Covington Catholic lost an opener – and may have found a quarterback. Now the loss was hardly a surprise. It’s what happens when a Kentucky team, a young, inexperienced Kentucky team, plays a GCL strong-boy like Elder.
Six minutes into the second half, there was no doubt that’s where this was going as the Panthers from Price Hill scored their fifth touchdown and the folks from Ohio started asking what it takes to get a running clock in Kentucky. The answer: 36 points. By kicking the extra point for a 35-0 lead, Elder negated that possibility then.
And 6-foot-4, 180-pound junior CovCath quarterback Evan Pitzer negated the possibility the rest of the way as the new-look Colonels, stunned and out-gunned in the first half, figured some things out.
Sure, the final score was 42-21. But if you looked at just the second half, when Pitzer took over, that score was 21-14 in CovCath’s favor, with Pitzer completing 12 of 18 for 168 yards and two touchdowns while leading a moribund CovCath offense on three scoring drives.
And in doing so, keeping the opening day crowd of 4,000 at Dennis Griffin Stadium around until the end.
But CovCath coach Ed Eviston wasn’t about to declare the quarterback battle between Pitzer and senior Zacc Roberts settled. “I don’t know,” he said. “I have to watch the film.”
Roberts went five for eight passing for a minus-five yards while rushing six times for 32 yards. Pitzer, a Colonel baseball player, ran five times for 35 yards.
Like Eviston, Pitzer was not about to call the quarterback contest over either. “Coach says this competition breeds playmakers,” he said, echoing Eviston. And of Roberts, “he’s a heck of a competitor” who’s had a strong camp that earned him the start against Elder.
Starting isn’t the thought in Pitzer’s mind, he said. His goal? Get the ball in the hands of teammates who can make plays. “I like to think I can get the ball to them,” he said – and did.
It’s only fair, he says. “I wasn’t the one who kept myself upbeat, my teammates did.”
One who kept the CovCath offense upbeat was 6-3 junior tight end Willie Rodriguez, who came alive in the second half with three catches for 103 yards including a 12-yard TD and a 62-yarder.
But running up 317 yards of offense wasn’t nearly enough against a tough, disciplined Elder team that used a pair of quarterbacks – thrower Ben Schoster and runner Jack Reuter — and a tough offensive line to push the Colonels all over Wooten Field in piling up 405 yards of offense.
“I thought our offensive line was really good,” veteran Elder coach Doug Ramsey said. “We wore ‘em out.”
They did that. “I agree,” Eviston said, “they ground it out, they pushed us around up front.”
They also completed 15 of 17 passes (all by Schoster) for 165 yards against a slow-reacting Colonel secondary with 240 more coming on the ground in 37 carries (a 6.5 average).
“We gotta’ be in more of an attack mode,” Eviston said of his defense that could handle neither the pass nor the run and seemed to miss almost as many tackles they made.
“We were catching them a bit, especially in that first half,” Eviston said, instead of going after them. “That’s what happens when you’re inexperienced.”
And you’re trying to get up to speed. And you’re playing a 70-man-strong Elder team that looks like it’s better than last year’s team that beat CovCath 28-6 in The Pit.
“I’m proud of my kids,” Eviston said. “We didn’t back down. We’ve got a good program here.”
Two who didn’t back down were running back Owen Leen, who scored from 22 yards out with a tough tun at the 1:46 mark of the third period And Oliver Link, whose strong grab from the nine with two seconds left closed out the scoring.
But if CovCath can be, as Eviston says, a good program, they’re not ready for prime time yet. But they think they’ll be if they keep working at it.
They’ll get an extra day this week as the Colonels get ready for a big trip to the mountains and a matchup against Pikeville (a 24-19 loser to Corbin Friday) in the Pike County Bowl.
BOX SCORE
ELDER 7 21 7 7 — 42
COVCATH 0 0 7 14 –21
1st 03:52 ELDER – Schoster,Ben 5 yd run (Lemasters,Max kick)
2nd 11:31 ELDER – Flowers,Luke 1 yd run (Lemasters,Max kick)
08:15 ELDER – Flowers,Luke 1 yd run (Lemasters,Max kick)
03:52 ELDER – Re,Justin 16 yd pass from Schoster,Ben (Lemasters,Max kick)
3rd 06:05 ELDER – Schoster,Ben 4 yd run (Lemasters,Max kick)
01:46 CCH22 – Leen.Owen 22 yd run (Weitzel,Andrew kick)
4th 11:10 ELDER – Meier,Evan 9 yd run (Lemasters,Max kick)
08:41 CCH22 – Rodriguez,Willi 12 yd pass from Pitzer,Evan (Weitzel,Andrew kick)
00:02 CCH22 – Link,Oliver 9 yd pass from Pitzer,Evan (Weitzel,Andrew kick)
Photos from the game by Brandon Wheeler, LINK nky contributor
