Highlights: Pineville fends off Harlan with late TD; Douglass, Boyle, LCA roll
Kentucky’s high school football postseason got underway Thursday. Here are highlights from some of the top games from opening night:
Pineville 29, Harlan 26: In one of Thursday’s closest games, the host Mountain Lions (8-3) got a 16-yard touchdown run by Atavius Flanary and two-point conversion run by Landon King late in the fourth quarter to fend off a furious Green Dragons rally in the second half.
Despite three red-zone fumbles in the first half, Pineville took a 14-0 lead midway through the third quarter — Devon “Scooby” Morris had a first-half TD and King got into the end zone for the first score of the second half.
But Harlan (4-7) answered with a pair of Dylan Middleton scoring runs to tie the game at 14 before the third quarter was out, aided by Pineville’s misplayed kickoff return that Harlan recovered on the Mountain Lions’ 33-yard line.
The teams exchanged TDs early in the fourth quarter with Morris breaking a 29-yard run for Pineville and Harlan answering with a short TD pass from Cade Middleton to Dylan Middleton to cut the Green Dragons’ deficit to 21-20. Pineville stopped Harlan’s two-point try for the lead.
Pineville’s next possession stalled deep in its own end, setting up a pressured punt that was deflected and caught out of the air by Harlan’s Darius Akal, who returned it 13 yards for a go-ahead score and a 26-21 lead after the conversion failed.
Flanary led Pineville’s comeback on the next drive, scoring with 2:59 remaining in the game with the Mountain Lions’ defense holding the rest of the way.
“It was just a crazy, crazy playoff game,” said Pineville Coach Jason Chappell, who had to watch the contest on Facebook as he served out the final game of a suspension he was handed in an earlier contest. “These Pineville and Harlan rivalries have been going on for I don’t know how many years, probably a hundred, maybe more and these games are always really intense. It was a good playoff win.”
Pineville travels to Williamsburg for the Class A, District 8 championship next week.
Frederick Douglass 57, Montgomery County 7: TJ Horton rushed for three touchdowns and Samuel Cornett threw for three, two of them to Kentucky commit Dane Key as the Broncos (10-1) romped in their Class 5A opener over the Indians (4-7).
Cameron Dunn had the other TD catch and also caught the two-point conversion pass from Key on a double-reverse play that put Douglass up 43-7 and set in motion the mercy rule running clock seconds into the second quarter. Ty Bryant and James Mickey also had rushing touchdowns.
Lexington Christian 68, Washington County 7: Virginia commit Xavier Brown had TD runs of 52 and 65 yards in the first quarter and quarterback Drew Nieves threw TD passes to Parker Chaney, Jeffrey Selby and Mason Moore and had his own 41-yard breakaway touchdown as the Class 2A No. 1 Eagles (11-0) established a 41-0 running-clock lead over the Generals (3-9) early in the second quarter.
Boyle County 52, Anderson County 12: The Rebels (10-1) scored 23 points in the game’s first four minutes with two TDs coming from Cole Lanter (a 27-yard shovel pass from Jagger Gillis and a 54-yard punt return), a fumble recovery TD return of 6 yards by Cole Sims and a safety by the Bearcats (2-9). Gillis TD passes to Luke Imfeld and Keenan Stewart established a running clock 37-0 lead with two minutes left in the first quarter.
Other scores
Class A: Pikeville 49, Phelps 0; Raceland 57, Fairview 0; Bethlehem 56, Fort Knox 6; Newport Central Catholic 36, Bellevue 20.
Class 2A: Carroll County 14, Gallatin County 6.
Class 3A: Mason County 45, Powell County 12; Union County 49, Webster County 0.
Class 4A: Central 73, Shelby County 0.
Class 5A: Fairdale 20, Doss 18; Owensboro 42, Grayson County 7; South Warren 47, Christian County 6.
Class 6A: Ryle 35, Campbell County 7; St. Xavier 48, Butler 0.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 11:43 AM.
