Tates Creek football finds its form, shows balance in wild win vs. Mercer County
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- Tates Creek scored 40 unanswered points in second half to beat Mercer County 66-29.
- Quarterback Darnell Burnside threw for 264 yards and five touchdowns in win.
- Defense held Mercer to 50 yards after halftime, forcing five second-half stops.
The Fort Harrod Bowl matchup between Tates Creek and host Mercer County played out like a video game Saturday night at Alvis Johnson Field.
There were 42 points scored in the first quarter alone, including back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns.
But while the Commodores’ offense kept up its torrid pace in the second half, Mercer County found out Tates Creek’s defense leveled up at the break, resulting in 40 unanswered points and a 66-29 season-opening victory.
“We have a young and inexperienced team and it’s just learning how to start fast,” said Tates Creek coach Jonathan Hawks, whose program has back-to-back Class 6A 7th District titles but hasn’t made a deep playoff run with him in charge, yet. Tates Creek got knocked out in the first round last season. “They’re still learning that it takes energy to win ball games.”
First half included big swings, crazy plays
Mercer County (0-1), a Class 3A team coached by Kentucky legend Craig Yeast with a roster two-thirds the size of Tates Creek’s, traded scores with the big Lexington school for a half and led 29-26 going into the break.
That’s due in part to the Titans’ ability to convert 176 yards in kickoff returns into short fields and points.
It took four plays for Mercer to move 62 yards and finish the game’s opening drive with a Cohen Sanford 1-yard TD run. Tates Creek responded, but Jayden Sailor returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards to put Mercer back in front 15-7 less than halfway through the first quarter.
The game hit ludicrous mode when Tates Creek’s Triston Taylor took the next kickoff 85 yards to help cut Mercer County’s lead to 15-13 with 6:11 on the first-quarter clock. Creek’s two-point conversion try to tie the game failed.
It looked like Tates Creek (1-0) might have settled down after Lazarey Warren’s interception of Mercer County quarterback Cornelius Mapp at the Commodores’ 48-yard line. Three plays later, Tates Creek quarterback Darnell Burnside Jr. found Luke Cooper behind the defense on a post route for a 55-yard touchdown play and a 20-15 lead with 2:08 left in the first frame.
But, again, Mercer County’s special teams gashed the Commodores on a return to set up a two-play drive capped by Mapp’s 20-yard TD pass to Jacob Sanford for a 22-20 Titans lead a minute later.
The Commodores moved back in front on its next series via Burnside’s 24-yard TD pass to JT Cooper, Luke’s twin. Then Creek gave Mercer the ball back at the 50 on the kickoff.
You might guess what happened next. You’d never guess how.
On Mercer County’s fourth play, Mapp’s pass got batted in the air at the line of scrimmage. It tumbled back into his hands. Mapp pulled it in, escaped Tates Creek’s defense and scrambled 12 yards for an improbable touchdown pass to himself and a 29-26 lead with 2:27 left until halftime.
Tates Creek gets down to business
Hawks attributed his team’s first-half miscues to first-game jitters. The halftime talk could not have been pleasant.
“We had a talk,” senior running back Bryan “BJ” Evans said. “And after that talk, it was just business, strictly business.”
The clock would be the only thing to stop Tates Creek’s offense in the second half as Burnside racked up game-MVP numbers — 13-for-20 passing for 264 yards and five touchdowns.
Luke Cooper caught five balls for 104 yards and two TDs. JT Cooper, a Gardner-Webb commit, hauled in three catches for 73 yards and three TDs.
“I know I can trust my players,” Burnside said. “If I put the ball in there, I know they’re going to make a play.”
Tates Creek’s backfield, bolstered by the addition of Frederick Douglass transfer Tay Tay Allen, chewed up 206 rushing yards with Allen going for 112 and a score and Evans gaining 69 yards with two TDs.
“The defense stepped up,” Burnside said. “They played to the best of their abilities, and they got the offense the ball. We made it happen for the defense.”
Tates Creek’s defense allowed Mercer County just 50 yards of total offense in the second half, forcing a punt, three turnovers on downs and grabbing two more interceptions, including D’Vaughn Flowers’ 45-yard pick six to set the final score at 66-29 with 4:39 to play.
Commodores have rough seas ahead
Despite an unsightly amount of penalties (16 for 179 yards) and the shaky first half, the Commodores appear loaded for a run to the school’s first region championship and state semifinals appearance since 2019.
The next five weeks could help make or break them with games against preseason Class 4A No. 8 Ashland Blazer, Class 5A No. 9 South Oldham and Class 6A’s No. 5 Frederick Douglass, No. 10 Bryan Station and No. 3 Ryle, last year’s state runner-up, ahead of its district schedule.
“We can do great things if we just stick together,” Hawks said. “We can’t lose our minds in these moments. We can’t go against each other in tough moments. The first half was one of those moments. … The coaches, the players, we’ve just got to learn to start faster.”
Next Friday
- Ashland Blazer at Tates Creek, 7:30 p.m.
- Mercer County at Campbellsville, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday’s other scores of interest
- Boyle County 50, Bullitt East 7.
- Owensboro Catholic 23, Bowling Green 17.
- Wayne County 48, Paul Laurence Dunbar 13.
- Woodford County 47, Fairdale 7.
This story was originally published August 24, 2025 at 1:20 PM.
