Fairview rushing attack comes to Flemingsburg
By Brad Laux
Friday’s game features
the type of opponent
Fleming County Panther
head football coach Bill
Spencer does not want to
see.
A week after giving up
377 yards on the ground
against Nicholas County,
including 279 to one
player, Spencer will face
a three-headed rushing
attack from Fairview
on Friday. The Eagles,
which were ranked seventh
in last week’s bluegrasspreps.
com Class A
poll, ran for 425 yards in
their season-opening win
over West Carter and
then piled on another
triple-digit performance
in last week’s victory over
East Carter.
“They’ve got a pretty
loaded backfield with (junior
Chris) Brewer, (senior
Chris) Littlejohn and
(junior Devon) Turner.
All three of those kids
are good running backs.
They all had over 100
yards against West Carter,”
Spencer said. “They
are a pretty potent offense.
They’ve won their
first two ball games pretty
handily and haven’t really
been tested yet. They’ve
got a pretty solid program
over there. … We’ll have
our hands full on Friday
night.”
Friday will be
Fleming County’s home
opener, but the third
straight road game for
Fairview (2-0). Eagle
coach Nathan McPeek
is a little leery about the
wear and tear on his team
playing away from home
so much to start the season.
“It’s tough with three
straight road games and
Fleming County will
be the best team we’ve
played thus far this season,”
he said. “We’ll have
to play well to come out
with a win.”
Fleming County (1-1)
will look to bounce back
from Friday’s disappointing
road defeat at Nicholas
County. Yet, Fairview
is not the kind of opponent
coach Spencer would like
to face to break its slide.
“Obviously, we’ve got
to tackle better and stop
the run. In the first half
(against Nicholas County),
we did pretty good,
but in the second half
we forgot how to tackle,”
Spencer said. “We’ve got
to get back on track and
play better defensively.”
Like the Panthers, Fairview
has a high-octane
offense. However, the
Eagles do not just rely on
their run game to generate
yardage. Senior quarterback
Ty Lowe threw
for three touchdowns in
the team’s 32-7 victory at
East Carter this past Friday.
However, do not expect
Fairview to go away from
what has worked well.
“We’ve got three good
running backs that
helped us go to the region
finals last year,” McPeek
said. “I’m a coach that believes
that we’ve got to do
what we do and not try to
reinvent the wheel each
week. We will tweak some
things (against Fleming
County), but we’re going
to do what we do best.
Our guys will be ready to
go.”
Spencer is concerned
about how his defense
will fare against Fairview’s
powerful offense.
But, he is equally as concerned
about how well his
team can move the ball on
the ground.
“Offensively, we’ve got
to establish a running
game. We’ve shown that
we can be pretty potent
throwing the ball, but
we’ve got to demonstrate
we can run the ball (too),”
he said. “Teams just sit
there and pin their ears
back, because everyone
expects us to throw it. At
some point we’ve got to
get better at running the
ball.”
McPeek is well aware
of the Panthers’ offensive
capabilities.
“I am really impressed
with what coach Spencer
has done with that program.
They’ve got good
speed, good skill kids,
their linemen come off the
football well and they’ve
scored over 100 points
(sic) in just two weeks,”
he said. “They played well
against Bath and for a half
against Nicholas. They’re
sound on defense and get
to the football well. We
need to play well on both
sides of the ball and see
how everything goes.”
The Eastern Kentucky
Conference rivals will be
meeting for the first time
in the regular season this
century, but the two did
square off against each
other in last year’s Grid-o-
Rama, in which Fairview
claimed a 23-20 neutral site
victory.
