CORBIN — Week Four of high school football is in the books and now it’s time to take a seat and look at what we learned this past week.

Player of the Week —  For the third straight week, it looks as if a Knox Central player will capture Player of the Week honors. It’s the second time this season Knox Central’s Jeffrey Canady has captured the award, and deservingly so. Canady carried the ball 24 times for 322 yards and five touchdowns during his team’s 48-28 rout of Clinton, Tenn. Friday. This marks the fourth time this season a Panther player has been named Player of the Week. I can’t leave out Matt Jewell’s effort against South Laurel. Jewell turned in an impressive game against the Cardinals with more than 200 yards rushing and three touchdowns. He could have had even more rushing yards, but an 80-yard touchdown run was called back during Corbin’s first offensive play.

And now there is only one — Knox Central is the lone unbeaten team in the Tri-County at 5-0 after Williamsburg dropped to 4-1 with a heartbreaking 23-20 loss to Oneida, Tenn. The Panthers will be tested this week with a huge home contest against Harlan County.

Biggest surprise — Hat’s off to the North Laurel Jaguars. Even though they dropped a 45-35 decision to Russell County, this might be the game that put them over the hump. The Lakers came in ranked No. 5 in Class 4A and were lucky to get out of The Jungle with a victory. North Laurel held a slim 35-31 lead with six minutes remaining in the game after a 13-yard touchdown run by Gabe Blair, but Russell County rallied late to pick up the come-from-behind win.

Making a statement – Folks, Whitley County is good and the Colonels will be making some noise once postseason play begins — wait and see. Jim Black’s squad continued its success this past Friday with a convincing 35-21 road win against Clay County and will look to carry its momentum into Friday’s home contest against Lynn Camp.

Tough loss – It’s tough times at South Laurel right now. For a team that came into the season with lofty expectations, it just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen right now. The Cardinals fell to 1-4 on the season after losing to Corbin 35-14 Friday. South Laurel’s offensive woes continued against the Redhounds and the Cardinals were held to under 22 points for the fourth times this season — that only happened twice in 11 games last season.

Taking a break – The Corbin Redhounds get a week off before their district showdown against unbeaten district foe Wayne County at Campbell Field on Sept. 28. The game against the Cardinals could have huge implications for the Redhounds. This is probably the best Wayne County team coach Shawn Thompson has fielded in a long time and I’m still confused on why some were thinking the Cardinals’ struggles with a good Lincoln County team last week was a surprise.

Let the district games begin – Both North Laurel and South Laurel meet up in a huge district contest Friday at Gilliam Field. Both teams need this win in the worst way and I’ll go out on a limb and say whoever loses won’t make the Class 5A playoffs.

Biggest win this past week – Corbin needed a win in the worst way and got it by blowing out South Laurel at Campbell Field, 35-14. The Redhounds continued their winning ways against a team they haven’t lost to dating back to 2006.

Big game this week – We’ve got two big games this week — North Laurel at South Laurel and Harlan County at Knox Central — Like I stated above, both North Laurel and South Laurel will want to start their respective district schedule with a win because a loss really puts you in a hole.

Knox Central will get to see just how good it is this week against the Black Bears. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this game.

Tri-County Rankings for Sept. 17 - Sept. 21 –

The Knox Central Panthers remain at the top spot for the third consecutive week with a 20-point win over Clinton, Tenn. Even with a loss, Williamsburg remains at the No. 2 spot while the Corbin Redhounds are No.3. I’ve got a tie for the four-spot with both North Laurel and Whitley County while South Laurel comes in at No. 6 and Lynn Camp follows at No. 7.

They said it – “Clinton is a very good football team. We were very fortunate to come away with a win. Jeffrey (Canady) had a good game and Jonathan (Gist) got banged up a bit, so we didn’t use him at all in the second half and Jeffrey really ate up the yards.” – Knox Central coach Scottie Russell after his team’s 48-28 win over Clinton, Tenn.

“We made some great plays out there tonight. Some of them were ugly as well though, but we got the win on the road and that’s what it comes down to.” – Whitley County coach Jim Black after seeing his Colonels beat Clay County, 35-21.

“We played our heart out tonight. We played a good game and went right with our gameplan. We wanted to slow things down on them and we did that.We drove the ball after they took the lead late in the game, but we just didn’t score in the end. We are playing better football right now and we really played well offensively tonight.” – North Laurel coach Chris Larkey after seeing his team drop a 45-35 decision to Russell County.

“We didn’t block. We didn’t tackle, and we didn’t execute.That’s what we got to work on – blocking, tackling, and executing.” – Lynn Camp coach Phil Russell after his team’s 53-7 loss to Harlan.

“It’s tough for me to say anything about Matt, but I feel like he’s always been a hard worker in the weight room or anywhere else. He’ll be the first to tell you he’s not going to get anything without those offensive linemen and those backs blocking for him. He had a good night and made some good cuts, but the kids made good blocks for him as well.” – Corbin coach Steve Jewel, who saw his son Matt rush for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns during the Redhounds’ win over South Laurel.

“It was a tough loss. We were six inches away. We lost to a very good team tonight. They had 18 seniors and it showed. It was just a tough game overall. It was a tough environment.” – Williamsburg coach Jerry Herron after his team’s 23-20 loss to Oneida, Tenn.