Union Co. football celebrating first unbeaten regular season in 50 years

MORGANFIELD, KY. (WFIE) - Union County has been playing football for over 50 years, and the Braves have a lot of tradition. But this year has been one of the most successful regular seasons in program history.

Union County ran the table with an undefeated 10-0 record, marking its first perfect regular season since 1972.

“It’s been 50 years from this year, that wasn’t our goal this year, we didn’t talk about going undefeated, we just talked about improving each and every week and winning district,” Union County football head coach Derek Johns said. “Toward the end of the year we were undefeated, everybody came up talking about it – community and social media brought it up,”

“Feels great, feels very special,” Union County lineman Isaac Phillips said.

“That’s really awesome but this is the postseason now, so the season’s started over now, we’re 0-0.,” Union County senior lineman Elijah Baird said.

And being unbeaten is paying dividends as the postseason begins.

“Going undefeated put us in a good position to host some playoff games if we’re fortunate enough to win. and with us [No. 3] in the RPI, we’ll just see what happens in the playoffs,” Johns said.

But what’s been the secret recipe to staying perfect so far? The Braves have averaged over 38 points per game, while only allowing 12 points per game.

Kris Hughes and Kanye Pollard are getting it done on the ground with nearly 1,400 yards rushing combined, while Cannon Sheffer has thrown for over 1,400 yards. Fun Fact: Union County has only lined up to punt nine times this season.

“We were able to convert two of them for fake punts, so we only punted seven times and four of those were in one game,” Johns said. “Kris and Kanye bet a lot of the attention, but Brock Cullen, Izaiah Manuel, Willem McPeake stepped in for us big, weapons everywhere and the quarterback can also run.”

“We got 10 good senior leaders and we’re on each other quite a whole lot, always grinding,” added Phillips.

“We’ve been playing together since like second grade, I think we went undefeated in middle school,” Baird said. “We have that chemistry that any good team should have.”

Union County will put its unbeaten record on the line against Glasgow in the first round of the KHSAA Class 3A football playoffs on Friday night.

Copyright 2022 WFIE. All rights reserved.