High school football highlights: Stormy weather steals show; Female kicker scores
A severe storm front swept across Kentucky on Friday leaving a path of canceled and postponed high school football games in its wake.
Among those was a top-10 clash between Class 4A’s No. 3 Central and its 4th District rival, No. 4 Franklin County.
Because of the importance of the game for both postseason seeding and player pride, the two were to meet at 5:30 p.m. Saturday back at Franklin County.
“When you’re trying to build a program like we’re trying to build and you have a program like Central has, you want the opportunity to play against good competition,” Franklin County Coach Eddie James said. “You don’t always get that every week.”
The game was to feature the stifling defense of the Yellow Jackets against the high-powered Flyers offense. The two split their matchups last year with Central winning the playoff.
“Just the uncertainty of what ‘tomorrow’ holds in general with everything going on right now, we felt we owe the opportunity to our kids to get to play in a game like the one we’re hoping to have against each other,” James said.
Central is part of the Jefferson County Public Schools system, which earlier Friday decided to suspend the regular season for its football programs and only allow teams limited practices beginning next week in response to the county’s escalating COVID-19 level, according to state public health data.
Coronavirus concerns regarding the state’s COVID-19 incidence rate map and a number of actual cases on teams have caused cancellations and postponements across the state in every sport all season. Two Lexington football games were postponed Friday because of a reported case on one of Fayette County’s teams.
One worry James doesn’t have this year is how a storm will affect his field conditions. Franklin County Schools installed artificial turf at both Franklin County and Western Hills after years of seeing their former grass fields become unplayable as each season wore on. Franklin County had to play its “home” playoff game last year at Woodford County because its own field was unplayable last November.
“Normally, on a day like today when you know there’s a chance of rain, you’re freaking out … but with that turf … we were just worried about towels,” James said. “That’s a lot less worry than trying to have to do everything you’d have to do with a field.
Sayre to try again: While Franklin County had an important district game to make up, Sayre did not, but the Spartans and opponent Bishop Brossart decided they would pick their game back up at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Sayre led 13-6 in the first quarter when play was suspended.
“It’s our seniors’ last home game is one (reason),” Sayre Coach Chad Pennington said. “And quite frankly, we don’t know what we’re guaranteed to play in this environment. Just to be able to have our seniors have one more home game at the athletic complex, I think, is the biggest thing.”
Sayre finishes out the season on the road at Pineville and then at Fairview before a Class A road playoff matchup against defending state champion Pikeville, who they are automatically bracketed against as a late entry into varsity district play this year.
Bryan Station 21, Madison Central 0: The Defenders (6-1) completed their sweep of Class 6A’s 8th District with a win in a game called for lightning before the second half could start.
Bryan Station has not gone undefeated in its district since 1999 when it had a 13-2 team that Coach John Nochta led to the state finals, pushing St. Xavier to overtime before losing 34-31.
“That’s a lot of years,” current coach Phillip Hawkins said. “I’m pretty excited about it. I talked to them before the game about it. That victory was really important, No. 1 being you’ve got to have a purpose.”
Bryan Station played with that purpose in a dominant first-half performance. Joseph Bond opened the scoring on Station’s second possession with a 4-yard touchdown run to cap a nine-play 72-yard drive. Minutes later, Mikaleb Coffey connected with JahDen Morton on a 48-yard TD pass to make it 13-0 Defenders with 1:35 remaining in the first quarter.
Coffey punched in a 1-yard TD on a keeper to end 14-play drive late in the second quarter to set the final score.
Bryan Station’s defense made six tackles for loss and held Madison Central (1-5) to 9 yards of offense on 15 plays.
“These kids now, I can say have won as many games this year, the seniors, as they have the three years before,” Hawkins said. “That’s good.”
Clark County 48, Oldham County 28: The Cardinals got an important district win and a few extra points from their first female kicker. Senior Shelby Vaughn, who joined the football team full-time at the completion of her soccer season this week, went 6-for-7 on point-after attempts to help Clark (2-4) secure a No. 2 seed and a home game in their district playoffs next month.
Azariah Israel, who announced his commitment to Louisville on Thursday, had 314 yards rushing and four touchdowns, including breakaways of 91 and 48 yards in the first half. Clark scored 20 unanswered in the second half. Clark QB Jordan Manley went 16-of-24 for 268 yards and two TDs, both to Dawson Gay who had 153 receiving yards.
Frederick Douglass 29, Montgomery County 0: Samuel Cornett threw two TD passes to Dane Key and one each to Dekel Crowdus and Isaiah Allen as the Broncos (4-1) overwhelmed district foe Montgomery County in a game that was called due to lightning after one quarter. Cornett completed five of six passes for 80 yards as Montgomery continued to give Douglass short fields via failed fourth down conversions in their own territory and an interception by TJ Horton.
Pulaski County 15, Southwestern 12: Purdue commit Tristan Cox took over running the ball directly from the snap on Pulaski’s final drive and led them downfield for a go-ahead 1-yard score in the fourth quarter in an important district and county rivalry game. Southwestern (6-1) got a TD catch from Kaden Hewitt in the first half and a TD run from Giddeon Brainard in the second. Pulaski (6-1) countered with a 25-yard screen pass TD to Barek Williams and Cox’s go-ahead score.
Raceland 23, Paintsville 20: Peyton Ison hit a 34-yard field goal as time expired to lift Raceland (4-3) over Class A’s No. 1 Tigers (5-1). Jake Heighton scored a 2-yard TD with 4:29 left in the game to tie it for the Rams. He also threw a TD pass to Connor Hughes in the third quarter. Hughes connected with Jules Farrow to get Raceland on the board in the second quarter after trailing 13-0. Luke Hyden scored two TDs and Harris Phelps got the other for the Tigers.
Belfry 49, Pike County Central 7: Isaac Dixon ran for 112 yards and three touchdowns and four more Pirates each scored a rushing touchdown as Belfry (5-2) dominated the visiting Hawks without completing a pass. Kyle Webb added 54 yards and a TD, helping Belfry run up 365 yards on the ground. Keegan Bentley led Pike County Central (3-4) with 42 rushing yards.
Covington Catholic 40, Conner 0: Brayden Collins ran for three touchdowns and Caleb Jacob completed 12 of 19 passes for 184 yards to lead the host Colonels in a rout. Sam France chipped in a pair of short rushing touchdowns and averaged 40 yards apiece on a pair of punts. Covington Catholic (6-0) defenders made nine tackles for loss and held Conner (3-2) to 92 yards of offense. Samuel Clements made three solo tackles and a sack for Conner.
Cooper 48, Highlands 27: Jeremiah Lee and Erik Wright generated a vicious ground assault to lead visiting Cooper (3-4) to its second straight win. Lee ran for 233 yards and three touchdowns while Wright also scored three times and rushed for 200 yards. Charlie Noon had 104 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries for Highlands (3-4), which lost its second straight.
Johnson Central 62, Letcher County Central 0: Dylan Preston had 118 yards on eight carries and two touchdowns to go along with a 25-yard TD catch as the undefeated Golden Eagles (6-0) rolled. Blayden Sexton, Zach McCort and Cameron Wright, twice, also scored. Grant Rice completed four of five passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns.
Other reschedules: Also among the nearly 20 games rescheduled for Saturday were Lexington Catholic at Anderson County at 6 p.m., Lexington Christian at Danville at 5 p.m., Grant County at Great Crossing at 7:30 p.m. and Collins at West Jessamine at 7:30 p.m. At least two games were rescheduled for next week, including East Jessamine at Woodford County.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 2:06 AM.
