Two teams, each with something to prove.
Which is pretty much what Simon Kenton and Highlands did Friday night in front of a standing room only crowd at David Cecil Memorial Stadium.
For Simon Kenton, it was one more chance to say that nine-loss team from last season, well, that’s not who we are. How could we be? We’ve got the best offensive line in the state of Kentucky, the Pioneers say.
As for the storied Bluebirds with a Ft. Thomas tailgating scene that just gets better and better, they wanted to show you that their football games are going to catch back up with the pre-game festivities. And that team that you all saw get blown out in Bowling Green last week, that’s not us.
Mission accomplished both ways. Simon Kenton’s favored 6A Pioneers survived this one, 42-40, but the Highlands kids and coaches had no need to think what they did here won’t help them get ready for 5A play next month.
Where to start? Eighty-two points; 741 combined total yards of offense; 317 yards on the ground for Simon Kenton’s trio of quarterback Chase Crone (24 for 137); wide receiver Chase Williams (nine for 70); and tailback Kaleb Bleier (16 for 110); 182 passing yards for Highlands’ 6-foot-6 Brody Benke (19 of 38, TD); and 362 yards for Highlands’ slim 6-2 speedster Charlie Noon (six catches for 76 yards, 66 yards on kickoff returns, a 47-yard punt return, and 73 rushing yards on four carries).
And the totals are? How about 382 yards of offense for Highlands, 359 for Simon Kenton. Each team had a pair of turnovers. Each gave the other a pair of too-easy TDs. Highlands had a couple of field goals from the big leg of Davis Burleigh (from 40 and 25 yards).
The Birds also scored on a beautifully executed fake punt from Sam Robinson from 44 yards out. And benefited from a high punt snap that gave them the ball at the 2 for a quick Dawson Hosea score.
There were onside kicks, and kickoffs into the end zone. But in the end, there was a humongous Pioneer offensive line with guys weighing 290, 280, 260, 315, and 290. Do the math. That’s an average of 287.
“We have five kids up front we believe in,” said Simon Kenton Coach Roy Lucas Jr. So even though quarterback Crone has as strong and accurate an arm as anyone in recent years in Northern Kentucky, and wide receiver Chase Williams can catch it with the best of them, the game plan was to line up behind those guys and push the smaller Birds around.
As they did for those 309 yards. “It wasn’t pretty,” Lucas said. “And we have a lot of things we have to correct. But they’ve got a lot of heart. They keep fighting.”
As Lucas talked, Highlands veteran Coach Bob Sphire came by to shake his hand and seek out Crone to congratulate him and then tell injured running back Jayden Lawson to “get better.”
“Give them credit,” Lucas said after demolishing a good Oldham County program 56-16 a week ago. “We thought we could put ‘em away.”
But they could not. Highlands wouldn’t let them. Just when it looked like that might happen, Noon or Benke would make a play. But Simon Kenton didn’t panic. They just pounded away with Crone using his legs, not his arm. Well, he did hit on seven of 15 for 50 yards including an 18-yard TD pass to Williams in the second quarter when the whole stadium knew that’s where the ball was going.
Crone still got it there. And Williams got open enough to catch it in a crowd. “That was a bullet to Chase,” Lucas said, “he can sling it. People don’t see him as dual threat but he absolutely is.”
“I just want to win,” Crone says. If that means he has to run it 22 more times than a week ago, so be it.
And with a pair of junior tackles Lucas describes as “amazing,” – Jake Putthoff and Aba Selm – and the best anywhere, look for Crone to keep reading – and running – the outside zone read.
“They can all bring it,” said senior Simon Kenton linebacker Josh Bowling, who goes against them every day. His interception in the end zone turned out to be the difference on a play pass pattern Bowling knew was coming as he jumped the route.
The difference this year, Bowling says, “We’re locked in. It’s all about focus. Last year we had a lot of young guys.”
For the 2-0 Pioneers, who have scored 98 points in two games, “we were just tired of losing,” Crone says. So now they’re winning. They head off to Somerset next week to face a 2-0 Southwestern team.
Highlands, meanwhile, will take an 0-2 team to Alexandria to face the 1-1 Camels Friday in the battle for Campbell County supremacy. But they’ll also take the 380 yards of offense and 40 points and Charlie Noon and Brody Benke with them as they head down Alexandria Pike.
They’ll take the memory of a team down 35-20 and 42-33 in the fourth quarter that had a chance to tie it, down 35-33, after a Benke TD run but failed on a well-defended halfback throwback pass to Benke.
So down 42-39 with 57 seconds left, Highlands had Burleigh kick it, then went for the onside kick but recovered it after eight yards, not the required 10, and Simon Kenton was able to run out the clock.
But really, the Pioneers won it on their previous possession when they ran it for 74 yards on nine plays, all on the ground, with Bleier going the final 12.
Simon Kenton – 7 14 14 7 – 42
Highlands – 3 17 0 20 – 40
High – Burleigh 40 FG
SK – Crone 2 run (Petty kick)
High – Robinson 44 run (Burleigh kick)
SK – Williams 18 pass from Crone (Petty kick)
High – Burleigh 25 FG
High – Hosea 2 run (Burleigh kick)
SK – Williams 4 pass from Crone (Petty kick)
SK – Bleier 8 run (Petty kick)
SK – Crone 8 run (Petty kick)
High – Benke 4 run (Burleigh kick)
High – Benke 2 run (pass failed)
SK – Bleier 12 run (Petty kick)
High – Class 5 pass from Benke (Burleigh kick)
