‘We just needed to lock in.’ Douglass shakes rough start to dominate Covington Catholic.
A fumble deep in Frederick Douglass territory that Covington Catholic recovered for a second quarter touchdown put Class 5A’s No. 1 Broncos at a 6-0 deficit for the first time this season.
The negative play was part of a nervy start for Douglass against the program that beat the Broncos for the 2019 state championship.
But after giving up 36 yards and three first downs in the first quarter and the Colonels’ scoop-and-score in the second quarter, Douglass snuffed No. 4 CovCath’s upset hopes with a suffocating defensive performance and standout play by junior quarterback Cole Carpenter.
“Our defense was outstanding. I told them if we take care of the ball, they are not going to score. Well, we didn’t,” Douglass Coach Nathan McPeek joked. “I like how we responded though, because we haven’t been in that situation a whole lot this year.”
The Broncos allowed just 11 more yards and one first down the rest of the game as Carpenter threw for 207 yards and three touchdowns in a 33-6 win that advanced Douglass to one of four Class 5A region championships next week. It will host No. 7 Woodford County.
“Cole’s been playing really well all year,” McPeek said. “People aren’t talking about him a lot, but he’s had a great year for the amount of quarters that we’ve played. He’s playing really good football and he’s taking care of the football.”
Douglass (12-0) has put mercy rule running clocks on all but two of its opponents this season. Covington Catholic would not be one of those kinds of victims.
The Colonels’ own defense made sure of that by holding Douglass to an uncharacteristically low 73 rushing yards. CovCath’s Army commit, Aiden Jones, sacked Carpenter twice.
Carpenter and running back TJ Horton both fumbled on the wild play that resulted in Josh Flood’s fumble recovery in the end zone for Covington Catholic’s only score two minutes into the second quarter.
When Carpenter remained upright, though, he made the Colonels pay.
“We just needed to lock in,” Carpenter said. “We knew they were loading the box, so we went outside. We threw RPOs (run-pass-options) in the pass game, play-action game. Our coaches had a really good game plan for us going in and dealing with those linebackers.”
Douglass defensive back Isaiah Kenney helped Douglass get its offense going by making a juggling interception of Zaccary Roberts’ pass over the middle and returning it to the Colonels’ 14-yard line.
Two plays later, Carpenter hit wideout Cameron Dunn in the flat on a pass Dunn took in for a 15-yard score that put Douglass up 7-6 after the extra point.
CovCath’s next drive netted 2 yards. The Broncos had the ball again at midfield and wasted little time showing off the week’s worth of game-planning.
Carpenter lofted a 35-yard pass into a fairly stiff crosswind that spun Dunn around as he chased it down.
“I was wondering when the ball was going to come down because of the wind, but we actually put that play in this week versus that coverage,” McPeek said. “They played it exactly how we thought. It was a good job by our kids executing it.”
Dunn wasn’t sure when the ball was going to come down, either.
“It was tough. It was going out of bounds,” Dunn said. “I didn’t even know I was in the end zone, but playmakers make plays. So, I’m a playmaker.”
That’s what Carpenter was counting on.
“I just knew my guy could go get it,” Carpenter said. “I knew the defense was giving us the look we were supposed to get.”
The score put Douglass up 14-6 with 5:07 left in the second quarter.
The Broncos squandered a couple more chances to score before halftime, turning it over on downs on CovCath’s 15-yard line and later getting a 30-yard field goal blocked at the horn.
Bad snaps thwarted a couple of other kicks during the game, but Douglass special teams also delivered a fake punt that Kentucky commit Ty Bryant ran for 38 yards to the CovCath 16 on a fourth-and-8 play on Douglass’s first series of the second half.
The fake punt helped set up the first of two Devaun Hart TDs, one a 1-yard run and the other a 22-yard screen pass on fourth-and-4 from Carpenter. TJ Horton scored from 10 yards out with 4:41 left in the game for the final margin.
“There’s some things we have to clean up, but at the end of the day, it’s a win. And that’s all you can do in the playoffs,” McPeek said. “Not everything’s going to be perfect when you’re playing good people.”
Covington Catholic (9-3) suffered a number of injuries this season including losing quarterback Evan Pitzer midseason.
“We had an up-and-down season and had a lot of adversity which a lot of teams do, but we had a lot growing up throughout the year trying to figure out who we are,” CovCath Coach Eddie Eviston said. “I’m really proud of this group. They gave us great effort.”
Douglass impressed Eviston, who has won four state titles, two with Newport Central Catholic and two with CovCath.
“They’re fierce,” Eviston said of Douglass. “They made us earn anything we could possibly get and we didn’t get much. Usually, you have to have a strong defense if you want to hoist the trophy up at the end. And they do have a very strong defense.”
Class 5A region championships
Next Friday’s games. Rankings by RPI. Times TBA.
No. 7 Woodford County (11-1) at No. 1 Frederick Douglass (12-0)
No. 3 Southwestern (12-0) at No. 2 Scott County (11-1)
No. 11 Fairdale (11-1) at No. 9 Owensboro (10-2)
No. 14 South Oldham (8-4) at No. 5 Bowling Green (10-2)
