By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
BOWLING
GREEN – When they look back at this one, it will come down to their drives to
end the first half and start the second one.
The Newport
Central Catholic Thoroughbreds did not convert on fourth down on both drives
and it hurt them in a 34-26 loss to the Louisville DeSales Colts in the Class
2A state championship Saturday at Western Kentucky University. The
Thoroughbreds (10-5) hoped for three championships in four years, but came up
short. NewCath graduates 12 seniors from the team.
“You’re going to sit back and realize what you did,” said Dan Wagner, NewCath Head Coach. “You were on that field three times. Not
many people can say that so be proud of that. It’s on deaf ears now because we’re
all hurting. It’s not the way we wanted it to end. But sometimes things don’t
go the way you want them to.”
NewCath is
5-7 in state championship games. The Thoroughbreds beat Caldwell County (30-26)
last year and Owensboro Catholic (42-0) in the 2010 title game.
This marks
the first state championship for DeSales. Second-year Head Coach Harold Davis
graduated from the private school in 1982. He served as defensive backs coach
for six years before taking the head job.
“The community has been waiting for something like
this for so long,” Davis said. “For me to be a part of it, it is very
emotional.”
DeSales ran
the traditional Wing-T offense as expected. The Colts outgained the
Thoroughbreds, 428-369 in total offense.
The
Thoroughbreds could not contain running back Dylan Byrd. He rushed for 142
yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns and caught two passes for 45 yards and a
score.
“(Byrd) did exactly what we thought,” Wagner said. “We
knew he was good. We knew we had to do some things well and not make mistakes.
It could have been different. But give (DeSales) credit.”
DeSales
loosened things up for Byrd by passing early. Quarterback Nathan Roush
completed 8-of-12 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns. Austin Craig hauled
in four passes for 105 yards.
NewCath
quarterback Mac Franzen had a great day passing the ball. He completed 16-of-28
passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns.
That made
up for the problems running the ball. The Thoroughbreds rushed the ball 29
times for just 51 yards.
“They are quick and aggressive up front,” said Dave Schneider, NewCath Offensive Coordinator. “We did a good job for the most part. We were
able to run the ball some. (The Protection) broke down sometimes. But we had
pretty good protection.”
NewCath had
an advantage with wide receiver Tommy Donnelly. The 6-5 Donnelly caught nine
passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns.
“We’ve had good chemistry all year,” Franzen said. “We
really brought it together (Saturday). We played a great game. It just came up
short.”
The game
was tied at seven after one quarter. Adam Nord scored on a 3-yard pass from
Rousch and Jack Sutkamp scored from 17 yards out to tie it for NewCath.
Rousch then
completed a 30-yard pass to Byrd with 7:58 left in the second to give DeSales a
14-7 advantage. But the Thoroughbreds cut it to 14-13 with 6:44 left in the
half when Donnelly broke free for a 63-yard score.
The Colts
then used a 20-0 run to go up 34-13 and held on. Byrd had a six-yard run with
3:55 left in the game.
After two
NewCath drives into the Red Zone that failed to produce points, Byrd broke free
for a 73-yard run. DeSales finished off the run with 47 seconds left in the
third when Nord scored from a yard out.
The
Thoroughbreds scored 13 points in the fourth to get within striking distance.
Brandon Gray hauled in an 11-yard pass from Franzen and Donelly scored from 14
yards away with 1:30 left in the game.
Sutkamp
again led the Thoroughbreds with 14.5 tackles. Three equaled a loss of 10
yards.
The 12
NewCath seniors are Franzen, Sutkamp, John Caudill, Kole Zenni, Donnelly, Wyatt
Boberg, Michael Runyon, Kalvin Moore, Tyler Lyon, Stephen Brooks, Nathan Kling and Matt Lenz.