With his players circled around him, Scott County head football coach Jim McKee’s voice reached a thunderous crescendo.
“It’s not about being back,” McKee firmly said.
His players seemed to know what was coming next.
“We! Never! Left!” was their unified response.
Such was the postgame cry from McKee’s Cardinals, who knocked off rival Great Crossing 42-21 Friday night in front of a packed house at Warhawk Stadium in Georgetown. The result restored Scott County’s position of superiority in the budding football rivalry — and make no mistake, this is a proper rivalry — with Great Crossing.
Last year, the Warhawks christened the Cardinals’ new stadium by winning their first game in the series in dominant fashion. This year, Scott County returned the favor with a triumph at Great Crossing. (Warhawk Stadium was formerly known as Birds Nest Stadium when the two schools shared the facility for five years.)
Scott County has won seven of the eight all-time meetings in the Battle of the Birds between the two Georgetown schools.
“We are the standard-setter, in our opinion, for athletics in Scott County,” McKee said after the game. “I think, if you go ask 10 sports fans: ‘What comes to your mind when you think of Scott County sports?’ About eight of them say Scott County High School football … We’ve got a lot of pride man. We care a lot.”
Scott County got four total touchdown contributions Friday from sophomore quarterback Charlie Ellison — two passing touchdowns to junior tight end Anderson Owens and a pair of rushing scores — to go along with touchdown runs from juniors Nick Ranson and Timmy Emongo. It was Emongo’s 7-yard score just before halftime that put Scott County in front for good, 21-14, after Great Crossing battled back from first-half deficits of 7-0 and 14-7.
Ranson led the Cardinals with 133 yards rushing.
As a freshman, Ellison watched from the sideline last year as Great Crossing recorded a dominant 46-15 win on the opening night of Scott County’s new facility. Over the ensuing 364 days, Ellison and his Scott County teammates and coaches heard plenty of talk about that result. McKee even quipped that he had to change barber shops because of the reminders about that loss.
Any doubt about how the 2025 contest between the Cardinals and Warhawks would go was erased in the second half, with Ellison playing a starring role. He found Owens for touchdown passes of 30 and 35 yards in the third quarter to give Scott County separation, before Ellison capped Scott County’s scoring himself by breaking free on a quarterback sneak and dashing into the end zone for a 32-yard score with just under seven minutes to play.
“It’s a rivalry game, we’re pumped up. Pressure makes diamonds, so I just went and balled out,” said Ellison, who noted that Buffalo Wild Wings would be the victorious postgame meal of choice for the Cardinals.
McKee acknowledged that the chatter from last year’s loss to Great Crossing carried over into this year for Scott County, a departure from the norm.
“Our motto all week was, ‘Restore the order in the county,’” McKee said. “And order is restored.”
McKee’s run-heavy style has produced major results thus far in 2025. The Cardinals are at 758 total yards rushing through two games. Emongo — a two-way player who holds scholarship offers from Kentucky and Louisville, among other schools — has four rushing scores himself.
Scott County, now 2-0 after an opening win against George Rogers Clark, is hitting its stride before a marquee home matchup next week against Bowling Green. The Purples (0-2) are the two-time defending Class 5A state champions and have reached the Class 5A state title game in three straight seasons.
“We’re confident, but there are a lot of things we still need to fix,” Ellison, Scott County’s sophomore quarterback, said. “We need to keep our nose in the dirt and keep grinding, because the job’s not finished.”
Great Crossing’s advantage in the annual Battle of the Birds series lasted only a year, but the Warhawks showed improvement Friday compared to last week’s home loss to Franklin County. Junior quarterback Sam Penn had a pair of first-half rushing touchdowns to keep the game close, and star senior running back Luke Ballard powered into the end zone on a 9-yard rush in the second half for the Warhawks’ only score after halftime.
Ballard, a potential Mr. Football candidate, led all players with 182 yards rushing and now has 341 yards rushing and three rushing touchdowns on the season.
The Warhawks (0-2) will go for their first win next week at Woodford County (2-0).