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Bears easily maintain traditional ways

Gridiron fans would have to go back almost ten years to find the last time a Logan County Cougar football team stole a win from the mighty Bears, who continued their dominance on Friday night with a 41-0 rout in Russellville.

Although Butler County graduated a magnitude of seniors last year that included quarterbacks Bryce Shanklin and Jimmie Burns, Coach Ryan Emmick’s team did not sputter when he revealed his much-hyped, sophomore QB Rex Henderson.

Henderson, who finished with five rushing touchdowns on only eight carries, took the reins and led his team 79 yards during their opening drive, which barely took two minutes. After a short screen to start the series, Henderson gashed the Cougar defense on a 28-yard draw play. Then, senior running back, Jake Martin, used excellent vision when he romped for 18 yards.

Junior running back John Payton set up a first and goal after a pass play, which was good for nine, followed by a hard-nosed run by the bruising back. Henderson basically went untouched on his next draw play from the three-yard line to give the Bears an early 6-0 advantage.

Although Defensive Coordinator Brandon Embry lost over half of his starters on that side of the ball, nobody in Russellville could have noticed. Logan County’s first year coach Steve Duncan, who ended last season for Emmick’s Bears in a playoff game at Murray, saw a swarm of Bear tacklers on his Cougars all night.

On an extremely unfortunate note, Duncan also saw paramedics loading up his starting running back into an ambulance during his teams first three and out.

After a blocked punt set up superb field position, Martin sprinted twice for 27 yards, senior wide out Caleb Deweese hauled in a pass for seven, and Henderson crossed the goal line for another six points. Senior wide receiver Drake Embry was recipient of the first of his two-point conversion catches with 6:46 left in the first quarter. Bears 14—Cougars 0.
 
The Cougars managed to move the ball a little bit on their next possession with some help from mental mistakes that brought out some yellow flags; however, 6’6” 325 lb defensive lineman Conner Reed made his presence by blowing up some plays.

Then, senior defensive back Kory Johnson deflected a fourth down pass to end Logan County’s most legitimate opportunity of getting on the board.

“We allowed them to sustain that drive with some aggressive mishaps. That is going to happen early in the season; we will continue work on that in practice week in and week out,” Coach Emmick said.

Offensive Coordinator Barry Frazier’s unit showed no signs of hiccups due to all the replacements upfront, scoring on every possession throughout the first half.

“The O-line played awesome and this is a huge confidence builder, but we will have to continue to work hard in practice the next two weeks as we prepare for another trip down here to face a real good Russellville team,” Rex Henderson exclaimed after the huge win.

“Not taking anything from Logan County, but they are not near the caliber team of Russellville ,” Henderson continued.

The second quarter was filled with Henderson making several nice hook ups with his receivers. A few of those was to fellow sophomore wide receiver, Blake Graham, who led the team with 82 receiving yards and an eye-popping 27.3 yards per catch.

Henderson, who finished with 88 rushing yards, threw 12 completions on 16 passing attempts for 167 yards. Deweese caught four of those for 51 yards. Payton hauled in three for 27 yards, while Johnson and Martin pulled in one apiece. 

After Henderson burned the Cougars on a 26-yard touchdown run, Martin, who finished with 86 yards rushing on seven attempts, scored from fifteen yards out to extend the margin, 34-0. Johnson intercepted a Cougar pass and made an exceptional return to set up the Bears final score of the first half. Freshman kicker Ernest Lee converted an extra-point to make the score 41-0. Junior linebacker Jacob Courtenay picked up right where he left off last season, leading the defense with seven solo tackles and an assist on another. Payton, Reed, Dillon Brosnan, and Houston Hampton all had tackles for losses, too.

Coach Emmick unloaded his young bench by playing 41 different Bears as the continuous clock helped make an uneventful second half fly by.

“I am pleased with are execution and we will work hard week in and week out to find cohesiveness on both sides of the ball,” Coach Emmick reiterated.

After a bye week, the Bears will travel back to Russellville on September 5th to play an extremely talented Panther team that has gotten the better of the Bears in recent years. Tune into the New Q 101.5 if you can not make the trip.

CLICK HERE FOR BOX SCORE: Box Scores for Butler County @ Logan County-1.pdf

Story by Greg Moore, Beech Tree News

Photos by Jeremy Hack, Beech Tree News

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