Amid a moment 30 years in the making, a new Kentucky football rivalry flourishes

In Scott County, Cardinals are revered. At least, that’s what the pre-recorded message blaring over the loudspeakers insisted as a flock of them took the field for their first true home game in 30 years.

But their marketing doesn’t mislead. Few communities in Kentucky have rallied around their home team the way Georgetown for decades has rallied around Scott County High School. Even fewer have channeled that unrelenting support and turned it into a trophy case stuffed with state titles across multiple sports. Winning a state football championship in Kentucky’s largest division might be the most difficult achievement in KHSAA athletics for schools not named “St. Xavier” or “Trinity.” In the last 30 seasons, Scott County is one of only three schools outside of Louisville to achieve that feat; its 2013 Class 6A title run remains one of the most impressive in recent history.

So it was not at all surprising that the opening of Scott County’s new stadium — their stadium, finally, after 30 years as a renter or co-inhabitant — drew a crowd of about 5,000 spectators. More than 10 percent of Georgetown’s population, most sporting the Cardinals’ signature red, arrived early and stayed raucous all the way up to a 9 p.m. kickoff delayed nearly two hours by lightning. As far as housewarming parties go, it couldn’t have gone much better.

Then the game started.

Welcome Great Crossing

Until 2019 in Georgetown, you were either a Scott County fan or nothing. The opening of Great Crossing High School created a third option.

The Warhawks’ campus is home to Birds Nest Stadium, named in part because for five years it served as the home field for them and their natural rivals. Before rooming with the new kid in town, Scott County played its home football games at Georgetown College’s Toyota Stadium; now, at least, its own colors were in one of the end zones. But it owned both.

The Cardinals creamed Great Crossing in their program opener, 72-7, and brushed the Warhawks aside with relative ease in most of their next five encounters. The only games in the “rivalry” not decided by double digits both came in 2021: Scott County won a “home” game, 14-6, in the middle of the regular season before eking out a 21-19 playoff win in the first round a month later. Entering Friday night’s christening of their yet-to-be-named stadium, the Cardinals most recently handed their roomies a 35-14 shellacking as part of a 9-3 campaign last year.

To anticipate that this year’s “Battle of the Birds” would go differently required a lot of faith in a Great Crossing program coming off a 2-9 season and whose leading offensive player graduated. But after a 56-7 runaway win against Madison Southern in their opener, and Scott County’s 26-6 loss to Franklin County the same week, one could at least talk themselves into thinking it’d be compelling, if not competitive.

But a Great Crossing win? On this night, at this celebration? That’s just not how scripts are supposed to be written.

46-15. Final. Warhawks.

Anatomy of an upset

Julez Hill on the first play from scrimmage snagged a short catch from Jeremiah Clark and was pummeled immediately by Scott County’s Jayden Fields, who erupted from the ground in celebration almost as quickly as he made the tackle.

It was one of the Cardinals’ few moments of elation after kickoff.

The Warhawks’ opening drive ended in a missed field goal. They failed to capitalize on a Scott County fumble soon after, but didn’t need to wait long for another bid. Five plays after recovering a second fumble inside the Cardinals’ 35, Luke Ballard rushed 9 yards for a touchdown. Three plays after that, Carson Kidwell sacked Cards quarterback Andrew Hickey in the end zone for a safety and a 9-0 lead.

With 9:12 left in the second quarter, Hickey became the first Cardinal to score a TD in their new home. Ali Hamidyah added a two-point conversion to bring Scott County within a point, but that’s as close as it got for the remainder. After a convincing stop, the Cardinals again fumbled away possession in their territory and Great Crossing turned it into six. The Warhawks added a field goal right before halftime, and swelled their lead to 26-8 on a pass from Clark to Taron Lewis after stifling a long Scott County drive to open the third quarter. The Cardinals responded quickly — Hickey to Eli Lilly for the TD — but didn’t get further than the Warhawks’ 37 the rest of the game.

After punting early in the fourth quarter, Great Crossing added TDs on each of its final three possessions. Ballard (167 rushing yards) and Clayton Shaddix finished with two each, and the latter earned game MVP honors thanks to an all-around effort (77 all-purpose yards, two tackles for loss, one fumble recovery) to help the Warhawks make history.

“Everyone’s bet on our downfall for five years,” Shaddix said. “ … I knew coming in we were a great team and that they were lacking at some positions, and we were going to capitalize on that.”

So much of the credit for Friday’s result, in head coach Ricky Bowling’s view, is due to the offseason conditioning program and his coordinators.

“All of my staff has really worked their tails off to put our guys in a way different situation than where we were last year,” said Bowling, the head coach of every Great Crossing football team except the first in 2019. “It got nasty last year and we’ve not had any of that. …

“We came out here and were confident. We knew we were going to be the more physical team. We were bigger, stronger and faster than them across the board other than a couple of guys that they have that are really good athletes. But we stayed the course, stayed with what we wanted to do, and that showed.”

Looking ahead

Most of the 5,000 in attendance were on their way home midway through the fourth quarter. Their hangover came faster than any could’ve guessed.

The season is far from over, for both teams. Scott County is 0-2, in part, because it lost star senior Buddy Collins on the first play of the season. The hope is he’ll be back in time for the playoffs, where-in the Cardinals are still expected to contend for the Class 5A crown.

Great Crossing is 2-0 and now has a program-defining win in its cap. It’s in Class 6A, the “big boy” division in which Scott County for so long was an anomaly — a public school that could legitimately challenge for the state title most years. Going toe-to-toe with the Trinitys and St. Xaviers of the world is not a task to be taken lightly, and Great Crossing has yet to even win a single playoff game. At this juncture, getting on the same field with Class 6A juggernauts would be a marker of significant progress.

Now, though, a rivalry is officially alive. The schools have gotten the better of each other elsewhere in sport, and those matchups matter in their own right, but doing it between the hashes is different. In America, it’s rare that people square up in the parking lot after a soccer game. Most counties in Kentucky don’t have a single football facility as spectacular as Scott County High School’s. Georgetown now has two separated by about 4 miles and, more importantly, the lovers of football to fill and cheer within them.

“This is a great county to be in, to live in, to raise kids in, to play the great game of football,” said Bowling. “We have two great programs right here, and our program finally got over the hump, if you wanna say that, beating Scott County. It’s an amazing feeling, and again it just speaks highly of this community and this school district.”

In Scott County, Cardinals are revered. In time, Warhawks will be too.

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