It had been nearly two months since Covington Catholic had their starters play deep into the fourth quarter.
Come Friday night in Park Hills they needed every last one of them in a 35-28 victory over Ashland Blazer.
The Colonels and Tomcats battled it out in the second round of the KHSAA Class 4A playoffs, the Colonels doing just enough offensively to come away with the win.
“That’s a good football team,” Colonels coach Eddie Eviston said. “One of the tougher second round games we had in the state.”
Willie Rodriguez doesn’t normally see single coverage, on Friday night he did and made the Tomcats pay for six catches, 115 yards and three touchdowns. The University of Kentucky commit opened the scoring on the night with a 14-yard reception from Evan Pitzer, later scoring on throws from Pitzer of 21 and 45 yards.
“They were in man coverage the whole game which we see that and we’re going to capitalize off of it,” Rodriguez said. “Coach had some great calls, Pitzy (Pitzer) made some great balls to me and we made some great plays. O-line had some great protection. I’ve seen mostly double coverage, but if I see single then let’s go do it.”
The 21-yarder is one to brag home about, carrying an Ashland defender 15 yards with him to paydirt.
“That’s part of our do-or-die attitude that we’re carrying on from here on out. I’ve got to make some plays for my team,” Rodriguez said.
The second scoring grab made it 21-7, but as Ashland did all night, they responded. The Tomcats took the momentum going into the half after LaBryant Strader capped off a 14 play, 83-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to make it 21-14 with 11 seconds left before the break.
Ashland then got the ball out of the half, but the Colonels forced a three-and-out and followed it with a long drive of their own, spanning over seven minutes and ending with an Owen Leen one-yard rushing score to push the Colonels back up two touchdowns.
“We talked about that as a staff at halftime. We needed to get that stop, especially with them having a little bit of momentum there at the end of the first half,” Eviston said. “So we get there and then that two touchdown cushion was kind of key. Then fourth quarter eventually just ate up some clock.”
The Tomcats missed an opportunity on a promising drive in the fourth when Josh Flood forced an Atayveon Thomas fumble at the Colonels 21 that Nicholas Krallman recovered with 6:45 to play.
The Tomcats weren’t done yet, forcing a three-and-out and scoring on their next drive when Strader hit Asher Adkins for a four-yard touchdown with 2:39 to play, making it 35-28.
“Few missed opportunities in the first half I think made the difference,” Tomcats coach Chad Tackett said. “Once we settled in and started playing, we played much better in the second half but the damage was already done.”
Out of timeouts, Ashland tried an onside kick and the Colonels recovered, Andrew Bessler’s 20-yard run on third and short getting the Colonels into victory formation.
It didn’t come easy, but nothing will from here on out.
“We were fully anticipating a great challenge, which we got,” Eviston said. “The gauntlet started last week. From a conditioning standpoint, you cannot condition in practice and extra running to simulate game conditioning. Hopefully it’s a good thing as we get into next week.”
Next up is another power from the East, Johnson Central as they’ll make the trek up to Park Hills to take on the Colonels next week.
Ashland’s season comes to a close at 10-2, but a promising future lies ahead.
“We got six starters coming back on both sides of the ball. Have some pieces coming back. We lose three offensive lineman so that will be a big rebuilding part for us and we lose three linebackers. Those two areas of concern, we’ll have to have some guys step up and we lose our two studs on the outside at receiver,” Tackett said.
Strader finished with 199 passing yards, hitting on 12-of-17 pass attempts. Braxton Jennings had 159 yards combined rushing and receiving while Thomas had 66 yards rushing on nine carries. Strader also ran for 65 yards. Adkins had two touchdown receptions, the first one from 32 yards out late in the first quarter.
Pitzer was efficient like normal, hitting on 11-of-14 passes for 180 yards and rushing for 44 yards, Rodriguez his top target while Braylon Miller hauled in four passes for 56 yards. Owen Leen churned out the tough yards in the rushing attack, finishing with 103 yards on 21 carries to go with his two rushing touchdowns.
“Owen always gets those tough yards. Pitz does too when we need to,” Eviston said.
Ashland outgained CovCath 406-361 in the contest.
COLONELS 35, TOMCATS 28
ASHLAND BLAZER — 7-7-7-7 — 28
COVINGTON CATHOLIC — 14-7-14-0 — 35
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
(C) Pitzer 14-yard pass to Rodriguez (7:47) Weitzel kick
(C) Leen 11-yard run (4:02) Weitzel kick
(A) Strader 32-yard pass to Adkins (:08) Sexton kick
2nd Quarter
(C) Pitzer 21-yard pass to Rodriguez (9:26) Weitzel kick
(A) Strader 3-yard run (:11) Sexton kick
3rd Quarter
(C) Leen 1-yard run (3:23) Weitzel kick
(A) Strader 9-yard run (1:19) Sexton kick
(C) Pitzer 45-yard pass to Rodriguez (:00) Weitzel kick
4th Quarter
(A) Strader 4-yard pass to Adkins (2:39) Sexton kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Ashland Blazer 199 (Strader 12/17), Covington Catholic 180 (Pitzer 11/14)
Rushing Yards: Ashland Blazer 207 (Jennings 11-74, Thomas 9-66, Strader 12-65, Davis 2-4, Tanner 1-(-)2), Covington Catholic 181 (Leen 21-103, Pitzer 9-44, Bessler 1-20, Miller 1-14)
Receiving: Ashland Blazer (Jennings 2-85, Adkins 3-57, Houston 2-40, Thomas 2-9, Davis 2-8, Team 1-0), Covington Catholic (Rodriguez 6-115, Miller 4-56, Leen 1-9)
Turnovers: Ashland Blazer 1, Covington Catholic 0
Penalties: Ashland Blazer 3-25, Covington Catholic 4-26
Records: Ashland Blazer 10-2, Covington Catholic 12-0