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| Recreation Bowl LXXI features Tribe & ’Cats |
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8/17/2018
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
They’ll play the Recreation Bowl for the 71st consecutive year Saturday night at Cunningham Field as the Montgomery County Indians play host to the Breathitt County Bobcats.
Last year the Tribe topped the Bobcats 47-12 in a game that saw Coach Jamie Egli and his staff get 57 varsity players into the game.
The now departed C.A. Collins rushed for 254 yards and scored three TDs on the ground and caught a 27-yard scoring pass from wide receiver Pharoah Davis and was named the game’s outstanding player.
Collins is now at Anderson County but the Indians return almost all of their specialty players on offense and the offensive line, although young and relatively untested, seems to be coming together.
The Montgomery County offense is built around junior quarterback Trey Ishmael who was nearly flawless a year ago in simply getting the Tribe into its offense.
The Indians rarely fumbled and the interceptions that were recorded were basically when Ishmael was throwing the ball up for grabs at the end of a half or in a situation where it didn’t meaningfully affect the game.
Ishmael is expected to throw a little more this season, to Davis and to other receivers and also to run the ball himself in the option.
Back for his senior season is wingback Justin Korossy who returns from a broken leg and has looked back to full speed in the Indians’ two preseason events.
Junior Jaden Akers joins him at wingback and the fullback is junior Josh Wheaton who was outstanding as a sophomore and is expected to carry more of a load this time around.
“We’ll throw the ball more but we’re still a team that will run the football and I think we have the weapons to continue to be successful as we were last year,” Egli said.
There are nine starters back on defense who started at one time or another, and Egli is counting on the defense being improved.
Senior Ty Eads will sit out the opening game while still mending from shoulder surgery but should be back on the field for the following week when the Indians play at Harrison County. His twin brother Jay should be one of the top defensive players in the area and this unit has a chance to be much stingier than a year ago when they yielded 25 points per game.
The kicking game is in the hands of junior Zane Carter and he should be on his way to an outstanding junior campaign in every area.
After losing its first five games last year Breathitt County went on to win four of its final six under Coach Kyle Moore, a former quarterback for the Bobcats.
Cameron Stacy, a 6-5, 230-pound senior was outstanding at the quarterback spot for the Bobcats a year ago when he threw 20 touchdown passes against five interceptions and rushed for seven scores.
Stacy will certainly give the Montgomery County defense an early test.
After Saturday’s contest the Indians will not play another home game until Sept. 28 when they host South Laurel.
Gametime at Cunningham Field is 7:30 p.m.
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