High school football roundup: GRC, Douglass, LexCath among big playoff winners
Fourteen seconds made a world of difference Friday night in George Rogers Clark’s 33-6 win over Tates Creek in a Class 6A playoff showdown.
Trailing 7-6, the Commodores stopped a fourth-down bid by GRC at midfield and were marching. They got to the Cardinals’ 31-yard line with about 2:30 to play in the first half.
Then GRC got an interception. Haddon Cecil returned the pick close to where the Cardinals gave it up moments earlier. Not long after, Braylon Nester rushed for a 45-yard touchdown to push their lead to 14-6 with 56 seconds left in the second quarter.
Creek mishandled a squib kick on the subsequent kickoff, and GRC recovered at the Commodores’ 37-yard line. On the next play from scrimmage, Nester threw his first pass of the game to a wide-open receiver, Cecil, who took it home, further extending the lead with 42 seconds to play. Tates Creek again lost the kickoff during a return, that one forced by a GRC defender, but skirted further peril before the break
.Halftime: 20-6. Game: Effectively finished.
“Little things like that can compel you into better things,” GRC head coach Joe Chirico said.
The better things: two more TDs and a second-half shutout to send GRC back to Winchester with a 27-point playoff win, the program’s largest by margin of victory this century.
The Cardinals (6-5) struck first, getting a 1-yard TD run by Nester with 3:20 left in the first quarter. Tates Creek (4-7) answered soon thereafter: Darnell Burnside found JT Cooper for an 18-yard score, but a two-point run failed with 10:16 left in the second quarter.
Tates Creek received the second-half kickoff but turned the ball over on downs at its own 43 after four plays. GRC scored off that turnover — a 3-yard trot by Nester, who finished with 100 yards on 14 carries — and following a later failed fourth-down try midway in the fourth quarter. Stryker Davidson, who had a game-high 145 yards on 18 rushes, punched in the final TD with 1:34 to play.
GRC finished with 301 rushing yards against a Tates Creek team that had allowed just 97.2 rushing yards per game. The Cardinals next week will likely need a similar effort on the ground to keep pace at Madison Central, which racked up 422 yards against them in a 49-0 loss Oct. 17. That was GRC’s second of three straight losses to end the regular season.
“You go back to work,” Chirico said of keeping a team focused when a season starts trending poorly. “Things are tough, and you’ve got to work hard and battle through it. Work on the smallest details and be intent on the repetitiveness of it while continuing to believe in each other. That’s the message, y’know? Get in the boat and row.”
Frederick Douglass 44, Henry Clay 7: Freshman quarterback Jayden Guzman was 4 for 4 for 86 yards with two TD passes for the Broncos, who improved to 9-0 in first-round playoff games. The bulk of that yardage came on a 50-yard scoring toss to Dakari Talbert just 18 seconds into the game. Talbert two minutes later added a 30-yard rushing TD on his only carry of the night.
Jeremiah Turner ended with two TDs and 69 yards on five rushes. Carter Ross added 46 yards and a TD, also on five carries. TJ Stewart reeled in a 5-yard TD pass from Guzman with 6:46 left in the second quarter to put a running clock into effect.
The Blue Devils (1-10) got their only TD in the third quarter, via a 13-yard connection between Cooper Dickerson and Antoine Webb.
A Class 6A stalwart, Douglass (7-4) has won six of its past seven games. The Broncos next week will host Bryan Station, against whom they won 27-10 on Oct. 17.
Lexington Catholic 49, Western 0: The Knights on Thursday opened the Class 3A postseason with a shutout, their fourth over their past six games.
Sophomores Ben Schlarman and Luke Estes-Hawkins each had three tackles for loss to lead a LexCath defense that ranked No. 2 among all Class 3A teams in points allowed entering the week (89, only behind Glasgow’s 65). The Knights have allowed the fifth-fewest points among all teams this season, regardless of class.
Western, coming off its only win of the season (16-14 vs. Doss on Oct. 30), managed just 63 yards of offense.
Brady Wasik completed just 3 of 8 passes for 67 yards, but two of them went for TDs. Junior backup Gannon Rudacille threw a single pass for a score. Jonathon Harper caught two of the TDs, and Duncan Gaunce had the other. Isaiah Mashni rushed for two TDs, and Ben Bertrand added another.
The Knights (9-2) have won six straight. They’ll host Central, a 29-18 winner over Bardstown in round one, at 7 p.m. next Friday. The Yellowjackets (5-6) faced midseason disruption when Marvin Dantzler, the head coach since 2017, left the team in October following a disagreement with school administrators. Lonnie Oldham has been the team’s interim coach in its past three games.
Lexington Christian Academy 35, Metcalfe County 13: LCA scored the game’s first 35 points — reaching the end zone on five of its first six drives — to put a running clock into effect before yielding a TD to the Hornets late in the first half. Nash Whalen threw three TDs and was 4 for 4 for 143 yards in the win, LCA’s seventh straight.
Metcalfe County (3-8) received the third-quarter kickoff and drove 96 yards in six minutes to cut further into the deficit; Andrew Hills, who had 156 rushing yards to lead the Hornets, rushed for his second TD.
LCA responded with a 13-play drive that lasted nearly 10 minutes but turned the ball over on downs at the Hornets’ 8-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. Metcalfe County then kept possession for the remainder of the game, ending at the Eagles’ 9-yard line.
The Eagles, ranked No. 2 among Class 2A squads in the KHSAA’s RPI rankings, host Monroe County next week in round two. The Falcons (8-3) escaped the first round with a 29-28 win at home over WEB DuBois. With 19 seconds to play, Branson Williams threw a 25-yard TD to Brison Nuckols to pull Monroe within a point. Following a timeout, Williams rushed for the go-ahead two-point conversion. Reece Bartley recorded the game-sealing tackle as DuBois crossed midfield on a last-gasp effort.
Sayre 44, Fairview 14: The defending Class A champion kept the Eagles (5-6) scoreless until the final three minutes of the game.
Gage Pennington rushed for a TD, the game’s first score, as time expired in the first quarter. He threw second-quarter touchdown passes to Jackson Stuart and Caden Jones sandwiched around a safety by the Spartans’ defense, all adding up to a 23-0 halftime lead. The Spartans scored 21 more in the third quarter — a 42-yard pass from Pennington to Paul Miller and a couple of TD runs by Hudson Ward — to comfortably advance.
The Spartans (9-2) next Friday host Paris, which didn’t have a first-round opponent and advanced automatically to the second round. The Greyhounds (6-4) won three of their last four regular-season games after a three-game losing streak.
Madison Central 56, Paul Laurence Dunbar 0: Corinthian Barnes rushed for 125 yards and four TDs on just eight carries in the Class 6A rout.
The Indians (7-4) gained more yards on their first drive — two plays and 40 yards en route to a TD — than Dunbar did in the game (33). They had 17 first downs to just one by the Bulldogs (3-8).
Madison Central hosts GRC next Friday. It defeated the Cardinals 49-0 in Winchester on Oct. 17.
Scott County 44, Conner 7: Five different players — Charlie Ellison, Jam Herring, Jay Herring, Red Owens and Skyler Way — scored for the Cardinals (8-3). Ellison, who had two TD runs, also threw a TD pass.
Scott County won its 18th playoff opener in a row. It’ll play Cooper, a 28-14 winner over South Oldham on Friday, next week in a Class 5A second-rounder.
Danville 20, Green County 18: Freshman Mylan Peters rushed for 208 yards and two TDs on 26 carries to lead the Class 2A Admirals (9-2) to their first playoff win in four years.
They’ll travel to Somerset, a 49-21 winner over Washington County in round one, next week. The Briar Jumpers (10-1) haven’t lost since their season opener and are coached by Clay Clevenger, who coached Danville to its last state title in 2017.
Boyle County 52, Whitley County 7: Jhet Raleigh threw for three TDs and 148 yards on 5-for-7 passing in a Rebels rout to get their Class 4A quest started.
Boyle County (10-1) secured its ninth straight 10-win season. It’ll host Wayne County, which won 26-2 at Harlan County, next week.