After a week of heat advisories and limited practice, Beechwood pulled out a 42-20 win over Campbell County Friday night to start off 2-0 for a fourth straight season.
“I think we just started out slow you know, it was a weird week for us as a team,” Beechwood head coach Jay Volker said. “Changing practices, not being able to practice outside, you know we didn’t really have a normal day until Thursday..”
At kickoff, the temperature was just shy of 90 degrees as the Camels and Tigers both took the field. It may have attributed to a scoreless first quarter of play.
Thanks to a persistent drive at the end of the first quarter, Campbell County senior receiver Garyn Jackson snagged a 12-yard touchdown to open the scoring in the opening seconds of the second quarter.
Beechwood had a response of their own as senior running back Chase Flaherty had seven carries on the ensuing drive which included a goal-line touchdown run to finish things off.
“It definitely took us a minute to get going,” Beechwood senior quarterback Clay Hayden said. “That drive specifically was big for us just to get some momentum going.”
A defensive stop put the ball back into Hayden’s hands minutes later as he made no mistake of converting a 23-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Tyler Fryman. In yet another quick turn of events, Camels’ quarterback Lucas Anthrop connected with Jackson, who made an acrobatic one-handed catch and took the ball 80-yards to the house.
“Our first half led us to a lot of success,” Campbell County head coach Brian Weinrich said. “We had a decent amount of sustained drives that we were able to convert. Garyn (Jackson) busted out that long play and we felt really good about how things were going.”
Up 14-13, Beechwood wasn’t finished despite having just one minute left in the half. Hayden eventually found sophomore Nathan Pabst on a 16-yard connection to put Beechwood up 21-13 at the half.
Opening the second half, Flaherty led the Tigers’ second half drive with an explosive 32-yard run. On the team’s next drive, Hayden took a deep shot into the endzone which resulted in an interception and key stop for the Camels.
With the help of a 15-yard penalty after the interception, junior running back Trevor Bertram broke through the gap for an 80-yard touchdown run on the next play to tighten the score to 21-20 on a quick turn of events.
“They (Campbell) had two big plays with the 80-yard touchdown and the 80-yard run and it definitely looked as though they were going to stay in it,” Volker said. “Luckily our guys adjusted well to our adjustments and locked in after that last score.”
The Tigers were forced into another three and out and Hayden threw his second interception, this time into the hot-hands of Jackson who picked him off just before the quarter came to a close.
“I know I had some mistakes in the middle half of the game as we started throwing more,” Hayden said. “Luckily I think I made the right adjustments and I’ve got a lot of weapons out wide.”
Beechwood took advantage of Campbell County’s inability to convert as Hayden connected once more, this time with senior Luke Erdman who converted on the 40-yard touchdown.
Campbell County’s next five plays resulted in penalties as they were forced back to their own 4-yard line.
“We had all the big plays but the penalties really slowed us down in the fourth quarter,” Weinrich said. “It put us behind and playing a team like Beechwood, that’s hard to come back from.”
Another Flaherty touchdown and an Erdman pick-six off of backup quarterback Xander Guy’s flick took the Tigers from a one score lead to a three score lead as the Camels had no response.
With the loss, Campbell County drops to 1-1 on the season with a matchup next week against Highlands at home.
On the night, Hayden connected with six different receivers while Flaherty ran for over 170 yards on 25 carries.
“We know our strengths and we know our talents, just have to keep the belief we’re the best team on the field,” Hayden said.
Beechwood will look to make it three in a row next week as they face Dixie Heights in front of their home crowd once again.
TIGERS 42, CAMELS 20
Beechwood– 0-21-0-21 – 42
Campbell County– 0-13-7-0 – 20
Scoring Plays
2nd Quarter
(CC) Funston 12-yard pass to Jackson (11:49) 2-pt run no good
(B) Flaherty 1-yard run (5:34) Lair kick
(B) Hayden 23-yard pass to Fryman (2:10) Lair kick
(CC) Anthrop 80-yard pass to Jackson (1:29) Minor kick
(B) Hayden 16-yard pass to Pabst (0:20) Lair kick
3rd Quarter
(CC) Bertram 81-yard run (6:45) Minor kick
4th Quarter
(B) Hayden 40-yard pass to Erdman (8:36) Lair kick
(B) Flaherty 5-yard run (4:40) Lair kick
(B) Erdman 40-yard pick-six (1:54) Lair kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Beechwood 243 (Hayden 21-30), Campbell County 113 (Anthrop 4-9)
Rushing Yards: Beechwood 200 (Flaherty 25-172, Erdman 4-13, Hayden 2-15), Campbell County 160 (Bertram 8-125, Anthrop 7-25, Funston 2-5, Morency 2-4, Dowds 2-1)
Receiving Yards: Beechwood 243 (Fryman 5-76, Erdman 6-56, Cusick 5-47, Flesch 3-25, Pabst 1-16, Aylor 1-15), Campbell County 111 (Jackson 2-92, Fancher 2-14, Clark 1-5, Funston 1,2)
First Downs: Beechwood 15, Campbell County 7
Turnovers: Beechwood 2, Campbell County 2
Penalties: B- 3(35) CC- 5(36)
Records: Beechwood 2-0, Campbell County 1-1