Dunbar wins region championship. ‘We knew this group was special from the jump.’
Jake Smith’s freshman year, Paul Laurence Dunbar went winless — 0-10, the bottom of Class 6A in Kentucky high school football.
On Friday, Smith threw three touchdown passes to Howard Jackson and the Bulldogs turned in a poised performance on offense and defense to beat Bryan Station 21-16 for a regional championship and Dunbar’s first state semifinals berth since 2003.
That’s a 6-2 record in a COVID-19 shortened season and a place as one of the last four teams standing in Class 6A.
“It’s been a long road,” Smith said. “The seniors we have now have been there since we were freshmen. We knew this group was special from the jump. It just means the world to us. We sat down before the season started and said ‘This is what we want to do.: Be here tonight — regional championship game.’”
Dunbar Coach Wes Johnson came in after that 0-10 season and has led the program to its most successful campaign in 17 years. His eyes welled with tears as he explained what it means.
“It’s hard to process at this point: just the heart that these kids show and the work that they put in,” Johnson said. “Three years ago, they were the laughingstock of Lexington football, and now we’re not. And I’m proud of them for that.”
Dunbar and Bryan Station exchanged touchdowns in a whirlwind first quarter, but it was a couple of key plays — tipped balls that both ended up in a Dunbar player’s hands just before halftime — that set the tone the rest of the way.
With backup quarterback Terik Mulder in for Bryan Station after starter Mikaleb Coffey suffered a game-ending injury in the second quarter, Dunbar defender Frank Ilunga batted a long pass up to himself and intercepted it inside the 5-yard line with Bryan Station trying to take the lead. He returned it 23 yards to Dunbar’s 26-yard line with 1:01 left in the second quarter.
Two plays later, a Bryan Station defensive back batted a Smith pass spiraling toward his target, except this time, the intended receiver got the benefit of the bounce as Jackson plucked the ball out of the air and sprinted on for a 71-yard score with 10 seconds until intermission. The Bulldogs led 14-7.
“I saw him tip it. I had to turn around. Then I saw another defender coming,” Jackson said of the huge momentum-turning play. “It was just all skill after that.”
Dunbar’s Johnson recognized the importance of the moment.
“You’ve got to be good. And you’ve also got to be lucky,” said Johnson, who called Jackson the team’s best player. “That was the play of the game. That was the turning point. … Sometimes when you play as hard as (Jackson) does, good things happen to him. He’s just played phenomenal the last couple of weeks.”
Smith connected on a 54-yard TD to Jackson to tie the game in the first quarter after Bryan Station scored on its first possession of the game, a Coffey 1-yard run.
Then after Station tied the game 14-14 midway through the third quarter, Smith found Jackson again with a pinpoint pass in the corner of the end zone for a 31-yard score and a 21-14 lead to start the fourth quarter.
“He just makes plays like that,” Smith said. “He’s a playmaker. That’s how he is. I have confidence whenever I throw the ball to him, he’s going to come down with the football.”
With Dunbar connecting on enough big offensive plays, Dunbar’s defense also found a rhythm.
The Bulldogs turned Station over on downs four times, three of them as the Defenders pushed deep into Dunbar territory. They also forced two punts and blocked a field goal. One of those turnover on downs denied Station a chance to capitalize on a Dunbar fumble in their own end with the scored tied in the third quarter.
And Shyhiem Drew’s interception at the 2-yard line as Station tried to tie the game late in the fourth quarter essentially sealed the victory. Dunbar took a safety in the game’s closing seconds to run the clock to 0:05. The ensuing kickoff ended the game.
“Two things win football games in November and December: defense and running the football. We did both well in the second half,” Johnson said.
Dunbar cranked out some first downs via the run game in the fourth quarter winding 4:40 off the clock on its next-to-last drive. The Bulldogs finished with 123 yards rushing led by Kamarion Robinson’s 85. Smith threw for 167 yards and the three scores. Jackson accounted for 156 of those receiving yards. Dunbar’s win avenged a regular season 35-28 loss to the Defenders.
Bryan Station’s third quarter TD came on a Mulder 27-yard pass to Ah’Traivon Jenkins. The Defenders ended their season with a 10-2 record and a district title, the program’s best finish since 1999.
“They set a bar for what our program is now,” Bryan Station Coach Phillip Hawkins said. “Our kids fought. They just came up short. I’m proud of what we did, but it’s heartbreaking. And that it’s heartbreaking says a lot about the program.”
Next up, Dunbar will go to Male, a 40-13 winner over McCracken County on Friday. Male’s Bulldogs were state runners-up to Trinity last year and state champs the year before.
But for now, Dunbar is going to enjoy its win.
“We worked up from 0-10, and (losing) for years, and we came back and made it better,” Jackson said. “We changed the tradition. We won region. Now, we just, you know, keep going.”
Jackson admitted Friday’s win seemed unreal.
“I’m not going to lie, I didn’t think that was possible, but dreams come true,” Jackson said. “I was dreaming about it and I bet everyone else was too, so let’s see what we can do.”
Highlights
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 1:43 AM.
