Third-quarter scoring binge helps ‘Dark Side Defense’ turn tide in Class 3A finals
Central High School’s football team is known for its “Dark Side Defense” — a reference to the Star Wars franchise — but it needed a hero to rise up from its offense after the Yellow Jackets trailed Corbin, 6-0, to begin the second half.
Enter Luke Skywalk ... ahem, Malik Goodall. The senior scored all three of Central’s touchdowns and a two-point conversion — all in the third quarter — to make the difference in a 20-19 victory over the Redhounds in the finals of the Class 3A KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl championship game Friday night.
Central won its sixth state title and improved to 6-2 overall in championship appearances. The Yellow Jackets were undefeated in finals trips before falling to Belfry in 2014 and 2016; their last victory was in 2012, the end of a stretch in which they won five titles in six years.
Corbin fell to 3-6 in championship appearances and 0-4 since winning its last title in 1982. The Redhounds had their chances, though: they pulled within 20-19 with 3:54 to play on a Chase Estep TD run, but Estep’s two-point conversion try out of a timeout failed to put them in front.
Corbin then forced a 4th and 22 punt attempt by Central from the Yellow Jackets’ own 44-yard line with 14 seconds remaining. Corbin’s Justin Brummett blocked the punt and it was recovered at Central’s 27 with nine seconds to play. Estep threw an incomplete pass before Will Childers attempted a 44-yard field goal with four seconds to play; it went about four yards.
Central got almost zilch from its offense in the first half. The Yellow Jackets managed only two first downs and 66 yards on 18 plays; Corbin had 208 yards and 11 first downs on 42 plays, and nearly tripled Central in time of possession (15:39 to 5:56).
“We didn’t execute very well,” Central Coach Marvin Dantzler said. “And their linebackers are really good, so if you don’t block ’em, they’re probably gonna make the tackle.”
Corbin ended Central’s season in the state semifinals last year in Louisville. The Redhounds led 21-0 in that game before Central stormed back to within a point with 4:30 to play but was stopped on a two-point try. The Yellow Jackets got the ball back with about two minutes left, trailing 21-20, but ran out of time in Corbin territory.
“It’s almost identical, but now they get to see how I felt for a year,” Dantzler said of the two meetings. “It’s weird that it comes down to that, but I said last week, we couldn’t have asked for another opponent because of the way we lost last year. And then it kind of ended the same way but we were on the other end of it.”
Grant Gibson scored on a 1-yard run early in first quarter to give Corbin a 6-0 lead. Gibson was dropped for a 1-yard loss on a 4th and goal attempt from the Central 2-yard line with three seconds to play in the first half.
Central came out of the halftime with an edge: Mykah Williams returned the kickoff 35 yards and then ran 29 yards to the Corbin 11-yard line on the Yellow Jackets’ first play from scrimmage. Goodall then rushed for 10 yards and 1-yard TD on the subsequent plays.
Corbin answered with a 59-yard completion from Estep to freshman Trayveon Longmire. Goodall scored his second TD on Central’s next possession — a 3-yard rush to cap a nine-play, 58-yard drive — and scored a two-point conversion to give Central its first lead. Goodall added his third TD following a fumble — forced by William Marshall and recovered by Ben Johnson — on a 12-yard run.
“He’s just an athlete,” Dantzler said of Goodall. “I mean I don’t know if he’s a quarterback, a running back, a receiver, but I know if you put the ball in his hands, good things happen.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2018 at 11:18 PM.