‘That kid’s a difference maker.’ Devin Neal helps Douglass get past Scott County.
For the first two years of Frederick Douglass football’s existence, Scott County ended its season.
But not this year.
The Broncos’ devastating combination of stifling defense and big-play offense, which has been on display for all 12 of its games, did enough Friday to earn Douglass the 6th District championship and one of the top seeds in the third round of the UK Orthopaedics/KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl with a 24-14 win over Scott County at The Farm.
“We weren’t clicking a whole lot on offense, but defense always shows up,” said Douglass Coach Brian Landis. “They don’t have an answer for No. 5 (Devin Neal) and that kid’s a difference maker.”
Neal, a two-way senior DB/RB committed to Cincinnati, scored twice and notched a team-high 11 tackles.
“We came in with a big emphasis of getting the offense right and having the defense just not allow big plays, and we just set the tempo,” Neal said.
After Scott County closed the Broncos’ lead to 10-7 in the second quarter, Neal answered with some improvisation. Quarterback Josh McClurg’s swing pass hit him in the left flat, but Scott County closed down the alley, so Neal reversed field.
What was he thinking?
“I don’t know. I’m like unconscious when I run the ball,” he said. “I just see somebody, and everything’s closed, so I just boom, boom, boom and ooh, I see an opening, and I just kept running.”
Neal swung right, picked up his quarterback as an escort/blocker and ran 49 yards to give Douglass some cushion, 17-7, going into halftime.
Neal scored on a 26-yard run early in the fourth quarter to push the advantage to 24-7, virtually sealing the game.
“In big ball games, you’ve got to think players, not plays. And at the end there, I told them just feed Five (Neal), he’ll win this thing for us,” Landis said. “Five put us on his back and our defense, man, 14 points in two games, that’s pretty good against these guys.”
Douglass shut out Scott County 36-0 in the regular season.
With perhaps some nerves early, both teams fumbled on their opening drive with the Broncos potentially having the more devastating miscue when McClurg’s handoff was taken away not by his running back, but by Scott County lineman Austin Taylor and returned to the Douglass 31-yard line.
But Douglass forced a Scott County fumble to get the ball back. A holding penalty on the next play pushed the Broncos back to their own 17-yard line.
That’s when Douglass’s ability to hit the big play first reared.
McClurg sprung through the middle and then down the left sideline, outrunning everyone to the end zone for an 83-yard score to make it 7-0 with 5:28 left in the first quarter.
A Ryan Leigeb field goal made it 10-0 at the end of the first.
But Scott County found its footing after a 43-yard kickoff return by Makeleb Coffey. Bronson Brown popped off a 29-yard run to put the Cardinals in the red zone and Cade McKee finished the drive with a 3-yard run to the left edge of the goal line to cut the advantage to 10-7 with 9:36 left in the second quarter.
McKee would tack on a 1-yard TD near the end of the game for the final margin.
Douglass held Scott County to 183 rushing yards, more than 100 below its average, and won the turnover battle 3-2.
“On defense you allow one mistake and it’s six (points),” Neal said of the hazards of playing the Cardinals’ deceptive option run attack. “We only allowed 14? That’s pretty good. I wasn’t even looking at the scoreboard.”
Douglass (12-0) will host Southwestern (7-5) next Friday for a Class 5A regional championship. Scott County (10-2) exits as the KHSAA RPI’s No. 3 team in Class 5A. In all six top 10 RPI teams (also South Warren, Pulaski County, East Jessamine, Highlands, and Conner) are no longer in the playoffs.
Playoff results, schedules
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 12:00 AM.
