Highlights: Douglass defense too much for Bryan Station; Henry Clay, Dunbar, LexCath open with wins
Frederick Douglass 52, Bryan Station 7: Before the visiting Defenders could get a first down, Frederick Douglass held a 22-0 lead with just over two minutes left in the first quarter on its way to a running-clock, mercy-rule victory before halftime.
“Our defense is elite when they’re out there playing well,” Douglass Coach Nathan McPeek said. “They’re skilled and Coach (Jeffrey) Poe and our defensive staff do an outstanding job. Obviously, we knew that was a strength going into the season because we had so many returners on defense.”
Bryan Station’s first three possessions went for minus-7, 5 and minus-8 yards, all beginning at the 20-yard line after touchbacks off the foot of Broncos kicker Cooper Ranvier. Bryan Station’s special teams had less success with three straight shanked punts that set up Douglass on Station’s 33-yard line twice and the 37-yard line the other time.
Those Broncos drives resulted in a 31-yard TD pass from Cole Carpenter to Cameron Dunn, a 6-yard TD run by Ty Bryant and a 7-yard TD run by Davaun Hart.
Bryant later broke an electrifying 79-yard punt return for a TD that put Douglass up 28-0 early in the second quarter. A Ranvier field goal and another Hart TD just before halftime set the running clock. Thomas Howard and Derion Talbert each caught TD passes in the second half, one from starter Carpenter, and the other from DJ Walker.
Carpenter, a junior transfer from Madison Southern, threw for 108 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in his debut for the Broncos.
“Obviously, he threw an interception, and that was on me. I wanted to take a shot there,” McPeek said. “He’ll continue getting better. What I like that he did is he led us the next drive and threw a nice pass to Thomas (Howard) on the goal line.”
A capacity crowd estimated at 4,400 came to see Class 6A No. 6 Bryan Station give Class 5A No. 1 Douglass a tussle. Instead they got the Broncos’ 25th straight win (with no defeats) over all Lexington rivals in a blowout.
Douglass has been to two of the last three Class 5A state finals and looks determined to make another run.
“We’ve got to set ourselves up to have a really good November here in nine weeks,” McPeek said. “It’s a great start to the season. Bryan Station is going to be fine … They are a good team and they are going to win some games.”
Henry Clay 25, Conner 14: Quarterback Blake VanHorn connected with Jack Kreutzer on a 49-yard TD in the first quarter and a 35-yard TD in the second as the Blue Devils got a season-opening win for the first time since 2018.
“It was a real big win for us,” Henry Clay Coach Demetrius Gay said. “I’m happy for my seniors. The past few years, they’ve started the season off with a loss. Getting a W feels great.”
VanHorn threw for 237 yards and three TDs with Kruetzer racking up 166 yards receiving.
‘We were clicking well offensively in the first half,” Gay said. “Jackson played a heck of a game.”
Jacob Childress opened the scoring for Henry Clay with a 5-yard TD run on his way to 89 yards for the game. Paul Malcolm caught a 25-yard TD from VanHorn that helped put the Blue Devils up 19-0 early in the second quarter.
“He’s feeling more comfortable in the offense,” Gay said of VanHorn. “We’re letting him make adjustments and he’s grown a whole lot for us.”
Lexington Catholic 27, Ryle 21: LexCath kept Ryle at an arm’s length all night and survived a fourth-quarter surge by the Raiders, a team ranked No. 7 in Class 6A this preseason.
“We were ready for anything they gave us,” junior quarterback Jackson Wasik told PrepSpin.com after the game.
Wasik completed 15 of his 21 pass attempts for 217 yards and three touchdowns for LexCath, which also got a rushing touchdown from senior Walker Hall. Hunter Foster caught two of Wasik’s TD passes and had 101 yards receiving.
Ryle outgained LexCath, 429-281, but committed two turnovers while LexCath committed none. Junior Logan Verax had two rushing scores and a passing touchdown for Ryle.
Paul Laurence Dunbar 47, East Jessamine 20: Cole Colony’s debut at running back for the Bulldogs a season after lining up as their QB couldn’t have gone much better.
Colony rushed for 175 yards and three TDs, including a 39-yard burst up the middle in the first quarter.
Dunbar’s Ethan Teall got the start under center and threw for 241 yards and two touchdowns, both to Noah Chapman in the second quarter, as the Bulldogs built a 32-7 lead that included at fake punt executed by Ryan Browning as a 49-yard TD pass to Mayson Hayslett.
Justin Hisle rushed for two scores and threw for another for East Jessamine.
West Jessamine 43, Bourbon County 36: The Colts’ Lincoln Davis made a game-clinching tackle at the 1-yard line to turn the Colonels back on fourth-and-goal with less than two minutes remaining.
“That was one of those games where at the end of the game both teams looked like baby giraffes. The legs were wobbling,” West Jessamine Coach Scott Marsh said. “We had our issues defensively all night, I’m so proud of those guys. They just found some resiliency at the end.”
Meanwhile, West Jessamine senior QB Jacob Jones accounted for all six TDs and 527 yards of offense, including 342 yards rushing. Jones threw for 185 yards and five TDs to four receivers — two to Isaac Maynard and one each to Dalton Carter, Brody Jones and Chase Satterwhite.
Trailing closely most of the game, Bourbon County tied it at 36-all on Cam Santiago’s interception return TD late in the third quarter.
Jacob Jones answered with a 77-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to set the final margin.
“He’s good, he’s good. There’s a whole lot of teams missing out on him,” Marsh said of Jones, who has an offer from Kentucky. “I wouldn’t trade him for anyone on planet Earth.”
Bourbon County’s Clay Estes threw for 302 yards and three TDs and rushed for 134 yards and another two scores. Cam Goodwin led the Colonels with 119 yards and a TD receiving.
Sayre 38, Eminence 0: Luke Pennington threw for 194 yards and four touchdowns as the Spartans scored all their points in the first half in a rout.
Baseball standouts Charlie Slabaugh (2 TD catches, 82 receiving yards) and Brock Coffman (52 yards, 1 TD receiving) figured prominently. Jackson Stuart had the other TD reception and Travis Smith got a TD run for Sayre. Slabaugh also led the Spartans with six tackles.
Breathitt County 43, Magoffin County 0: Three weeks after their field and much of their facilities were covered with the floodwaters that devastated much of eastern Kentucky and changed all their lives, the Bobcats were back in The Den and rolling to victory at home.
Caden Bowling broke touchdown runs of 83 and 45 yards and caught one of Tyler Bryant’s two TD passes in the rout. Bryant hit Blake Ritchie on a 44-yard TD bomb to open the scoring and had a TD run. Cory Combs also scored for the Bobcats.
“We really wanted to get this game ready,” Breathitt County principal Charles Davidson told WKYT. “There were some questions a couple weeks ago if we could pull this off. When we first started we had a little doubt if we could pull it off, but as every day progressed we thought we could do this for the kids and the community.”
Paris 56, Frankfort 30: Jakari Ransom had a 41-yard TD run in the first half and caught three passes for 117 yards to set up other scores while Elijah Webb had an interception, a 90-yard fumble recovery for a TD and a 72-yard kickoff return for a TD for Paris. Paris ran out to a 33-8 lead by the end of the third quarter with QB Kaden Frederick completing seven passes for 193 yards, including a 27-yard TD pass to Trey Murrell. Frankfort’s Sam Davis threw for 296 yards and four TDs.
Scott County 20, Franklin County 17: The Cardinals avenged last season’s Battle of Elkhorn Creek loss to the Flyers with a game-winning drive in the final minutes. Scott County took the lead with 2:30 left to play on a 6-yard touchdown by junior Jacob Fryman, who had 23 rushing attempts for 104 yards and two touchdowns. Franklin County senior Kaden Moorman, a UK commit, was limited to just 44 rushing yards on 15 carries.
Great Crossing 60, Western Hills 13: Junior Isaiah Johnson and seniors Jakeece Patterson and Gabe Nichols all had rushing touchdowns as Great Crossing set a school record for points scored in a game despite amassing only 248 yards of total offense.
Woodford County 43, LaRue County 8: The Yellow Jackets led 36-0 at halftime in a rout that featured sophomore Andrew Nason recording rushing touchdowns from 37 and 17 yards, senior Aden Nelson scoring on a 75-yard punt return and sophomore Leland Taylor scoring on a 25-yard run.
Johnson Central 37, Lafayette 8: Defending Class 4A state finalist Johnson Central never trailed in a season-opening win at Lafayette, with the Golden Eagles amassing 455 yards of total offense, all of which came on the ground.
Sophomore Zack McCoart had 189 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in the win, while junior Carter Conley contributed 125 rushing yards and a score on the ground. The lone Lafayette score came near the end of the first quarter via a 73-yard receiving touchdown by senior Pharell Thurman, who finished the game with eight catches for 164 yards and a score.
Collins 42, Shelby County 28: Kenyon Goodin rushed for 163 yards and two TDs and threw for 268 yards and four scores as the Titans continually kept the Rockets at bay.
“Kenyon Goodin was fantastic tonight in leading our team to victory,” Collins Coach Jerry Lucas said via direct message to the Herald-Leader.
Caleb Bailey caught two of Goodin’s TD passes to go with 129 yards receiving. Darius Evans notched a score and 101 yards receiving and Quinten Wooten got the other TD catch. Shelby County’s Gianni Hunter rushed for 151 yards and three TDs.
Danville 26, Lincoln County 14: Mauri Brown rushed for 236 yards and two touchdowns and had an 89-yard kickoff return for a TD for the Admirals.
Brown’s kickoff return answered a 46-yard TD run by Lincoln County’s Reed Curtis moments earlier in the third quarter. The Patriots trimmed the lead to 20-14 in the fourth after a 45-yard pass from Sawyer Horton tipped into the hands of Nathan Carter at the 3-yard line to set up a Horton TD run.
A fumbled Lincoln County punt set up the Ads on the Patriots’ doorstep and Josh Bixler punched in a 2-yard TD with 1:29 to play for the final margin.
Pulaski County 34, Belfry 21: Pulaski’s Pirates spotted the defending Class 3A champions two touchdowns, but then answered with a Brycen Dugger TD pass to Chandler Godby just before halftime. A 27-7 rally in the second half was spurred by a couple of Belfry turnovers. Dugger and Cody Nichols added TD runs to go with a blocked punt return for a TD by Jerricho Dixon.
Corbin 24, Pikeville 19: The Class 4A No. 4 Redhounds rallied from a 13-0 deficit with 24 unanswered points against the defending Class A champions.
Corbin’s Hunter Newberry caught a 28-yard TD pass from Kade Elam to end the shutout in the second quarter. Cameron Combs scored on two short TDs runs and Jacob Baker added a 24-yard field goal.
Pikeville got an 80-yard TD run by Tayvian Boykins to cut the lead to 21-19 midway through the fourth quarter, but it could not make the conversion for a tie.
Grayson County 33, Edmonson County 12: For a school record fourth year in a row, the Tobacco Stick Bowl goes to the Cougars, thanks in large part to Hunter Felty, who completed three TD passes and broke a 30-yard TD run.
Felty made scoring throws of 30 yards to Michael Wood, 34 to Waylon Bruce and 11 to Jadon Kinning. Tyler Anderson scored both TDs for Edmonson in the first half on short runs.
Southwestern 27, Madison Southern 19: A state quarterfinalist last season in Class 5A, Southwestern came from 19-6 down at halftime to defeat Madison Southern. Senior Tanner Wright had four touchdowns for Southwestern, which didn’t lead until there was only about a minute left in the game.
St. Xavier 28, Owensboro 14: After trailing 7-0 and 14-7, defending Class 6A champ St. Xavier rattled off 21 unanswered points for the win. Tigers scores included touchdown runs by junior Don’Tre Richardson and senior Adam Boone, along with an 89-yard kick return touchdown by senior Cooper Smith, who was a member of St. Xavier’s state-title winning baseball team earlier this year.
Owensboro got a 60-yard interception return touchdown early in the first quarter by Zachary Clark and an untouched 83-yard touchdown run by senior Kenyata Carbon had in the second quarter.
This story was originally published August 20, 2022 at 9:18 AM.
