Miners-NK highlight weekend football schedule

North Knox (6-0, 4-0) at Linton-Stockton (6-0, 3-0) -- First place will be on the line in the Southwest Seven Conference when the Warriors travel to Linton to face the Miners in a battle of unbeaten teams.

Both squads have identical win-loss season records with the lone exception being the Warriors have played one more SSC game than the Miners.

By B.J. Hargis Union (Dugger) sophomore running back Jesse Lipscomb (middle) is taken down by North Knox's Ryan Bolenbaugh (left) and Jeff Martin in a conference game Saturday. The Warriors will play at Linton-Stockton and the Bulldogs will travel to Eastern Greene. Both games will start at 7 p.m. Friday. [Order this photo]

Both teams are outscoring their opponents by over 30 points per game. The Warriors have allowed just 28 points all season, 4.7 on average. They are scoring 38 points per game.

The Miners are putting up virtually identical numbers. The Miners have scored 37.8 ppg and have a defense that has allowed 31 points all season, an average of 5.2 per contest.

"We are expecting another very physical contest," said Linton-Stockton coach Steve Weber, whose is 8-0 against North Knox. "They are a good, tough football team. It was a very close game with them down there last year.

"They have some size on their line and they have done a good job of running the football. It will probably comes down to whoever can win the battle at the line the scrimmage."

Mickey Tosti (419), Keith Cunningham (401), Evan Magni (185) and Cameron Coleman (165) pace the Miners in rushing, combining for 1,170 yards and 15 touchdowns. Collectively they average over nine yards per attempt.

Cunningham has thrown for 893 yards and 13 TDs, with just four interceptions.

Jordan Tharp (15), Magni (12) and Coleman (seven) have combined for 34 receptions for almost 700 yards and nine touchdowns. Tharp also has caught six, two-point conversion passes.

"Linton is a very good football team," said North Knox coach Shawn McDowell. "Coach Weber and his staff have done a great job and have a great program.

"We expect it to be another tough, hard-nosed game."

McDowell said that Linton's ability to spread the field could be troublesome.

"They are a team that can beat you in so many different ways," he said. "Not only do they have the ability to run the ball between the tackles, but they have a lot of quickness and a lot of weapons on the outside.

"The Cunningham kid has done a very good job of running that offense. We will have do a much better job of defending the pass than we have this season."

The Warriors are coming off of 31-7 victory Saturday at Union (Dugger). North Knox rushed for 408 yards as Nick Goodwin and Sam Conrad each had over 130 yards on the ground. Derek Chambers is another threat out of their tight formation, which features no wide receivers.

But quarterback Dylan Caballero tossed two short TD passes last week, his only completions in four attempts.

"It's no secret that we want to run the ball," said McDowell, who is 23-14 in his fourth season at North Knox. "That will be a big key for us Friday night.

"It is a tough place to play. We are looking forward to the challenge of playing the defending conference champions."

The Miners, who beat North Daviess 22-7 a week ago, have won the last 11 meetings in the series, but last year they won 8-6 at Bicknell.

The Warriors haven't prevailed in the series since beating Linton-Stockton 41-12 at Bicknell in 1996.

The last North Knox victory at Roy Williams Field was 17 years ago. The Warriors defeated the Miners 48-12 in 1991.

Kickoff at Roy Williams Field is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday.

Union (4-2, 1-2) at Eastern Greene (1-5, 1-4)

After a 4-0 start the Union (Dugger) Bulldogs will look to end a brief two-game losing streak when they travel to Eastern Greene for a Southwest Seven Conference game Friday night.

The host Thunderbirds will be in search of their first win on their brand new home turf, one week after a heart-breaking road loss at North Central. Eastern Greene's lone win on the season came in week 5 at Wood Memorial.

Despite both teams losing last week, the Thunderbirds experienced more success than the Bulldogs. The T-Birds scored a season-high 28 points and gained over 350 yards of total offense. The Bulldogs were held in check by a pesky North Knox defense, scoring a season-low 7 points and held to just 150 total yards from scrimmage in the loss.

"Our offense just was not in sync last week," Bulldogs head coach Todd Gambill said. "It seems like our defense was on the field most of the day, and we can not have that if we want to win games."

In their 35-28 loss to North Central, Eastern Greene passed for a season-high of 106 yards to go with nearly 250 yards on the ground. First year head coach Luke Dean knows his offense needs to continue to be more balanced to notch another win.

"We will have to keep our passing game going once again this week," Dean said. "Offensively things go much better when both the run and the pass are clicking."

Miguel Olvera enters the contest leading the Thunderbirds ground attack. The senior is averaging over six yards per attempt, as he leads the area with 591 yards including five scores.

"They have some skilled players on offense that we will have to worry about Friday night," Gambill said of Eastern Greene's play-makers. "(Gunnar) Porter and (Miguel) Olvera are both pretty effective for them and they possess a good receiver in the (Zach) Ingram kid."

Although Porter has only thrown for 250 yards on the season, he has been more of a threat with his legs. The sophomore has rushed for 409 yards on the season.

The Bulldogs counter with a couple play-makers of their own on offense. Signal caller B.J. Howard is the Bulldogs most potent offensive weapon. The senior leads the team with 344 yards on the ground, including nine scores, and produced another 654 yards through the air, with eight scores.

"They have the ability to hurt you offensively with the run or the pass," Dean said of the Bulldogs offense. "B.J. Howard is an exceptional athlete and is very difficult to contain."

Receivers Blane Boyd and Logan Chesterfield has been Howard's favorite targets on the season. The duo has combined for 29 receptions and 498 yards on the season with five scores.

Zach Ingram and Michael Love were the T-Birds top two receivers last week for quarterback Gunnar Porter. The tandem combined for 10 receptions and 101 yards.

On the season, Tanner Bailey leads the team with nine receptions and 114 yards with two touchdowns.

On the defensive side of the ball for the Bulldogs, Dustin Howard leads the team with 50 total tackles including four quarterback sacks. B.J. Howard (43), George Secrest (41) and Adam Lipscomb (40) are also leading tacklers.

Josh Holtsclaw leads the Thunderbirds defense with 33 tackles and one sack, while Mitch Love has added 32 tackles, one sack and a fumble recovery.

The big play ability of teams have hurt the Thunderbirds throughout the season. Dean knows his team can not give up the big plays and expect to win.

"Union is a very good senior oriented football team," Dean said. "Once again our goal defensively will be not to give up the big play. We stay away from that the odds of us winning increases."

Gambill said turnovers and clock control will be keys for his team.

"We have to win the turnover battle and we also have to come out more intense," Gambill said. "We only ran 37 plays last week, that will not win you ball games. We want to run 50 plays or better for us to win. We want to control the game clock."

Union (Dugger) leads the brief series history 5-0, including a 28-14 win last season.

Kick-off is slated for 7 p.m.