When the most suspenseful moment of a football game is whether the split-the-pot winner will show up to claim the prize, you know it’s the first week of the KHSAA playoffs.
Maybe the winner went home early. Just the way Great Crossing headed back to Georgetown, a 21-0 loser Friday to Covington Catholic in this Class 5A playoff game in Park Hills.
It didn’t help that many of the fans in Dennis Griffin Stadium were more interested in whether sister school Notre Dame Academy, right across the Dixie Highway, had won the state volleyball championship played a half-hour earlier.
The Pandas did. And probably took a bunch of fans with them who would normally be at the CovCath game.
Couple that with the new cross-districts playoff format the first two weeks and an opponent no one knew anything about and what you got was what you expected: Not a great deal of excitement.
Maybe that’s why it took the host Colonels a while to get going. “We started a little slow,” said CovCath junior tailback Owen Leen, who recorded game-high totals of 18 carries for 88 yards – and two touchdowns.
“I think it’s just different with the districts switched,” Leen said. “I think we’ll trip next week.”
Tripping this week was another one of the half-dozen sophomores who are stepping up to get the Colonels going in the latter part of the season.
Last week, it was defender Tate Kruer, the Most Outstanding Player in the Crosstown Showdown romp over Ryle.
This week, it was another sophomore on the offensive side of the ball – Ben McEvoy – who stepped up early with a team-high six catches and a combined 10 total rushes and receptions.
“I was ready,” the 6-foot, 165-pound runner/receiver said. “It’s great for us – and all the sophomores now.”
Great to be getting a chance. “I’ve been waiting a long time,” McEvoy said, “ever since I’ve been coming here as a little kid.”
As to the slow start, “If other people weren’t stepping up, I have to. I have to bring the energy.”
McEvoy doesn’t sound like a sophomore – or play like one with his 46 yards receiving getting CovCath going.
“We’ve got a lot of sophomores playing,” junior DB Braylon Miller said. He would know. He ran into one – fellow DB Jackson Reardon – tracking down an errant Great Crossing pass. That big second-half collision sent both limping to the sidelines although Miller returned later and grabbed an interception.
“We just weren’t clicking,” Miller said.
But it’s next Friday, when the No. 3 seed Colonels head to Lexingtom to face No. 1 seed Frederick Douglass that really gets the playoffs under way and grab the players’ attention.
“For sure, for sure,” said Aiden Jones, CovCath’s 6-3, 250-pound edge rusher headed to West Point.
“We have to prepare well,” Jones said. Not that it helped all that much this week with Great Crossing coming out in a version of the old triple option with the quarterback under center.
“We hadn’t seen that,” Jones said. “I don’t think they did that all year.”
Not that it helped Great Crossing, either, as the Warhawks fell to 8-3, gaining just 58 yards on 22 carries.
But after dropping behind 14-0 at halftime thanks to a pair of Leen touchdowns – from 1-yard out and then from 19 – Great Crossing was forced to throw it.
That didn’t turn out much better as they hit on just 10 of 22 passes for 93 yards while getting out gained 329-151 and never coming close to scoring.
“We could have played way better,” Miller said, “we just weren’t clicking.”
Which is where the defense must come in after pitching its second shutout in the last five games.
Against a 10-0 Frederick Douglass team that beat Great Crossing 54-0, they better have their defense ready and their offense clicking.
Senior quarterback Zacc Roberts, getting his second start for the injured Evan Pitzer, was ready to play, running it nine times for 51 yards and a TD while throwing it 32 times, completing 22 for 198 yards.
“Zacc’s kicking butt,” Leen said of Roberts who started the first game before Pitzer came on playing lights-out.
With a dozen players on the bench in dress clothes wearing their jerseys but not back and ready to play yet, a now 9-2 CovCath is playing through all sorts of injuries. Tight end Willie Rodrigues was without a wrap on his injured elbow and Pitzer was off crutches.
But the numbers are still high. As are those for sophomores playing.
“I think we’ll bring it next week,” Leen said.
They’d better.
COVCATH-GREAT CROSSING BOX SCORE
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Total
GREAT CROSSING 0 0 0 0 0
COVCATH 7 7 7 0 21
CovCath: Leen.Owen 1 yd run (Weitzel,Andrew kick)
CovCath: Leen.Owen 19 yd run (Weitzel,Andrew kick)
CovCath: Roberts,Zacc 1 yd run (Weitzel,Andrew kick)