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Story and photos by Joseph Barkoff:
​The Edmonson County Wildcats (6-4 regular season, 6-5 season) lost in Round 1 of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Class 2A Playoffs to powerhouse Murray High School (8-3) 48-7 Friday, November 8th in Murray.
 
Maybe it’s fitting to end the long season, both literal and figurative, with a long road trip, also both literal and figurative? While life lessons generally are not fondly looked upon, someone always seems to point out the positives from the negatives.
 
“This ain't the end,” Edmonson County head coach Justine Vessels said to his team gathered around him at the end of the game near the end zone under the scoreboard. “Because the seniors have set a good standard, we are gonna keep this goin’. We’ll keep getting better and better.”
 
There is nothing to hang their heads about, Vessels added. They just ran into a team, bigger, stronger and faster than them.
 
Vessels also reminded the squad, they have only had one off season training with him, so far.
 
“I love this team,” Vessels said.
 
They have been extremely coachable all season, he told them as well.

The game was a loss on the scoreboard, but a win for the team overall.
 
Edmonson County saw their first winning record in seven years. 

The veterans on the squad put their trust in a new system and coach, and through their work ethic, determination and love for each other, have shown not only the team of youngsters coming up into varsity and the returning players, next year’s veteran and seniors, that Edmonson County can and will win, but they may have inspired folks who may not have had the intestinal fortitude to suffer through losing seasons, that now, might just be the time to get in on the ground floor, as they say.
​

​One fan watching on the Edmonson County Live Broadcast summed it up best in the comments.
 
“Win or lose y’all have done a great job this year,” Paul and Gina Miller wrote on Facebook.
 
The sentiment was echoed across the comments.
 
“Well EC wildcats(sic) had a good year no matter the game,” another fan Chris Grimsley wrote on Facebook.
 
Indeed, they did. Next year may be even better.
 

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Story and photos by Joseph Barkoff.
​Edmonson County Wildcat football achieved something Friday, November 1st they have not accomplished in some time. 
 
It was almost a normal Friday night in Brownsville during football season. It was a home game and senior night. It was reasonably cold, but there wasn’t snow and it wasn’t raining or windy.
 
A chilly, but nice evening for a shootout between Class 4A Breckinridge County(3-7) traveling to meet Edmonson County(6-4) for some good old fashioned Friday night lights.
 
What was different than other nights past was two things.
 
First, something revisited every school year, a senior’s last home game.
 
Though what set this night completely apart from every other night, every last home game of the season since 2017 was the Wildcats earned six wins. They were 6-4 in the regular season this year.
 
There are playoffs and potential of course, but this is not why we are here.
 
Edmonson County High School Wildcat football earned their first winning season in a cat year, or dog year. Either way, it has been a while and Edmonson County freshman head coach Justin Vessels celebrated three things on Friday.
 
Vessels turned 43, he had a winning season as a freshman head coach at EC, and the third, he explained, was having the field in such good shape this late in the year, he said after the game.
 
The paint striping machine has the temperament of “Jaws” from “Mr. Mom,” except instead of swallowing everything, it has a tendency to explode paint on the user.
 
Without John Kiernan and Jake Wingfield operating the field striping machine and working on it three times to get it going, Vessels said, it might have been a different night.
 
Maybe it was foreshadow of the evening’s 47-38 shootout final score.

​“It was a hard-fought game,” Vessels said on the Edmonson Voice Live broadcast Post Game Show. “It’s never easy.”
 
The cumulative record for the seniors was 5-27, before the 2024 season, before tonight. It was never easy in Edmonson. It still isn’t, but it is different, and maybe feels a bit smoother for a day or two. 
 
Long enough for the game film to be analyzed and Monday’s practice to start in the afternoon. It is a process, as Vessels has explained.
 
One last home game for the seniors, and they shined bright for their home crowd. One last time under the Edmonson County High School football field lights.
 
For example, on a play almost with almost indescribable action, senior tight end and defensive back Jake Coy ended up scoring a touchdown on a punt. 
 
No, not a punt return.
 
It was fourth down and four, and after using a timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty, junior punter, place kicker, kickoff specialist, running back and defensive back Colton White booted the ball almost 60 yards, from around the Wildcat 33-yard line to the Fighting Tigers 30-yard line. 
 
Just under the ball, like a frisbee dog keeping up with his toy, Coy, in almost Halloween “gotcha” like presence, was in line with the ball as it came down in front of Breckinridge County’s punt returner.
 
White called out where he was aiming and kicking the ball, Coy said on the Edmonson Voice Live after the game.
 
The ball fell just short of the waiting Breckinridge player, through his fingers and bounced up and into his chest. 
 
Off their chest and into the ready hands of Coy, who without breaking speed, by much, before finding another burst, now with the ball, to fly just over 30 yards into the end zone for a touchdown.
 
“I didn’t even know what was happening,” Coy said on the Edmonson Voice Live Post Game Show. “I mean the ball bounced right through his hands and I ran into the end zone.”
 
Senior running back and linebacker Garret Lyons ran, through and over a good handful of people for a handful of scores. As well, senior running back and defensive back Carter Swihart might have gotten 1,000 yards rushing on the season to go along with his scores on the night, if it wasn’t for 130 yards from 11 penalties on the evening for the Wildcats.
 
“It’s surreal, I can’t even believe it,” Lyons said after the game. “But I came into this game knowing we were gonna win. I knew we’d fight hard. We’ve worked for it since January of last year, I think.”
 
The Wildcats had 353 yards rushing with 47 yards passing against the visiting Fighting Tigers, according to the unofficial stats from the Edmonson Voice Live broadcast.
 
Other stats included two turnover on downs, two fumble recoveries, an interception as well as the punt reversal return from Coy and 11 first downs.
 
“It’s surreal,” senior running back Carter Swihart also said after the game. “Six and four, like coach said, it was our plan, it was our goal and we reached it, and it is amazing.”
 
They bought into Vessels’ program and worked really hard, senior offensive tackle and defensive end Ace Daugherty said.
 
“It’s pretty awesome, you know,” Daugherty said after the game. “Coming into this, I started playing when I was a freshman so I have only won five games in my whole career.”
 
“We really earned this winning record,” Daugherty said.
 
He is really proud of his team and proud he got to play with them, he added.

​“It’s really cool,” junior quarterback Tristen Muse said after the game. “I’m glad the seniors got a winning season since they had all those past seasons that weren’t too good. I’m happy for the seniors.”
 
“I think we got better and better throughout the season,” Muse said. “And we are gonna keep on getting’ better, especially next year, though the off season.”
 
With a couple of missed coverages in the secondary and gap coverage from the defensive side, Muse feels the without those mistakes, they would have been up “by a whole lot more,” he said.
 
Muse feels the “o-line has definitely gotten better all year you can see with all the big runs” they are having, he said.
 
They will celebrate tonight, but tomorrow they will start getting ready for the next game, senior tight end and defensive end Tavien Ivory said on The Post Game Show.
 
“It means a lot,” Vessels said after the game.
 
He is happy for his seniors, he said. They persevered and went through a lot of losing seasons, didn’t quit and stuck it out, and he is happy for them to get some success.
 
Monday, it will be business as usual. It is the process after all.
 
Next week, Edmonson County will see another Tigers team in Murray High School (7-3) at 7 p.m. Friday November 8 in Murray.
 
Murray is the fifth ranked team in Class 2A, Edmonson is ranked eighth. It will be a game indeed.