisville would begin in Jackson Kentucky where the Jackets would play two time defending Class AA State Champion in the Breathitt County Bobcats. The Bobcats led by one of the best quarterbacks in the state in Kyle Moore would look to start where it left off and blow the Jackets off of the field on there way to another state title. That was not to be, the Jackets kept pressure on Moore all night and held the Bobcats to nothing in their first three possesions. The Jackets on the other hand scored on their first three possessions and led early 21-0. The story was domination the whole way for the Jackets as the Jackets went on to win this game 46-24. Moore on the other hand had 388 yards passing on 55 attempts, but the Jackets led by running back David Kelley and quarterback Jeremy Skidmore were tough to stop all night long and the Jackets won it going away. The Jackets start good at 1-0.

Game 2 saw the Jackets on the road again at the Class AAAA North Laurel Jaguars in London Kentucky. Not much to say except the Jackets won again 52-0 over the Jags with tough defense from Floyd Branham which sacked the quarterback 2 times and caused a fumble which he took for a touchdown. The Jackets offense was led again by Skidmore and Kelley. The Jackets move to 2-0.

Game 3 saw the Jackets traveling 8 miles to the north to face their archrival the Bell County Bobcats. The Bobcats came into this game with a 2-0 record also and a number 3 ranking in the State in Class AAA. The Jackets offense early was special teams. The first two touchdowns the Jackets scored were on punt returns. One by Kelley and the other by Adam Bowling. The Bobcats would score after the Kelley touchdown and take a 7-6 lead but then the Bowling touchdown made it a 12-7 lead for the Jackets. Midway through the second quarter the Jackets scored again making it a 18-7 game from a touchdown pass from Skidmore to Emery. The Bobcats came roaring back with a touchdown with 3 minutes to go until halftime to cut the lead to 18-14. The Jackets drove the ball down but got halted by some injuries to some key players along the way. Injuries came to Skidmore, Kelley, the center Josh Trosper, and another running back Zack Massengill. Kelley did not return for the second half but the other players did and it put a hamper on the second half for the Jackets. There was no scoring in the second half until the Bobcats put it in the end zone with six minutes left in the fourth quarter to take a 21-18 lead. The Jackets had their chances in the second half but penalties and injuries kept them out of the end zone and the Bobcats took the win 21-18. The Jackets did have a field goal chance with seconds left in the game but the 41 yarder went wide to the left. Middlesboros kicker Dustin Wynn came into the season holding the state record for the longest field goal of 54 yards in which he had previously set a year ago. The Jackets are 2-1. The next week was a buy week and the Jackets needed it because in the Bell County game they got banged up pretty bad.

Game 4 saw the Jackets with some banged up players with some key players seeing limited time begin district play in Evarts Kentucky to take on the Evarts Wildcats. The Jackets were back to dominating after a slow start the Jackets went on to win the game 58-0. In limited action Kelley scored 5 touchdowns and Scott Powell added two. Skidmore did not play. The Jackets go to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in district.

Game 5 saw the Jackets come home for the first time this season to take on the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets. The Jackets did not play well once again without Skidmore and this time without Kelley. The Middlesboro Yellow Jackets went on to win this game 42-8. Jackets are now 4-1 overall and 2-0 in district.

Game 6 saw the Jackets on the road again to Harlan Kentucky to take on the Harlan Greendragons. Lots of highlights in this game but will only give you one, field goal kicker Dustin Wynn broke his own state record for field goal attempt from previous 54 yards to 57 yards and the Jackets had no problem with Harlan winning 65-0 still with some injuries.

In game 7 the Jackets would come home again to take on Quinton Henson and the Lynn Camp Wildcats. This game was pitted to be a dogfight and it was early on seeing the Jackets not playing well still due to injuries and Quinton Henson gaining 152 yards rushing on the night saw this game closer that Jackets fans wanted it to be, but late in the game the Jackets got going as they went on to win with some late scores 29-13. Skidmore came back in this game after sitting out a couple of games and David Kelley played as well scoring a touchdown and Scott Powell scored a touchdown as well. This game was said to determine the district champion and indeed it did.

Game 8 saw the Cumberland Redskins host the Jackets in what would be the best game that the Jackets played since Breathtt County. Kelley had four touchdowns and Powell added two as the Jackets went on to romp 65-0. This was the first game in several that the Jackets had all of their players back healthy and ready to go. Jackets now 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the district.

Game 9 saw the Jackets go out of Class A and into AA with another archrival of theirs the Corbin Redhounds. When these two teams match up it is never pretty, but on this night it was not pretty for the Redhounds. Powell had four touchdowns to lead the way for the Jackets and the high powered offense of Corbin was shut down by the Jacket defense led by Floyd Branham. He had too many tackles to count in this game as the Jackets went on to roll in this game 45-25. The Jackets led in the fourth quarter 45-13 but the second string of the Jackets allowed the Redhounds to score late. The Jackets move to 8-1 overall and remain 5-0 in district.

Game 10 would be the regular season finally as the Jackets played host to the Pineville Mountain Lions. Pineville loacated only 12 miles from Middlesboro would prove to be a long trip for the Lions. Game over at halftime its 52-0 and the Jackets won the game 58-6. nuff said. The Jackets finish the season 9-1 overall and district champions at 6-0.
The Playoff's begin.

The Jackets now would begin the playoffs playing the teams from the district opposite of the Jackets. The first opponent for the Jackets was South Floyd. It was never close at any time in the game as the Jackets romped in round 1 of the playoffs 49-8. Kelley, Powell and Skidmore provided all of the offense and the Jackets moved on to round 2.

The second round would not be easy for the Jackets as they took on the Hazard Bulldogs. The Bulldogs were a team coming into this game averaging 60 points a game. Bt seeing that we held home field advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs the Bulldogs would have to come to town and prove to us that they could play. Once again the Jackets romped from three touchdowns from Powell to win and move on to round 3 by the score of 50-12.

Round 3 saw the Jackets traveling to Pikeville to take on the Pikeville Panthers for the Regional Championship. Pikeville ruled class A football in the 80's winning 4 titles of their own, but could they beat the modern day class A power in Middlesboro, yes it seems that they could. Pikeville and a great passing attack and were tied with the Jackets at the half 28-28, but in the second half the Jackets rounded off 50 strait points and 37 of them in a 2 minute stretch yeah thats right two minutes, the Jackets won the Regional Championship and moved to the State Semifinals for the second strait year by winning 78-34
State Semifinal Middlesboro vs Beechwood.

The State Semifinals were in Middlesboro for the first time since 1975 when the Jackets lost in the State Final that year and also lost in the State Final in 74. This time could the Jackets make it to the final. To get there this time they had to take on 2 time defending Class A State Champion and also winner of the last 7 out of 8 Class A titles in the Beechwood tigers. In the semifinals lastyear the Jackets traveled to Beechwood and lost there 34-13, this year it is payback time. Middlesboro's Floyd Branham set the tone early with two tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Middlesboro scored early on a Dustin Wynn 34 yard field goal and later a David Kelley 60 yard punt return for a touchdown. Beechwood on this night was playing a team that had the heart of a champion as they never got on track offensively and were beaten by the Jackets 29-13. Scott Powell had a big game scoring 2 touchdowns and linbacker Floyd Branham was awesome and really so was the team. On this night it was Middlesboro that looked unbeatable and Middlesboro heading to the State Finals and not the Tigers.
Class A State Championship: Mayfield vs Middlesboro

So here it is the big show on the carpet at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, a place that was unfamilliar to the Jackets but was very familiar to Mayfield. The Mayfield Cardinals know what it feels like to be a State Champion. They have won the Class AA title 5 times and the A title once where in that game they too defeated Beechwood. But this time it was Mayfield and Middlesboro. Mayfield came into this game with an undefeated 13-0 record. The question starting the game is would Middlesboro come out tense and would they go home losers in the final game like the teams before them? Want the answer NO!!! The Jackets just like in the Beechwood game started early setting the tone defensively from big time plays from Floyd Branham. All in all the Jackets dominated Mayfield just like Mayfield had dominated the teams that they had played this year. Mayfield beat teams all year just like Middlesboro did, but on this day it was Middlesboro that did the beating as the Jackets went on to win with tough defense and Scott Powells 165 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns to beat Mayfield 27-6 and bring home Middlesboros first State Championship in any of their school sports. It was a season of dreams for the Jackets and they beat some powerful teams along the way. Hope that you have enjoyed reading this, and all that is here for you to read is things that I remember from the games as I watched them happen and listened to them on the radio. Sorry if I did not give you all the games in full statistical detail but like I said I told you the games from the way that I remember them and with just a little bit of help from my newspaper articles that have some stats from all of the games, but any way hope that you enjoyed this and hope to see the Jackets repeat next year as the Jackets will be moving back up to Class AA next year so the road will be a bit tougher but I think the Jackets can handle it. CONGRATULATIONS JACKETS!!!!!!!!!!

My other pages!!

Middlesboros Class A State Title Homepage from Middlesboro High School.
Here you will find the roster and the schedule from this years championship season, and also you will find a pic of last years state semifinalist team. Check it out.
My homepage.
Check out my homepage, here you will find my tribute pages to Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson. I have also created a page dedicated to Titanic the movie, this page is great. So come on over.

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