On Friday, October 18th, the Woodford County Yellow Jackets football team faced their district rivals, the Scott County Cardinals. Both teams had solid starts to the season, and this game would have big playoff implications. Entering this game, the Yellow Jackets were 6-1, suffering only one loss to South Oldham by 5 points. The Cardinals came in with a 4-3 record, riding a 4-game win streak. All aspects of this game were shaping up to be one of the games of the year.
While the Jackets battled on the field, the Woodford County faithful showed up in the stands. Woodford County students participated in a neon theme, and they had quite an impact on this game. Led by Braxton Brock, owner of the Spirit Pants, Woodford Students were chanting while the Jackets were on defense, and hyping the team up while on offense.
After a very high-scoring first half, both defenses locked down in the second half. The Jackets had to come back from a late 7-point deficit to give themselves a chance to win the game. After a touchdown and a big fourth down stop, Woodford County drove down the field setting up a game-winning field goal from kicker Logan Ford, to win 38-35. Following the final seconds, the WCHS student section stormed the field in excitement over the huge win.
Quarterback Justus Wertzler led the way throwing for 404 yards and 4 touchdowns. Wertzler also racked up 62 yards on the ground leading the team in rushing yards. The Jackets had multiple receivers step up including Jalen Johnson with 7 catches for 111 yards, and Omari Jointer with 6 catches for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns. On the defensive end, Reese Allen led the way with 11 total tackles, followed by Davion Sturgis and Wyatt Peters with 8 tackles a piece.
The students who showed up at Scott County made a huge impact on this game, which has also been apparent at all the home games this season. The Jackets will put their perfect home record on the line this Friday night against Anderson County (10/25) and will go on the road to face Ballard to wrap up the regular season next week (11/1).
