GLASGOW – In Kentucky, high school football coaches celebrate working on Thanksgiving. It signifies their team is one game away from the state championship.

Glasgow gets that chance this year – for the first time since 2011 – and will do so under the lights Thursday at 6 p.m., head coach Jeff Garmon said Friday night after his team beat Monroe County 40-14 in the Class 2A, Region 3 title game.

“We’ll do a pregame walk through on Thanksgiving evening,” he said.

They will prepare to host Danville, which beat Lexington Christian 49-7 in the other regional final on this side of the playoff bracket. The Admirals are undefeated at 13-0, while the Scotties improved to 10-3 with the home win over the Falcons.

“Give all the credit to the boys,” Garmon said. “They played well on both sides of the ball. And I just couldn’t be any happier.”

A couple of younger players set the tone on the offensive side of the ball. Sophomore running back Nick Mitchell posted 165 yards rushing, while sophomore quarterback Tanner Abernathy threw for 275 yards and ran for 90 more.

Glasgow opened the game with the ball and marched downfield, but its initial drive ended with an interception in the end zone.

“You try to finish them all, but that’s just football,” Garmon said. “Give Monroe County credit, they tightened up right there and did a good job.”

Monroe was not able to capitalize on the turnover, or much else in the first half, as the Scotties defense held the Falcons to 124 total yards in the half and only three rushing yards.

“We played really well the first two weeks (of the playoffs) because we were able to run the football,” said Billy Joe Murphy, Monroe County’s head coach. “Tonight, we couldn’t do it, we just couldn’t and they made more plays than we did.”

Glasgow drove to the Falcons’ 12-yard line on its next drive, but turned the ball over on downs.

Monroe went three-and-out on its next drive and punted the ball away.

The Scotties took over on their own 35 and promptly fed the ball to Mitchell. He put together two runs for a total of 14 yards, then Abernathy hit Dalvin Smith on an 11-yard pass. Sielverio Rescontellio added a 4-yard run, which set up a 36-yard touchdown pass from Abernathy to Griffin Murphy with 10:21 left in the first half. Noah Howard added the extra-point kick and Glasgow led 7-0.

The Scotties added two more touchdowns in the first half. The next came less than two minutes later when Smith took a shovel pass from Abernathy 90 yards to the end zone.

Mink answered for Monroe with 3:22 left in the half on a 31-yard scoring pass to Billy Michael Dyer. Mink also kicked the extra point.

Glasgow went into hurry-up mode and drove 70 yards in a minute and 9 seconds. Rescontellio capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown run.

Howard added the PAT and Glasgow led 21-7 at halftime.

The Scotties added three more touchdowns in the second half to secure the victory and their seventh regional title in the program’s history.

Glasgow 0 21 6 13 – 40

Monroe 0 7 0 7 – 14

Second Quarter

G – Griffin Murphy 36 pass from Tanner Abernathy (Noah Howard kick), 10:21

G – Dalvin Smith 90 pass from Abernathy (Howard kick), 8:29

MC – Billy Michael Dyer 31 pass from Mink (Mink kick), 3:22

G – Sielverio Rescontellio 10 run (Howard kick), 1:57

Third Quarter

G – Abernathy 12 run (kick failed), 3:16

Fourth Quarter

G – Murphy 4 run; (2-point conversion failed), 8:51

MC – Mink 6 run (Mink kick), 5:01

G – Abernathy 11 run (Howard kick), 3:00{&end}