State semifinals: Franklin County turns away Covington Catholic’s last gasp at the horn
One of the stingiest defenses in the state showed why Friday night as Franklin County turned Covington Catholic away near its goal line four times, including a stop as time ran out on its 14-10 home victory in the Kentucky Class 4A football state semifinals.
Franklin County’s Delano Collins jarred the ball loose from Covington Catholic’s Dylan Gaiser inside the 5-yard line on the Colonels’ final play of the game. Collins’ teammate Jacob Taylor recovered the fumble as the clock ticked to zero and the Flyers stormed the field in jubilation.
“I think our kids were just resilient, man,” Franklin County coach Eddie James said. “Down the stretch, we had some things go wrong. We didn’t execute some things the right way. But our kids just made plays when it mattered.”
Three first-quarter stops by the Flyers’ defense foreshadowed how difficult it would be for Covington Catholic to score for the entire game.
Franklin County (14-0) turned CovCath over on downs on the Colonels’ first two series — one after they had reached the Flyers’ 16-yard line, the other after getting all the way to the 1. Franklin County repelled CovCath up from there and got the ball back at its own 3-yard line.
Moments later, a Franklin County fumble gave the Colonels the ball at the Flyers’ 17-yard line, but CovCath’s offense could only generate a 29-yard field goal by Ryan Urti. The score remained 3-0 at half.
“I was proud of our defense for containing them,” said James, whose team has only given up 10.2 points per game all season, making it the No. 5 scoring defense in the state regardless of class. “You know, you get the Boyle County film, and they executed a great plan versus them and scored a bunch of points. So, coming into it, we didn’t know, ‘Are they going to do what they did versus Boyle? Are they going to do their stuff they’ve done all year?’ I think they did a little bit of both. And I think our kids were well prepared for it.”
A week earlier, Covington Catholic’s offense humbled four-time defending Class 4A champion Boyle County in a stunning 31-28 victory in Danville.
Franklin County’s offense finally broke through on the opening drive of the third quarter, which was capped by Landon Cottrell’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Covington Catholic (11-3) retook the lead at 10-7 late in the third quarter on a 15-play, 92-yard drive capped by quarterback Cash Harney’s 5-yard TD run.
Franklin County responded on its next series with a punishing ground attack finished by Jayquan Crawford’s 6-yard touchdown run that helped the Flyers go up 14-10 with 8:44 to play in the game.
Franklin County’s fifth straight region championship and second state finals appearance in those five years came despite losing senior running back Christian Moore to a knee injury in the last game of the regular season. Injuries took out two other starters during the course of the year.
“Our kids have faced some adversity, but they just keep plugging away,” James said.
Next, Franklin County will face a powerful and undefeated Paducah Tilghman team that ranks first in offense at 49.3 points per game and second in defense at just 9.1 points per game allowed. Tilghman beat Corbin 31-14.
“They’re athletic. They’re well coached. It ought to be a good football game,” James said.
Here are more high school state semifinal highlights from around the state:
CLASS 6A
Ryle 35, Great Crossing 7: A stifling defense and touchdown runs by Nathan Verax, Gavin Lyons and Jacob Savage helped the Raiders (12-2) establish a mercy rule margin on the Warhawks (10-4) early in the fourth quarter.
Savage scored on short TD runs twice in the second quarter. Ryle’s final score was a 21-yard TD pass from Verax to Landon Lorms. Great Crossing’s Luke Ballard helped the Warhawks avoid the shutout with a 4-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
CLASS 5A
Bowling Green 31, South Warren 28: The Purples (12-2) returned the first two kickoffs of the game for touchdowns and maintained a lead the rest of the way to take down their district rival Spartans (12-2) and earn a chance to defend their state title in a rematch with Cooper.
Bowling Green’s Trevy Barber returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a score. He was followed by Christopher Sweeney’s 84-yard kickoff return TD to help the Purples take a 14-7 first quarter lead without its offense yet to take a snap.
When they did, Trey Graham broke a 54-yard TD run midway through the second quarter to stake Bowling Green to a 21-14 halftime lead. Graham added another TD run in the fourth quarter to go with Braden Widener 38-yard field goal.
South Warren quarterback Bryce Button threw three TD passes and ran for another score as the Spartans cut Bowling Green’s lead to three points twice in the second half. Jake Carter had two of the TD catches. Colton Veltkamp had the other.
Cooper 61, Highlands 23: After trailing 17-7 at halftime, the Jaguars (14-0) reeled off 54 second-half points to take down the Bluebirds (11-3) and earn their second straight trip to Kroger Field.
Cam O’Hara threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns, including second-half tosses of 27 and 10 yards to Austin Alexander, 61 yards to Jaidan Combs and 69 yards to Isaiah Johnson as Cooper pulled away. Cooper running back Ryker Campbell scored on short TD runs in the first and second halves. The Jags’ Mike Mulvihill recovered a Highlands fumble in the end zone in the third quarter.
Highlands’ Rio Litmer threw TD passes to Jack White and Jackson Arnold to go with a 2-yard TD run by Adam Surrey and a 25-yard field goal by Logan Nickelman.
CLASS 4A
Paducah Tilghman 31, Corbin 14: The Blue Tornado (14-0) scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to take down the Redhounds (12-2) and earn their first trip to the state finals since 2021.
Kentucky commit Martels Carter rushed for one TD and connected with quarterback Jack James for a 40-yard score. Vanzale Hinton broke a 30-yard TD run to go with a short James scoring dive and a field goal by Russell Hancock.
Quarterback Kade Elam scored both TDs for Corbin, on runs of 8 and 24 yards. Corbin led 14-10 at half.
CLASS 3A
Union County 43, Belfry 21: Jarren Johnson rushed for four touchdowns, including a 49-yard score, as the Braves (12-2) overwhelmed the visiting Pirates (11-3).
Union’s Abe Fletcher opened the scoring with a 54-yard TD run and was soon followed by Carter Wilson’s short score. Johnson also had an interception.
Belfry’s touchdowns came on a 46-yard run by JB Woolum, a 17-yard TD run by Ace Caudill and a 45-yard TD pass from Chase Varney to Eli Caudill.
CLASS 2A
Owensboro Catholic 27, Somerset 14: Brady Atwell threw three TD passes and ran for another score as the Aces (14-0) booked their second straight trip to the state finals at the expense of the visiting Briar Jumpers (9-5).
Derion Crowe caught TD passes of 7 and 48 yards in the second half to go with Atwell’s 2-yard TD run and a 40-yard TD pass to Waryn Ebelhar. Somerset’s Kris Hughes rushed for scores in each half.
CLASS A
Raceland 14, Kentucky Country Day 0: The Rams (10-4) got a 3-yard touchdown run on its opening drive by Jacob Waller and a 3-yard TD run by Jonah Arnett to cap a 98-yard drive in the fourth quarter in their shutout of KCD (10-3).
Raceland advances to its second straight Class A state finals, where it lost 21-0 to Pikeville last season. This time, it will face the red-hot Sayre Spartans, a 35-14 winner over Campbellsville in Friday’s other semifinal. The Rams knocked Sayre out of the playoffs last year in Lexington with a 42-27 third-round win.
KHSAA STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Kroger Field
FRIDAY’S FINALS
Class A: No. 2 Sayre (14-0) vs. No. 4 Raceland (10-4), noon.
Class 2A: No. 1 Owensboro Catholic (14-0) vs. No. 3 Beechwood (12-2), 4 p.m.
Class 4A: No. 2 Franklin County (13-0) vs. No. 3 Paducah Tilghman (14-0), 8 p.m.
SATURDAYS FINALS
Class 3A: No. 1 Christian Academy-Louisville (11-3) vs. No. 5 Union County (12-2), noon.
Class 6A: No. 2 Ryle (12-2) vs. No. 3 Trinity (Louisville) (12-2), 4 p.m.
Class 5A: No. 1 Cooper (14-0) vs. No. 5 Bowling Green (12-2), 8 p.m.
This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 10:38 AM.
