INSIDER
the
November 2018
Off to a Thundering
Start Marshall’s 2018-2019 season begins with strong wins
HerdInsider.com
WHAT WE’VE GOT
UP FRONT
11.18
VOLUME 21 NO. 4
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UP FRONT
Contributing writer Bill Cornwell shares some of his experiences as a voice in the Huntington-area sports media.
6 POSTSEASON
8 REDEMPTION
Marshall FB
Marshall WBB
Marshall Football bowl-eligible for another year.
Senior leader Shayna Gore and the rest of the Marshall Women’s Basketball Team look to shake things up in Conference USA.
555 Fifth Avenue Huntington, WV 25701 (304) 523-8401
General Manager Mike Kirtner Editor Bill Cornwell
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High School FB
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STRONG START
OVERCOME
Marshall’s 2018-2019 season begins with strong wins.
Injuries and a tough schedule challenge Huntington High Football.
Creative Director Haley Scaggs Contributor James E. Casto
Associate GM Reeves Kirtner First Subscriber Geoff Sheils
Writer Dave Walsh Printing The Printing Press Ltd.
Web Operations Alex Hackney All contents ©2018 Kindred Communications
4 / THE INSIDER / November 2018
UP FRONT
11.18
VOLUME 21 NO. 4
compiled by Bill Cornwell THE INSIDER Editor
Sadly, we begin another month’s “Insider” with news of the death of another Marshall football great.
chance to play in the NFL. He was in the camp of the Carolina Panthers, but poor health prevented him from sticking with Carolina. Farewell, Rockhead...Herd Nation will miss you! --------------Is there finally a baseball park in Marshall’s future?
Herd fans were shocked when they heard of the November 6th death of ex-Marshall running back Devon Johnson at age 25.
The opportunity for a Marshall baseball facility is now closer than ever after a meeting during Homecoming weekend with MU Baseball Alumni and Athletic Director Mike Hamrick.
Johnson became a Marshall fan favorite with his hardnosed play during his career and that became especially true with standout 2014 and 2015 seasons in which his physical running style led the Herd to back-to-back double-digit win seasons and two bowl triumphs.
Hamrick told the alums that plans were progressing to build a baseball park at the corner of 5th Avenue and 24th Street, adjacent to Marshall’s Indoor Practice facility. The tentative site is on land now controlled by the Huntington Municipal Development Authority.
That physical style of play led to Johnson picking up the nickname “Rockhead” and that nickname stuck even after his playing days at Marshall.
The architectural firm AECOM is designing the ballpark. The company also designed the indoor practice and accompanying structures.
Johnson was well-loved among Herd fans because he was fan-friendly and was quite generous with his time, visiting and speaking with youth football teams and other groups throughout his career.
Tentative standards for the ballpark include 35-hundred seats, room for offices, practices and booster amenities as well as press facilities.
Possibly his best performance as a Marshall player came in the Herd’s 41-31 win over the Big 10’s Purdue Boilermakers as he ran for 89 tough yards and scored two touchdowns, one on a run and the other on a pass. Johnson’s hard-nosed playing style likely cost him a
Hamrick told the alumni that there will be a fundraising campaign to help pay for the baseball facility and around 15 million dollars will likely be needed to finish the ballpark. I predict that with the excitement of finally building a baseball park near campus, that fundraising effort will likely quickly reach its goal.
November 2018 / THE INSIDER /
--------------Quick work by Hamrick and others in the Marshall Athletic Department led to hiring of Ian Walsh as the Herd’s new Swimming and Diving coach. Walsh was hired from his previous position as a University at Buffalo assistant just days after Bill Tramel stepped down as MU head coach due to family reasons. Walsh is actually returning to Huntington, where he served as a Marshall assistant from 2013-2016. Marshall actually competed in two home events without a regular coach, finishing second to WVU in the W,Va. Games and dropping a dual meet with Ohio University. Former Herd swimmers Teel Hartmann and Chloe Parsemain led the Herd on an interim basis prior to Walsh’s hiring. ------------What is the hottest ticket in town? Apparently, it’s Marshall Mens Basketball. Herd fans have stepped and sold-out the lower bowl of the Henderson Center for the entire 2018-2019 season and most of the green upper deck seats are also gone. Look for huge crowds for the defending Conference USA Tournament Champ’s games this season as enthusiasm for Coach Dan D’Antoni’s team is at a high pitch. Despite MU Football success, Huntington is STILL a basketball town!
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6 / THE INSIDER / November 2018
Rolling toward the Postseason Marshall Football bowl-eligible for another year
compiled by Bill Cornwell THE INSIDER Editor
photos by Adam Gue
2018 has been an up-and-down year for Marshall football, but one of the team’s goals has been realized, as the Herd is once-again bowl eligible.
ing in the race for the Conference USA East Division title. Those hopes were dashed as the Golden Eagles beat a mistake-prone Herd team 26-24. Green did not play in the game.
Marshall achieved that designation by winning its sixth game of the year, a 30-13 domination of Charlotte on November 10th. The last month of the season has had it’s ups and downs for the Herd, with the highlight being a dominating 31-7 Homecoming win over defending Conference USA champion Florida Atlantic. In that game, FAU’s all-conference tailback Devin Singletary was held to 39 yards rushing while Marshall sophomore runner Tyler King shredded the Owls defense for 125 yards and a touchdown. Senior back Keion Davis added 60 yards and junior transfer quarterback Alex Thomson even ran for 50 yards and a score. King suffered a leg injury late in the FAU win and that would prove problematic in future games. After enjoying a bye week, Marshall returned to action on November 3rd at Southern Miss with hopes of remain-
Marshall had four turnovers in the game, two fumbles and two interceptions, one each for Herd quarterbacks Thomson and Isaiah Green. Green entered the game late in the first half after Thomson’s interception and subsequently fumbled, leading to a Southern Miss recovery and touchdown and giving the Golden Eagles a lead they’d never give up the rest of the afternoon. The action was the first for Green in more than a month after he suffered a leg injury late in the Herd’s win at Western Kentucky. The Herd was stymied by the strong Southern Miss run defense, picking up only 31 yards on the ground in the game. The Herd returned home and rode a strong 3rd quarter performance for the win over Charlotte. Marshall’s defense proved to be a star in the game as well the emergence of redshirt freshman running back Brenden Knox. The Charlotte contest was also the Herd’s annual “Black-
out� game in which the squad honors the 75 victims of the November 14th, 1970 plane crash. The game was made more special this year as several Marshall football alumni joined the team, which was clad in all-black uniforms, and coaching staff in taking the field prior to the game. Marshall had a narrow 13-10 win over the 49ers at halftime and Charlotte tied the game briefly at 13, but the Herd scored 17 points in the final 10 minutes of the third quarter to put the game away. The Herd defense limited Charlotte to 185 total yards in the game and Knox, filling in for injured runners King and Davis, exploded for 116 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. Marshall’s bowl destination remains to be determined, but Head Coach Doc Holliday prefers Florida bowls due to the Herd’s strong recruiting presence in the Sunshine State as well as for the ability of families of Florida-based Marshall players to attend the game. Wherever Marshall plays, a much-healthier and more mature Marshall team should be ready to challenge for a seventh-straight bowl triumph and sixth for Coach Holliday.
8 / THE INSIDER / November 2018
A season of redemption compiled by Dave Walsh THE INSIDER writer photos by Adam Gue
Senior leader Shayna Gore and the rest of the Marshall Women’s Basketball Team look to shake things up in Conference USA When you finish 3-13 in a league and 9-20 overall, much probably won’t be expected of that team going into a new season. That’s where the Marshall University women’s basketball team finds itself entering the 2018-19 Conference USA season. In the preseason coaches poll, Marshall got pegged for 13th out of 13 teams. UAB was picked No. 1 and Rice No. 2 followed by Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky. Second-year Thundering Herd coach Tony Kemper can’t argue about the assessment for now. But later? “I don’t think there’s any question that we shouldn’t,” Kemper said of being voted higher. “Our performance didn’t warrant anything any different. Look on paper, I understand. You can’t wish your way out of it. You have to play your way out. I would like to come back at the end and prove they were inaccurate.” “We’re playing with a chip on our shoulder,” said Shayna Gore, standout senior guard from Logan, WV. “The players back, the Juco transfers, the freshman, we’re all talking about being ranked No. 13. We have to come out with the same mindset every day. Prove them wrong one day at a time, one game at a time.” Marshall opened the 2018-19 on Nov. 7 at home against
Indiana State, losing 62-53. Gore is joined by fellow seniors Taylor Porter and Logan Fraley, and juniors Jovana Vucetic, Princess Clemons, Ashley Saintigene, Tana Driver and Khadaijia Brooks. Sophomores Taylor Pearson, Brianna Toney and Kristen Mayo will all play big roles. Kia Sivils, Aeriel Adkins and Lorelei Roper make up the freshman class. “We have a hungry group, a group that likes to compete,” Kemper said. “We’ll start finding out for real on Nov. 7. We’ve got a lot of new people, probably six near the top of the rotation that wasn’t part of the group last year. Some were here, but didn’t play. When you watch Shayna, she kept us in a lot of games. I think we have to learn how to do that better across the board. We have to take the effort, the energy and translate that into making things happen down the stretch and win games.” Gore ranks fifth in program history in points (1,439) and first in 3-pointers (207). Gore has a chance at becoming the third player in school history with 2,000 career points. She was No. 1 in free throw shooting in C-USA last season. “I told my mom the other day this went by faster than high school,” Gore said. “We can start something with this team. Some records are in sight, but I’d trade them for wins. I was telling my dad on the way back from the scrimmage what
November 2018 / THE INSIDER /
it went like. We all have goals. It feels special. I just want to win. I’d like to be the one who doesn’t score a lot and wins instead of the one that scores a lot and loses.” “She’s going to be one of the best scorers to ever play here,” Kemper said. “She may average 19 a game, or maybe 15 a game. She’s got to translate that ability into helping us get Ws (wins). I’ve been really pleased where she’s at. She’s a complete player. She’s had so much success over the years scoring sometimes she forgets all the other little things she can do well. She expects every shot she takes to go in. That has served her well.” Kemper served as an assistant under Matt Daniel before taking over last season. He called year one in his new role an experience. “Hopefully I’m better,” Kemper said. “You have to be comfortable with who you are. We’re playing a similar fashion, we can play better no question. Hopefully I’m better managing the game down the stretch, hopefully better in preparing them fully over the course of a week for the teams we’re going to see. I really like this team. They should be a mature group. Six haven’t played. They’re new, but there’s quite a bit of experience in there. We’re just not experienced together as a group. Over time that will build. Shayna can come to me and say, ‘this is not working, can we try that?’ That’s the first step. We can sit down and get on the same page.” One area the Herd must improve in is rebounding. C-USA opponents outrebounded the Herd by an average of 12.9 per game. That indicates why the Herd finished last in the league in that category.
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basketball past this year, but she’s also trying to get herself up for what’s she’s going to do when basketball is done.” Marshall has another difficult non-league schedule with the highlights being trips to Wisconsin and Clemson. The Herd begins league play Jan. 3 at home against Old Dominion. “Wisconsin, Clemson, two marquee names and great places for our team to compete,” Kemper said. “There’s not a lot of fluff in there. There are going to be some things we have to solve.” “The non-league games are tough,” Gore said. “The schedule leads us into conference play. The ACC and Big 10. I know we’re excited about those two.” As for C-USA, Kemper and Gore know the Herd faces difficult tests each time out. “Shayna made second-team all-conference last year, she’s not on the preseason team. I was a little surprised,” Kemper said. “We have a really good league. What I hope for at the end of the day is we surprise some people. We have to go to work to do that. When people come in to watch us play, they’ll see two pretty good teams when the ball goes up.” “Play hard, play smart, find a way to win,” Gore said. “Do that and everything takes care of itself. When we have a break (in play) I’ll look over there and think that coach picked us 13th, beat him. When we play Old Dominion on Jan. 3, I’m sure that’s what the other girls will do.” Kemper said Gore and her teammates welcome this challenge.
“We have to do better, the team understands that,” Kemper said. “That’s something we’ve focused on. We have to be more competitive. We’ve improved, we’re making strides fixing the problems we’ve had. I think we’re a more physical team. We’re a little bigger and more healthy. We were pretty little by the time conference play rolled around. If we go small, we have to figure out how to win the boards anyway.”
“We have to shoot better, rebound better,” Gore said. “We know our offense is going to come. We’re an offensive team. We have a lot of people who can score from different areas. Our offense can be better if we play good defense, hard on the other end.”
UAB (27 wins overall) won the C-USA regular-season and conference tournament titles last season, the school’s first since 1994. Randy Norton was coach of the year. Rice’s Erica Ogwumike was voted league preseason player of the year.
“A lot will be expected of her,” the coach said of Gore. “Some will go in, some won’t. She has to be tough minded when they don’t. We should shoot well. Do that and teams have to guard us away from the basket. That should open up the post play and people like Gore can take players off the dribble and create problems.
“UAB kind of rebuilt kind of the same way can potentially,” Kemper said. “They have very good shooters, very good skill people. They were not very good when the coach first got there, but he made them better and better. They figured out how to win and really jumped up there. Rice has some things to sell to the girls to make them go under the radar. Look at us, we have a difference. Women want to go somewhere and get a degree. She (Shayna) wants to play
“Late in the game we have to get better. Tied, two minutes left, we find a way to win. Mature ... we have a team that’s learning that right now. They will be tested. There is plenty there on any given night.”
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November 2018 / THE INSIDER /
Off to a
11
Thundering
Start Marshall’s 2018-2019 season begins with strong wins compiled by Dave Walsh THE INSIDER writer photos by Adam Gue
Marshall’s Mens Basketball team entered the 2018-2019 season with high expectations after winning the 2018 Conference USA Tournament and picking up the university’s first NCAA Tournament win, an 81-75 triumph over the higher-seeded Shockers of Wichita State. The Herd was picked to finish second in the C-USA coaches preseason poll, behind only Western Kentucky. Marshall and Head Coach Dan D’Antoni were also getting plenty of mentions in numerous preseason publications and even some votes in preseason Top 25 polls. After a month of fall practice sessions, D’Antoni and the Herd finally hit the court in late October for the first of two preseason exhibition matchups with members of the Division 2 Mountain East Conference. The first game was against the Glenville State Pioneers. Marshall beat GSC 113-108 in an up-and-down contest filled with little, if any, defense. The game featured 13 lead changes and eight ties. Senior guard C.J. Burks led Marshall in the game with 25 points, while fellow senior guard Jon Elmore had 16 points,
nine assists and eight rebounds. Sophomores Darius George and Jarrod West also scored 19 and 16 points respectively and senior Rondale Watson chipped in with eleven points. The game marked a debut on Glenville bench for Pioneer assistant and former Marshall player Ot Elmore. Ex-Marshall player Phil Bledsoe started for the Pioneers. Marshall’s second exhibition game was against W.Va. Wesleyan and was a much more defensive affair, with the Herd eventually coming out on top 83-65. Burks and athletic freshman Taveion Kinsey led Herd scorers with ten points each. Coach D’Antoni was pleased with the fact that Marshall held Wesleyan to below 40% shooting and outrebounded the Bobcats by 10. With exhibitions out of the way, it was time to start the regular season as the Herd made the short two-hour trip down Interstates 64 and 75 to face Eastern Kentucky. The Colonels were now led by one of Marshall’s top assist men, A.W. Hamilton, who took the job in Richmond after
12 / THE INSIDER / November 2018 serving for a year as an assistant at North Carolina State. Hamilton and the Colonels won’t soon forget the performance put on by the Herd and, specifically, C.J. Burks, in 105-77 blistering at Paul McBrayer Arena. Burks was on fire as he poured in 30 points, hitting both in close and from long-distance. Jon Elmore added 20 and Kinsey scored 14 in his college debut, including two acrobatic behind-the-head slam dunks. Marshall’s home opener on November 11th was played in front of a loud crowd of nearly 8,000 fans and those fans went home happy as the Herd picked up a hard-fought 76-72 over the scrappy Pride of Hofstra. Marshall trailed 45-42 at half as the Pride rode the red-hot scoring of shooting guard Justin Wright-Foreman to leads throughout the first half. Marshall woke up in the second half, pulling out to as much as a nine points, but the game tightened at the end, with Marshall hitting key buckets late. Wright-Foreman led all scorers with 34 points in the game, but he was nearly matched by Marshall’s Jon Elmore, who poured in 30. Burks had another big game with 23 points.
Scoop up the latest looks for the new season!
The non-conference portion of Marshall’s schedule will be a challenge, but will also prepare the Herd for a tough Conference USA grind. Games at Ohio, Duquesne, Akron, Texas A and M and Virginia in December will be chances to show that the Herd truly belongs among the nation’s elite teams. There are also holiday-time home meetings with Morehead State, Toledo and William and Mary.
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November 2018 / THE INSIDER /
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Fighting Highlanders Overcome Injuries and a tough schedule challenge Huntington High Football compiled by Dave Walsh THE INSIDER writer
photos by Wanda Willoughby
Veterans up front do their part and then some to make the transition as smooth as possible for all the new faces at the skill positions. That’s been the modus operandi for Huntington High football from day one in 2018 and that mindset has paid dividends. The Highlanders started the season 6-0, lost two in a row, then rebounded for an overtime win to take a 7-2 record into the regular-season finale at unbeaten Spring Valley, which they lost 28-16. They were again playoff bound in West Virginia Class AAA. “I thought we’d be a good football team,” coach Billy Seals said. “We had a lot of experienced guys coming back. Football starts up front and we had experience on both sides of the ball. We had some question marks at the skill positions.” Huntington High had new names in the backfield, receiver, linebacker and secondary going into the season opener at Kentucky power Belfry. For the second straight year, the Highlanders topped the Pirates, this time 17-9. “We break in a new running back, new quarterback, three new linebackers and three new players in the secondary. At lot of unknowns. Those guys have come along pretty nice,” Seals said. Among the new faces are Ty Wilcoxon at running back/linebacker, Ta’Jhan Blackwell at quarterback/defensive back, Johronimo Mitchell at receiver/defensive back, Keshawn Williams at linebacker, Diallo Mitchell at running back/linebacker, Devin Jackson at wide receiver/defensive back, A.J. Prestera at receiver/linebacker and Zion Page at receiver/defensive back. “Taj has been doing a good job,” Seals said. “By far he’s the stron-
14 / THE INSIDER / November 2018 gest arm I’ve had here. He’s a dual threat. He does a tremendous job on the zone read. He’s got to make better decisions with the football. Sometimes he relies too much on his arm strength, tries to put the ball places where it’s tough to fit it in.” Among the experienced two-way linemen back included Max Howell, Jaylin Summers, highly-recruited Darnell Wright, Terrance Pankey, Noah Smith, Christian Hannan and Brandon Johnson. Receiver-defensive end Bryce Damous and Kris Brown, receiver/ defensive back, also returned. “They helped the newcomers,” Seals said. “Ty comes in and never had played a down in our offense. You’ve seen what Diallo and Taj can do. You can have all the skill guys in the world, but if you don’t have the guys up front, it doesn’t really matter. I’d much rather have the guys up front experience wise. Just like everybody else, we don’t use injury as an excuse or graduation. It’s the next guy up. Everybody brings something a little different to the table. Taj is different from Luke (Zban) and Ty’s different from Jadon (Hayes).” Zban and Hayes wrapped up their careers in 2017. Wilcoxon had more than 900 yards rushing when he was sidelined with a foot injury against George Washington. He returned for the second round of the playoffs. “We’re being the leaders we need to be,” Pankey said. “We have to get everybody together and work together.” “We have a tradition of winning,” Damous said. “We expect to win every game. We get the new faces in with the fresh faces and work together. I still have faith.” Seals, Pankey and Damous said the Belfry win was a sign of good things to come. “They’re a powerhouse program in Kentucky,” Seals said. “Everybody in the secondary had never played in a high school game. One linebacker had not been in a high school game. A lot of guys had not played a lot on Friday nights. We had a lot of unknowns. It was a good win for us.” “That game reassured me,” Damous said. “At first it’s hard to tell going 7 on 7 against your teammates. I could tell this could be a good year.” “We showed a lot of guts and character,” Pankey said. “We showed what hard work can pay off. We have to keep pushing.” The anticipated bumps appeared in weeks 7 and 8
November 2018 / THE INSIDER /
when the Highlanders lost at Capital and Cabell Midland in the Battle for the Shield. Injuries started to hit, but Seals said teams must get past that. Huntington’s been without Wilcoxon, Jackson and Smith for several games. “Not an excuse,” Seals said. “We still expect to win. That kind of resonates with the program.” At Capital, the Highlanders fell behind 23-0 only to see the Cougars hang on for a 30-22 win. The next week, Huntington scored first against Cabell Midland, but the Knights ruled from that point en route to a 21-7 triumph. “We got down early, had too many turnovers,” Seals said of Capital. “No loss is easy to take. The good thing for our kids is as poorly as they played early, they still had an opportunity to win.” As for Cabell Midland, the fight inside the players returned and carried over to the Parkersburg game where the Highlanders scored late to tie the game 21-21 tie, forced a stop on the visitor’s first possession in overtime, then scored on theirs to win, 27-21. Mitchell had an interception to deny Parkersburg, then Blackwell scored the game-winner on an 8-yard run. “I could tell it bothered our kids,” Seals said of the Midland game. “The good thing is they came off the field upset about losing. I hate losing more than I like winning. The kids came back and played well against a really good Parkersburg team. We have shore up some loose ends. The biggest thing for us was really showing enthusiasm throughout the game. Football is a game of emotion. We lacked that a little at Cabell Midland. The coaching staff was upset, the players were upset. I think the kids answered the bell. Terrance took it to heart. He has been pretty consistent, but he upped his level the past couple of weeks.” Then there’s Wright, a 6-foot-6, 300-pounder who is the top-rated lineman in West Virginia and highly sought by numerous Division I schools. “Darnell played his best game Friday night (Parkersburg),” Seals said. “It’s kind of as he goes we go. If he’s playing well and really locked in to what’s going on, we’re a really good team.” Pankey and Damous like the way the Highlanders rebounded from the Capital and Cabell Midland defeats. “We beat ourselves,” Pankey said. “We can’t afford that many turnovers against good teams like that. Against Parkersburg, we pulled together and got it done. We showed we have the guts.” “Whenever you turn the ball over against teams like Capital and Cabell Midland, it will come back to hurt you,” Damous said. “We had to fix those things. We came into that game (Parkersburg) with emotion. They scored first and we had to dig deep. We bounced back. I told the guys we’re good
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and we can win this game. Our guys don’t quit. Coach Seals preaches to us to play to the whistle. We showed we have backbone.” Seals said Wright has handled all the notoriety well that goes with being a top recruit on the national level. “He’s a very humble young man,” Seals said. “He doesn’t like all this. That’s just him, his personality. He’s enjoying high school right now. He’s enjoy high school football. Whenever the season ends, hopefully the first week in December, he’ll decide where he’ll visit and then make his decision.” Pankey and Damous said the goal each year is to earn that trip to Wheeling the first Saturday in December. “The Wheeling Feeling,” Pankey said. “That’s always the goal. We’ve been knocking on the door a couple of times.” “We’re all even at the start,” Damous said. “We’ll see how we put things together. Focus on one game at a time.”
Team of the Month Spring Valley High School
Girls Volleyball Team photo provided by Angie Whitmore The debate about who is the best high school football player in the Tri-State could produce a lot of names, but there may be no one more important to their team than Ashland’s senior quarterback, Braxton Ratliff. Ratliff led the Tomcats to a blazing start in 2018, as the Cats won their first nine regular season games and camped-out atop the Class 4A Associated Press Ky. High School Football Poll. Ratliff is dangerous with his arm and his feet, as he’s shown it numerous times this season. In Ashland’s 46-21 win on October 12th at Greenup County, the six-foot, 183 pound signal caller threw for 147 yards and rushed for another 84. Some of his other performances have included 226 yards passing against East Carter, 73 yards rushing and 155 passing yards in a 48-0 shutout of arch rival Boyd County, a two-touchdown effort in a 14-7 win over Ironton and 149 rush yards and 82 passing yards in a 41-0 win over Russell. In that Russell win, Ratliff had touchdown runs of 55 and 76 yards. He may have had his best overall game early in the season as Ashland headed east to Kanawha County, WV and beat West Virginia Class AAA stalwart George Washington 50-28. Ratliff bedeviled the Patriots with two touchdown runs, 162 rushing yards and 191 passing yards with two touchdown passes. Ratliff has been aided by a double-barrelled rushing attack in which he’s joined by sophomore Keontae Pittman and junior Blake Hester, who have also rolled up big numbers in Tomcat wins. He’s been a three-year starter and he made an early impression as he led Ashland on a last-minute drive to beat Russell 8-7 in 2016 and provided leadership in 21-18 district win over powerful Johnson Central in 2017. Tomcat fans are happy that Ratliff found his way to Ashland, as he actually grew up in Paintsville before his family headed north up the Big Sandy River valley to Boyd County. The loss of the Paintsville Tigers and Johnson Central Eagles has been the gain of the Ashland Tomcats!
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