Bears will travel to Anderson for non-district tilt
Green Dragons drop McCreary game to low player numbers
Hunter Blevins lost his helmet making a tackle in last week’s game at Perry Central. Brett Roark (95) and Connor Blevins (79) were on their way to help. The Bears travel to Anderson County on Friday.
October 29, 2020
In this crazy 2020 football season dominated by teams being forced to work around the coronavirus pandemic, both Harlan County and Harlan had to make last-minute schedule changes for this week when both of their opponents had to drop games this Friday due to an increase in illness numbers. Bell County was scheduled to play at Harlan County and Harlan was scheduled to travel to Leslie County.
Harlan County found a new opponent in Anderson County and will travel to Lawrenceburg on Friday to take on the Bearcats.
Harlan (3-2) added a home game this week against McCreary Central, but Harlan school officials announced on Thursday the game had been canceled, but not because of a coronavirus spike. The Dragons had only 20 players in uniform for last week’s game against Pineville and lost a couple due to ankle injuries during the game and lost another to a broken arm this week in practice, along with non-covid illness for a couple of others. The Dragons hope to return to action on Nov. 13 for the first round of the Class A playoffs at Pineville.
Anderson County brings an 0-7 record into Friday’s game, but the Bearcats have played a tough schedule and are coming off a hard-fought 23-12 loss last week against Lexington Catholic, traditionally one of the state’s top 4A teams.
Darin Eldridge has led the Bearcats with 346 yards rushing. Jack Gohmann has added 217 yards on the ground while completing 71 of 117 passes for 840 yards passing and eight touchdowns.
“Anderson County’s record is deceiving. They play in a really tough district with Bourbon, LexCath and Boyle,” Harlan County coach Eddie Creech said. “Their defensive end (Darian Dearinger) a three-star recruit committed to Marshall and is the best defensive end I have seen.”
Harlan County fell to 1-5 last week as Perry Central rallied for a 16-8 victory as the Bears weren’t able to overcome 130 yards in penalties.
“We need to build off our 240 yard rushing performance from last week,” Creech said. “I thought that was our best game in terms of offensive line play.”
Senior tailback Demarco Hopkins has led the Bears’ ground game with 565 yards rushing. Josh Turner has added 220 yards. Hunter Blevins and Turner lead in tackles with 70 and 53, respectively.
