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| G. Michael Graham Photo. Highlands quarterback Beau Hoge (7) sets up to throw deep in Friday’s 71-69 win over Warren Central. Hoge completed 19-of-31 passes for 417 yards and four touchdowns in the victory. |
By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
When it
comes to making a football schedule, Highlands Bluebird Head Coach/Offensive
Coordinator Dale Mueller is not alone when it comes to wanting to play more local teams from
Northern Kentucky.
The Bluebirds
will have to make trips to Lexington Bryan Station, Campbell County and Warren
Central next year for non-district action after they came to Fort Thomas this
year. Warren Central will be the longest trip of the three at about 3.5 hours. University
Christian (Fla.) will come back to Fort Thomas after opening the season there
this year. Highlands edged Warren Central, 71-69 to conclude the regular season
on Friday.
“I really appreciate all those teams playing us,” Mueller said. “I
just have so much respect for the guys there from Warren Central because they
were getting blown out early. (But) they just kept coming and kept coming. I’m
going to send (Warren Central Head Coach Mike Rogers) a letter. It says so much
for the character of their guys.”
Highlands
ventured about two hours to John Hardin before going about 5.5 to Paducah
Tilghman. The Bluebirds won those games by a combined 24 points. The two come
to Fort Thomas next year.
Highlands
senior offensive tackle Kyle Thurston admitted the Bluebirds struggled on the
road. The Bluebirds beat John Hardin, 33-26 and a late touchdown run by Jaylen
Hayes sealed a 42-25 Highlands win at Tilghman.
“I honestly enjoy traveling,” Thurston said. “But
when it’s like a six-hour drive to Paducah, it’s not very fun. As soon as we
get off the bus, we’re all tired. We’re not really ready to play a game. We try
to get mentally focused. We need to play the way we do at home offensively and
defensively on the road. At Paducah, it was a struggle on the offensive line
and a couple big plays on defense.”
Highlands
at least found two non-district games against teams from the same or adjacent
county. The Bluebirds did renew their in-county rivalry with Campbell County
and continued the series against Cincinnati Elder from just over the river.
“Since we travel a lot, we’re not really used to it,” said Jordan Johnson, Highlands sophomore defensive
back. “It’s hard because of the long bus
rides. You have cramps on the bus rides. We get out an hour and a half before
the game starts and stretch defense only. Since we started doing that, we got
motivated better.”
While
things are tough for Highlands, they are worse for at least three other teams
in Kentucky in the Warren Central Dragons, Bowling Green Purples and Louisville
Trinity Shamrocks. The Shamrocks have had to play teams from Indianapolis,
Nashville and Cincinnati to complete just a nine-game schedule for the last
three years. They saw a team from Illinois back out from a game this year in
the offseason and finished 4-5 against the tough schedule with a 42-14 loss to
defending Ohio Division I champion Cincinnati Moeller on Friday. Trinity has a
home-and-home series scheduled against nationally-ranked Bishop Gorman of Las
Vegas (Nevada) starting next year.
Bowling
Green and Warren Central can’t get any non-district opponent within two
Kentucky counties to play them. Their closest non-district opponent in the
regular season was about 70 miles away in Owensboro. The Purples even had a
game against Bryan Station cancelled because of lightning.
New opponents in 2013:
The
Bluebirds also faced University Christian (Florida) for the first time this
year.
Highlands
has played 134 different opponents in 99 years of football. The Bluebirds are
851-226-26 since starting their program in 1915.
That win
total ranks first in Kentucky and second in the nation behind the Valdosta
Wildcats of south Georgia. Valdosta moved to 882-212-34 with a 41-8 win over
Brunswick on Friday. The Wildcats are 6-3 on the year with all three defeats
coming in the rugged Region 1-AAAAAA of southern Georgia.
Not undefeated, but battle-tested:
Ten teams
in Kentucky finished the regular season undefeated, but none faced an opponent
the caliber of Cincinnati Elder. The Panthers handed the Bluebirds their lone
loss of the year last week, 30-27.
The
Bluebirds own the state record for most undefeated seasons with 13. Next on the
list is the Owensboro Red Devils with nine. The last time Owensboro finished
undefeated was 1974.
In Class
2A, defending runner-up Caldwell County finished 10-0 with a 48-41 against
defending 1A champion Mayfield in a battle of undefeated teams. The Tigers were
the lone unbeaten in 2A.
There was
one other battle of unbeaten teams on Friday. Johnson Central knocked off
Belfry, 54-28 to finish as one of two teams in Class 4A in the unbeaten
category. Boyle County put the finishing touches on its undefeated campaign
with a 46-14 win over Whitley County.
In Class
3A, Mason County, Wayne County and Bourbon County finished 10-0. Mason County
and Bourbon County could meet in the Class 3A region title game in a few weeks.
The top two
ranked teams in Class 5A also finished undefeated. They are Pulaski County at
10-0 and Bowling Green at 9-0. The Purples held off Tennessee power
Murfreesboro Blackman, 26-25 in Bowling Green on Friday. The Purples own the
state’s longest winning streak with 39 in a row.
The state
record for most consecutive wins is 50 in a row. Trinity accomplished that
between 1988 and 1991.
Then in
Class 6A, the Scott County Cardinals and Simon Kenton Pioneers finished
undefeated. The two would not meet until the state championship game.
Junior Varsity/Freshmen Team updates:
The junior
varsity Bluebirds hope to complete an undefeated season with a win over Scott
County at 11 a.m. today. They are 6-0.
The
Highlands freshmen were to play Boone County on Thursday. The game was called
because of weather. The Bluebirds are 5-4 on the season.
