Kentucky High School Daily is a newsletter dedicated to Kentucky high school basketball (boys and girls) and football, with a sprinkling of other sports mixed in.

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Kentucky High School Daily is owned and written by Joshua Moore, a Lexington-based sportswriter and author who’s covered HS sports in Kentucky for almost two decades.

North Hardin (4-2-1) hosts St. Xavier (2-5) for the first time since they’ve shared District 3. The last time the Trojans saw St. X in Radcliff, they were undefeated but succumbed 16-9 in the Class 6A region finals.

(This is where I apologize for leaving out last year’s meeting — a 40-7 St. X win — from my notes yesterday. Just completely skipped over that while researching! 😬)

From a distance, it’s tough to weigh the Tigers. They’ve lost four straight after beating two top 10 teams, Bowling Green (39-10) and Male (37-7), handily. The losses all were to strong squads but none of those were close: 31-0 to Elder (Ohio), Trinity (44-0), Boyle County (42-13) and Manual (36-10). They also kicked off the season with a 24-7 defeat at Owensboro.

My hunch is that they’re fairly ranked at No. 6 in the latest 6A media poll, but this week will show us a lot. Both teams are middle of the pack defensively but North Hardin’s proved much more effective with the ball in hand. The Trojans rank seventh in Class 6A rushing yards and 11th in passing, with senior Zayden Winfield featuring in both respects. He’s got 686 yards and 5 TDs on the ground and is their second leading receiver with 179 yards and a TD on 15 catches. Konnor Meredith could pass 1,000 yards on the season Friday night (965 yds, 9 TDs). He scored the Trojans’ only TD in the matchup last season by way of a 13-yard interception return.

William Shoptaw, a St. X junior who transferred from Hazard in the offseason, has thrown for 596 yards and three TDs but has been sacked 10 times for a passing attack that ranks 22nd in 6A. The Tigers fare slightly better on the ground (18th), where Cooper Yates leads the way with 413 yards and two TDs.

As I briefed about yesterday, Muhlenberg County (5-2) has never beaten Owensboro (5-2) in eight tries (seven regular season meetings and a first-round playoff loss in 2019). The two didn’t meet until 2019, the Mustangs’ 11th season of existence after the consolidation of Muhlenberg North and Muhlenberg South in 2009.

Few outside of (and maybe few in) Greenville would pick them against the defending champs in 5A. Josh Staples, who was the program’s first head coach and returned to the program a few years ago, understands well the task at hand; his team has had two full weeks to stew on a 48-14 loss to Madisonville (7-1) in which they trailed just 20-14 entering the fourth quarter.

“We were right in the ball game with one of the top 10 teams in 5A, so we take that away as a minor positive,” Staples¹ told KHSD this week. ”But we don’t want to just play with those teams, we want to end up on top once the game’s over.”

Klay Wilkin threw for 103 yards and a TD and rushed for Muhlenberg’s only other score against the Maroons. Owensboro ranks 30th of 38 teams in defending the pass (141.4 yards per game), so perhaps the Mustangs can find some traction there. They’ll have to be mindful of Red Devils QB Tyson Biggs too, though: he’s dealt for 1,192 yards and 17 TDs this season. Muhlenberg junior Zackary Stewart will look to add to his 85 total tackles (ranks 17th statewide).

As has sometimes been the case this deep in the season, Johnson Central’s (3-5) losses are more impressive than its wins. That’s partly why the Golden Eagles sit two spots outside of the RPI top 10 in 4A.

This week they’ll host Greenup County (5-2), currently in the no. 10 spot. The Musketeers are off to a much better start than last season, when they finished 4-7, and could put themselves in position to host a playoff game for the first time since 2022 with a victory. They hung tough with district rival Ashland Blazer (8-0), the No. 2 RPI team in 4A, but couldn’t end a 27-year losing streak to the Tomcats. Jasper Davis threw two TDs in that one and rushed for 80 yards. The senior is completing .644 of his pass attempts, sixth best in Class 4A.

The programs have played annually since 2023, with Johnson Central coming out ahead each time. A win Friday would be, mathematically, the Golden Eagles’ best of the season, and would set up a winner-take-all bout for the district crown at Ashland on Oct. 23 (the Tomcats are off this week). Four Johnson Central players — Collin Cantrell, Brennon Daniels, Rylan Kelsey and Braxton Perry — have rushed for at least 400 yards this season.