Playoff tidbits ... semifinals

Crittenden County's football program won a state championship in 1985. For several years, as part of the old Class A District 2 in the old four-class system, the Rockets regularly endured long road trips to district rivals Metcalfe County and Caverna.

Friday's jaunt to Beechwood in the Class A semifinals tops them all.

According to Mapquest, 311 miles of road separates Crittenden and Beechwood, which is located in Fort Mitchell in suburban Cincinnati. It represents the longest road trip in Crittenden's 50-plus years of football.

Part of the blame goes to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's new six-class system, which has diluted the field so much that Class A's District 1 is far western Kentucky and District 2 is in the Louisville area.

This isn't the longest road trip in state playoff history. It's doubtful there have never been two longer trips than ones that involved Mayfield and Heath in 1991, a season in which the KHSAA (in another example of its infinite wisdom) used a blind draw to determine the semifinal match ups.

Heath went to Beechwood, a 323-mile trek, that year, falling 32-6 to a program that was beginning its run of seven state titles in the 1990s. Mayfield hosted Lawrence County in a Class 2A semifinal, winning 21-18 over a team that had broken its 411-mile drive to Mayfield in half, staying in Elizabethtown the previous night.

Mercifully, the blind draw format was dropped during the subsequent off-season.

• What are the Rockets facing Friday night? The clear front runner for the Class A state title, for starters.

Beechwood was ranked first in the Associated Press poll until the end of the regular season, when the Tigers were beaten 31-20 by Newport Catholic, which moved into the top spot in Class 2A that week — then-No. 1 Fort Campbell had lost to Franklin-Simpson.

The voters (not this one) ended up putting unbeaten Raceland in the top spot, the same Raceland club that was beaten at home by Lexington Christian in the quarterfinals. Still, most objective observers consider Beechwood to be at least a touchdown or two better than any other team in Class A.

Beechwood showed an indication of that on Friday night, winning 42-14 at Frankfort and drubbing a team that had beaten Danville in the regular-season finale.

The Tigers have at least a couple of Division I prospects in lineman Dominic Mainello — a 6-foot-5, 265-pound offensive tackle and noseguard that has committed to Central Michigan — and running back Neico Teipel (6-2, 215), who has been battling a foot injury. Beechwood dominates Class A teams at the line of scrimmage, with several big and talented linemen.

Beechwood has won nine state titles since 1991, and at least one longtime observer of the program thinks this team isn't one of the best teams in that run, but falls right in the middle.

• Calloway County visits a Bullitt East club that has shown clear improvement from the start of the season until now. The Chargers (8-5) were slow starters and were sitting at 1-3 after a 50-14 blowout loss to Henderson County in mid-September.

There were some extenuating circumstances that week — the Louisville schools were out of session and canceled all athletic events, forcing schools that were playing Louisville teams to scramble for replacement games. Bullitt East, which was originally slated to face defending Class 3A state champion Louisville Central, set up a game at mid-week with Henderson, which had lost a game with Louisville Manual.

Part of the slow start may have resulted from a coaching change — Chris Settles left for Lincoln County and was replaced by Doug Preston, who had enjoyed some success at Louisville Western.

Bullitt East has won six of its last seven games, the only loss a 24-23 double-overtime decision against Manual, a consensus top-10 team in Class 6A. The Chargers have been impressive in the post-season, hammering district rivals Marion County and North Bullitt by a combined score of 61-14 after beating both teams by three points apiece during the regular season.

The Chargers are a run-oriented club that shows a lot of different looks offensively, everything from the wishbone to the spread.

• Both the Crittenden County-Beechwood games will be played in the Eastern Time Zone and will have a 7:30 p.m. local time start, 6:30 p.m. in western Kentucky.