The Stick Stays In Edmonson County As Wildcats Blast Grayson County

The Tobacco Stick is raised high and will remain painted red as it stays in Edmonson County for another year.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
Less than two minutes into the game, senior quarterback Tucker Cole recovered from a near sack and loss on the play and ran 70 yards for the first Wildcat touchdown of the game against Grayson County in Leitchfield Friday night during the annual "Tobacco Stick Bowl." For the Cougars, things went downhill from there and the stick was never in any danger of changing hands from the Wildcats' win last year as Edmonson County went on to mow down Grayson County in a 48-0 win.

The Wildcats struck again in the first as junior Kenny Logsdon ran a 6-yard rush in for a touchdown with 6:47 left in the quarter. The Wildcats led 13-0 after one.

Just over a minute into the second, Brayden Carey broke through the middle with explosive speed for a 29-yard touchdown. Brett Brannon's extra point made it 20-0, Wildcats.

Grayson County had yet to manage a first down as they struggled to gain any momentum when with 5:52 left in the half, Tucker Cole connected with Chase Elkins who split two defenders for an amazing catch and a 16-yard touchdown. The extra point made it 27-0.

Seconds later, on the Cougars' next possession, Kenny Logsdon stripped the ball away from the offense and ran it into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night and the extra point from Brannon extended the lead to 34-0.

It was Chase Elkins again on the next Wildcat possession with what should've been the play of the night with another incredible catch at the back of the end zone, but officials ruled it incomplete. The pass was intended for Zack Farmer but was broken up by a Cougar defender. Elkins was also in mid-air during the play and he somehow came up with the ball out of Farmer's hands. Photos of the play showed that Elkins actually made the catch.

Elkins and Farmer attempt to catch a broken-up pass.

Elkins makes the catch in the endzone but it was ruled incomplete.

The Wildcats took a 41-0 lead into the locker room at the half as Farmer scored on a 3-yard run with just seconds left in the second. The Wildcats were able to play some younger guys in the second half, scoring one more touchdown in the third on a great catch by Logan Lindsey on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Cole with just over 5 minutes left in the quarter. 

Head coach Nathan Smith said he was happy with the performance of his team in the win, but discussed the difficult position in which the Cougars found themselves with having much of the starting lineup out with injuries.

"They're banged up. Their two quarterbacks are out, their starting running back is out," said Smith. "At the same time, our kids knew that and it could've been easy for them to come in with a 'big head' sort of mentality and just coast to a win, but I think we came out really good and opened it up in the beginning."

The Wildcats finished with 195 total rushing yards with Cole leading the way with 78, Carey rushed for 63, Logsdon had 28, and Farmer added 3. Tucker Cole connected on 6 of 9 passes for a total of 112 passing yards and a team offensive total of 306 yards. The Wildcats stayed close to the red zone for nearly the entire game.

Edmonson County is now 3-0 on the season which nearly matches the total number of wins from last year (4-6). They are scheduled to take on Warren East (2-0) at home at the 2017 Edmonson County Homecoming game at 7pm. Your WildcatsLive pregame show starts at 6:45 on EdmonsonVoice.com.