Woodford County football locks in late to take down Scott County for region crown
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Woodford County beat Scott County 45-31 to win region and reach state semifinals.
- Quarterback Foxx Coons threw four TDs and led offense to sustained drives.
- Defense forced key stops, turnovers on downs and sealed late fourth-quarter lead.
The unhinged regular season meeting between Woodford County and Scott County on Oct. 17 played out more like a game of table tennis than football with its 107 points and more than 1,000 yards of total offense.
For a while Friday night at Community Stadium, their rematch for a Class 5A region championship looked like it might be a repeat of the same.
Scott County’s Timmy Emongo broke a 67-yard run for a touchdown on the game’s first play from scrimmage. After a Woodford punt, Emongo scored again on a 27-yard scamper for a 12-0 Cardinals lead. Both extra point kicks missed.
Then, Woodford’s Josh Champagne turned on the jets for a 70-yard kickoff return touchdown 11 seconds later to get the Yellow Jackets on the scoreboard.
“Him running that back kind of jump-started us,” Woodford County coach Dennis Johnson said. “That was huge.”
The scoreboard read Scott County 12, Woodford County 7, barely three minutes into the game.
But as a daylong rain finally broke, Woodford County’s defense settled in.
The Yellow Jackets still gave up some big plays, but they also stuffed Scott County in key moments that helped Woodford pull away to a 45-31 victory to earn the school’s second region title and state semifinals appearance under Johnson.
“We didn’t play our best game in the first half. We came out in the second half and the defense did their job,” said Woodford junior quarterback Foxx Coons, who threw for 195 yards and four touchdowns. “The offense knew we had to execute.”
Back-and-forth game swung on huge plays
The Woodford defense got its first big stop after the kickoff return TD as Scott County quickly pushed down the field again.
Last month, a goal-line stand as time ran out sealed Woodford’s 57-50 district title win. On Scott County’s third series Friday, the Cards had a second-and-goal at the 2, a third-and-goal at the 1 and a fourth-and-goal at the 3. Charlie Ellison’s pass into the endzone on fourth down fell incomplete.
“We probably play better goal-line defense than we do third-and-long,” said Johnson, who has now won three straight games over Scott County. “It’s always been a strength, and we put some of our offensive linemen in there to kind of clog up the middle.”
Woodford took a 14-12 lead when Coons completed his first touchdown pass, a 30-yarder to Greyson Hodge with 3:08 to play in the second quarter. Scott County answered immediately with a four-play drive capped by Jayden Garrett’s 19-yard TD run to help the Cards take an 18-14 lead into halftime.
Out of the break, each team scored on a 53-yard pass play. First, Woodford’s Coons connected with Jalen Johnson to put the Yellow Jackets back up 21-18 on the third play of the third quarter. Then, Ellison hit a wide-open Emongo to take the lead back, 24-21, three minutes later.
Woodford kicker Cash Wolfe’s 22-yard field goal tied the game at 24-24 with 4:01 left in the third quarter.
Woodford County’s defense takes over
Woodford’s defense followed with its best sequence of the game against Scott County’s mind-bending wing-T option offense, forcing the Cardinals to punt after only 1 yard on three plays.
“We practiced it all day long. We knew our keys. We knew how to read their guards, their wing men and that’s what we did,” said Woodford County’s Darrian Tomlin, who helps on defense in addition to lead running back duties. “We made that halftime adjustment and played it right.”
The Yellow Jackets got the ball back at the Cards’ 44-yard line and made quick work of the short field.
Coons hit wideout Omari Jointer with a precision back-shoulder throw from 6 yards out to give the Yellow Jackets a 31-24 lead at the 11:12 mark of the fourth quarter. Jointer pulled it in despite getting knocked to the turf by Emongo as the ball arrived.
“It was just a great amazing catch,” Coons said. “I know every time I throw it to him, I know I can trust him to go get that football.”
With the lead once again, it was time for Woodford’s defense to hold serve. It turned Scott County over on downs on its next two series, allowing the Yellow Jackets to stretch the lead on Tomlin’s 15-yard TD run midway through the fourth quarter and Hodge’s second TD catch with 1:06 left in the game. Scott County tacked on a long TD run by TJ Wells to set the final margin.
Cardinals coach Jim McKee acknowledged the size of Woodford County’s offensive and defensive lines seemed to wear on Scott County (9-4) as the game went on. McKee praised the Cards’ effort. They didn’t have any fumbles or interceptions and largely contained Tomlin in the run game for a half.
“We couldn’t have a bad play call. They all had to be right. The margin of error is small,” McKee said. “When it was 24-24, and we went three-and-out, right there, that was bad.”
Next, No. 3 Woodford County (12-1) will travel to No. 2 Owensboro for a Friday night showdown to try to earn the Yellow Jackets’ second state championship game appearance (the other came in 1978). The Red Devils routed Fairdale 41-7. Class 5A’s other semifinal will be No. 6 Atherton at No. 1 Pulaski County.
“We’ve just got to go. We’ve traveled on the road. We’ve been to California, been to Florida. This is nothing new to us,” Johnson said. “We’ll probably go down on Thursday. I’ll feed them turkey. We’ll have a great time and go get ready to try to get to the state championship.”
