‘Ice-Cold Gentry’ kicks Bryan Station to its first win of the season
After a pair of head-scratching, mind-numbing losses to start the season, Bryan Station finally revealed the dangerous and determined team coach Phillip Hawkins believed he had all along.
Place-kicker Zachary Gentry’s 40-yard field goal with six seconds left in the game eked over the crossbar and delivered the Defenders’ first win of the season, 38-35, against Bowling Green on Saturday at Lexington Christian Academy’s LCA Bowl.
“You know he did that for me against Trinity last year,” Hawkins said with a smile, referring to his kicker’s go-ahead field goal in a 10-7 region championship win last November. “He’s pretty amazing — ‘Ice-Cold Gentry.’”
Realizing Bryan Station would try to kick a field goal with 10 seconds left and the ball on Bowling Green’s 23-yard line, the Purples called timeout to give Gentry more time to think about the stakes of his attempt. Gentry didn’t mind.
“Obviously there’s a little nerves into it, and they tried to ice me. I knew that wasn’t going to work,” Gentry said. “We practice that distance every day in practice.”
Moments earlier, it looked like Bowling Green would be the team celebrating.
With the game tied at 35-35, the Purples stopped Bryan Station on fourth-and-goal on the 3-yard line with 2:08 left. Then Bowling Green wide receiver Trevy Barber broke loose on a 59-yard pass play from quarterback Deuce Bailey that brought the ball to the Bryan Station 14-yard line with about a minute remaining.
Two plays later, Bryan Station’s JT Haskins Jr. saved the game. The three-star defensive back jumped into the path of a Bowling Green receiver and intercepted Bailey’s pass, returning it to the 50-yard line.
“I knew somebody had to make a play, and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to make that play,’” Haskins said. “I saw the guy in motion and I said, ‘OK, here comes the slant.’ We’ve been studying it all week … And I jumped it.”
Quarterback Trenton Cutwright used four plays and 21 seconds to get the Defenders into field goal range. Haskins never doubted Gentry could win it.
“I have so much confidence in him,” Haskins said. “He works his butt off. Never says anything. Never complains. Kudos to him.”
Cutwright rushed for 117 yards and a touchdown and threw for 116 yards and had a TD pass to Haskins. Bryan Station (1-2) also got a big game from running back Kalen Washington, who rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Backfield-mate Bayubahe Benit added 80 yards and a score.
After trading a pair of TDs early, Bryan Station took a 28-14 lead in the second quarter only to see Bowling Green tie the game at 28-all late in the third quarter. The Purples then took the lead on Deuce Bailey’s 25-yard run on a fourth-and-long play less than a minute into the fourth. But Bryan Station responded to tie the game for the fourth time, 35-35, as Washington capped an 11 play, 56-yard drive with a 1-yard TD plunge with 6:55 left in the game.
Bailey completed 24 of 38 passes with two interceptions and had TD passes to Ethan Warder, Matthew Klein and Christopher Sweeney. Jaxen Smith also scored for the Purples (1-2), who were the Herald-Leader’s preseason No. 1 team in Class 5A.
Bryan Station ranked No. 5 in Class 6A this preseason but committed five turnovers in an embarrassing 36-3 season opening loss at Trinity and could not generate much offense in a 17-10 loss to Franklin County last week at Boyle County’s Rebel Bowl.
But those defeats didn’t shake Hawkins’ faith in his team.
“This tells us what we already know — that our kids have some fight in them and we just needed to get them headed in the right direction,” Hawkins said. “That’s part of being a coach. We put them in tough spots, see how they react and if it’s not good, we’ve got to make a change.
“We made some changes and it worked out.”
