BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Martin County High School football season kicks off Friday against Leslie County at The Rock.
Coach Josh Muncy returns as the Cardinal head coach.
The team is coming off an 8-5 season, 7-2 in their 2A class.
The Cards had their best season in years last fall. They defeated Shelby Valley in the first round of the 2021 2A State finals before falling to West Carter.
Martin County is a run-heavy team that rushed for 4,509 yards, compared to their opponents’ 1,488. They out-passed and out-ran their teams 4,912-4,084.
Dawson Mills, a senior, accounted for 1,460 of those rushing yards. He also led the team in receiving with 342 yards. Of the team’s 59 touchdowns last fall, Mills had 22 of them.
The defense is returning key players in Caleb Costa, Madden Miller, Bryston Wells and Brock Messer.
Costa led the Cards with 118 total tackles. Miller and Wells had 98 and 75, respectively. They also led the team in sacks with 5.75 and 5.25. Messer had 58 tackles on the season.
Weston Jude had 62 tackles and 3.5 sacks. This season he’ll be playing the other side of the ball as he takes over the starting role of quarterback.
Coach Muncy has big goals in mind.
“Above all else, we want to represent our school and community with class and show pride. Beyond that, a district championship and a deep playoff run is always our goal,” Muncy said.
“We fell short of a district championship last season by one score, so we just need to make sure we continue to improve week to week to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The Cards defeated Leslie County last year 40-7. With a young team, the close could perhaps be tighter this Friday.
“Leslie county is much improved from last season. They play more of a spread offense and are very pass-heavy,” Muncy said.
On how his defense will fare, the coach said, “I think we will do fine. It will help prepare us for later in the season when we see other spread teams in our district.”
Cardinals 2022 Schedule
Aug. 19 vs Leslie County
Aug. 26 at Greenup County
Sept. 2 at Fleming County
Sept. 9 vs Knott County Central
Sept. 23 at Bath County
Sept. 30 vs East Ridge
Oct. 6 at Shelby Valley
Oct. 14 vs West Carter
Oct. 21 at Prestonsburg
Oct. 28 vs East Carter