Lone Oak vs. Lexington Catholic ... and not Paducah Tilghman

Lone Oak completed its football schedule last week with a doozy, a game against Class 4A power Lexington Catholic.

Yes, the same Lexington Catholic that throttled the Purple Flash 49-7 in the 2007 state championship game.

Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins said the two teams will meet on Sept. 11 at Lone Oak, with the return game in Lexington in 2010.

The Flash, whose schedule has been heartily criticized the last couple of years, has certainly beefed up a bit. Lone Oak's non-district schedule includes games with Graves County and Marshall County. Also on the docket is Green County, which was a consensus top-10 team in Class 2A a year ago.

Conspicuous by its absence is Paducah Tilghman, which would have made for an attractive matchup, and both teams share an open date on Oct. 23, the next-to-last week of the regular season.

Haskins said the two teams talked about a potential meeting, but it never worked out. Haskins said he would prefer to play the Tornado early in the season, fearing that late-season games with local rivals Tilghman and Heath would sap a little of Lone Oak's emotion going into the postseason.

The bottom line, however, is that there appears to be some bad blood between the two programs, stemming in part from some off-the-field issues.

Tilghman, meanwhile, had to scramble to fill out its schedule, too, landing Louisville Holy Cross in Week 9 with an open date to end the regular season.

Last summer, Tornado coach Randy Wyatt said he had lined up some high-profile intersectional matchups with heavyweights like North Hardin and Evansville (Ind.) Reitz, but neither appear on Tilghman's schedule next year. The non-district slate includes Hopkinsville, Mayfield, Graves County, Calloway County and two-time defending Class 2A state champion Fort Campbell.

Tilghman will also meet St. Louis Beaumont at Ballard Memorial's bowl game. Beaumont was 2-7 last season, with one of the wins by forfeit. In the eight games the Blue Jackets lost on the field, they were outscored by an average of 47-3.