Highlights: State’s top team visits Lexington, no letdown for Henry Clay
Facing a short week after one of its biggest victories in recent memory, Henry Clay could have fallen into a trap at Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Could have. The Blue Devils were sluggish out of the gate and they faced a 3-0 hole early, but they regained their composure for a runaway 41-9 win on the road to improve to 4-3 and 2-0 in district play.
Dunbar stopped Henry Clay’s first drive and marched down the field for a 31-yard field goal off the foot of Jason O’Hara. Henry Clay took the lead for good 12 seconds later after Langston Jackson returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown.
The Blue Devils, who upset Scott County on the road last weekend, scored 41 straight points before Jake Smith put Dunbar’s only TD on the board with 4:11 remaining in the contest.
“They were coming out here strong, they played hard,” Jackson said of the effort by Dunbar, itself coming off its first victory over a city opponent since 2016. “We kind of got up on them and I think they kind of folded, honestly.”
Jackson rushed for a team-high 88 yards on seven carries. He scored a second TD in the third quarter, a 54-yard interception return to put Henry Clay up 34-3. Blue Devils quarterback DJ VanHorn put a running clock into effect with a 16-yard TD run with 4:28 left in the third quarter.
Mitchell Joseph had a game-high 112 yards and 23 carries for Dunbar (2-5).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">High school football final: Henry Clay 41, Paul Laurence Dunbar 9<br><br>Langston Jackson made several big plays for the Blue Devils to help them improve to 2-0 in district play. He was kind enough to brave a little more rain after the game. <a href="https://t.co/aIZTFX9bWj">pic.twitter.com/aIZTFX9bWj</a></p>— Josh Moore (@HLpreps) <a href="https://twitter.com/HLpreps/status/1048041978305425409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Male 57, Bryan Station 28: The Bulldogs scored all of their points before halftime as they overwhelmed the host Defenders on Thursday night. Cainel Isom caught a 36-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Dennis to give Male (8-0) a 21-0 lead after one quarter then later reeled in a 52-yard TD pass from Elijah Paris to put the Bulldogs ahead 42-8.
Isom finished with 133 yards receiving. Michael Warner caught a touchdown and returned a punt 69 yards for a score in the win. Joe Kuerzi’s 34-yard pick-six capped the scoring for Male, the top-ranked team in Class 6A.
Jalen Burbage led Bryan Station (0-7) with 159 passing yards and three touchdowns, two of which were caught by Kendrick Curry. Burbage also ran for 73 yards and another score. Curry caught six passes for 135 yards and Amodeus Taylor rushed for 109 yards on 18 carries in the loss.
Madison Central 33, Tates Creek 18: The game started late because of a late-running JV contest, then took a while to finish due to a weather delay of nearly an hour in the second quarter, but neither hurdle slowed down the Indians (5-2).
Madison Central opened district play with a victory and won its third game over the last four. Freddie Chenault led the way with 122 yards and 2 TDs on 23 rushes. Ethan Hahn rushed 11 times and finished just shy of triple-digit yardage at 99 yards.
Luke Duby was 14-for-32 for 113 yards and 2 TDs with an interception for Tates Creek (3-3). He led the Commodores with 84 yards and a TD on 11 rushes.
Highlands 49, Dixie Heights 6: Nate Roberts caught a pair of long touchdowns from Grady Cramer and Cooper Schwalbach rushed for two scores as the visiting Bluebirds got their fourth straight victory and kept the Colonels winless.
After Roberts and Cramer hooked up for a 55-yard TD to get Highlands (6-1) on the board, Schwalbach scored scored twice in the second quarter to give the Bluebirds a 21-0 halftime lead. Cramer hit Roberts for a 97-yard touchdown to push the lead to 28-0 early in the third quarter.
Cramer finished with 330 yards passing for three touchdowns and no interceptions. Schwalbach rushed for 166 yards on 16 carries and Roberts caught six balls for 192 yards. Dixie Heights (0-7) turned the ball over four times and got outgained on offense 577 yards to 208.
Trinity 45, Eastern 0: The ground game propelled the visiting Shamrocks to a blowout win over the Eagles on Thursday night.
Geremiah Smith rushed 14 times for 127 yards and three touchdowns and Carter Martin turned ten carries into 133 yards and and two TDs as Trinity (2-7) won for the second time in three games after going 0-5 to start the season. David Florence returned a punt 70 yards to the house in the win. The Shamrocks have outscored their opponents 110-0 in their two wins.
Sean Basey passed for 60 yards for Eastern (2-5).
Butler 58, Pleasure Ridge Park 6: Chaz Burks threw four TDs for the Bears (6-2), who won for the sixth time in their last seven games.
This story was originally published October 4, 2018 at 11:56 PM.