Simon Kenton lit up the scoreboard and rushed for 467 yards in a 66-23 win at home over Dixie Heights on Thursday night.
With the victory to open Class 6A, District 6 play, the Pioneers improve to 4-3 on the year while the Colonels fall to 2-5.
“The kids are so good. They believe in each other,” said Roy Lucas, Simon Kenton head coach. “They love each other. They play for each other and they just want to get the job done. Their out there working their tails off every time. They just get after it.”
In his second game back from injury, senior running back Jayden Lawson put up a career-high 297 yards rushing on 18 carries and three touchdowns for an average of 16.5 yards per, behind senior offensive linemen CJ Heflin, Aba Selm, and Kaleb Russell.
“It’s great. We can’t take all the credit because (Lawson) makes plays happen even when we mess up,” Heflin said. “But the nice part is we can throw and run. I’m proud of him. It feels good knowing we can rely on those plays.”
Lawson broke free for a 90-yard touchdown with 9:50 left in the third quarter on a trap play. He kept his feet churning while Dixie tried to bring him down, to put the Pioneers up 56-23. Lawson credited Simon Kenton senior offensive lineman Nathan Bieber for setting a nice block on the run.
“I’ve come a long way in the weight room,” Lawson said. “I started out pushing mediocre weight. Then as I progressed picking up more weight, I saw it transition onto the field. Some of those runs where I kept my legs moving, I made two to three yards at first. Now I’m taking them the distance. I saw the safety up, made a little move, kept churning and running. Somebody dove at my ankles and didn’t get me. I got in there.”
Junior running back Kaleb Bleier rushed for 98 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown for SK. Four-year starting quarterback Chase Crone completed 11 of 20 passes for 195 yards and one touchdown, and also rushed for 44 yards on 11 carries for four touchdowns.
Four different Pioneers had catches. Junior Carter Blades had three receptions for 74 yards and senior Jackson Galbraith also had three for 49 yards. Junior Nathan Kitchens added three catches for 49 yards and a touchdown.
Simon Kenton took control of the game early scoring the game’s first 28 points and dictated the tempo running 73 plays for 662 yards for an average of just more than nine yards per play. On the other side, Dixie Heights ran 61 plays putting up 280 yards of total offense averaging about 4.6 yards per play.
Both teams tried to run no-huddle, up-tempo offenses but Simon Kenton executed, not turning the ball over and recording two takeaways defensively. The Pioneers converted 5 of 10 for 50 percent on third down and 3 of 5 on fourth down for 60 percent compared to 7 of 15 on third down for 47 percent and 1 of 3 on fourth down for 33 percent for Dixie Heights.
“We knew they were going to try to go fast too so we had an idea it was going to go back-and-forth,” Lucas said. “But that’s how we like to play and the kids like it. The offensive linemen love it and a lot of times they’re looking at us like, ‘Come on. Let’s go.’ They love it too.”
Dixie Heights sophomore quarterback Armani Gregg completed 20 of 30 passes for 218 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Ten passes went to sophomore wide receiver Trey Barnette who had 136 yards and one touchdown. But the Colonels rushed for just 62 yards on 31 carries for an average of just two yards per touch.
“I thought Trey had some big time plays,” said Pat Burke, Dixie Heights head coach.
“I thought he grew up and kept playing through adversity. We just have to grow up as a football team. We’re young. But at this point in the season, we can’t make the same mistakes we made in week one and week two in week seven. It’s little things. We’ll watch film, be sick to our stomachs about it and our kids will see it and we’re going to move on. It’s a tough pill to swallow for sure. We left several points on the field.”
“Giving up 66 points is inexcusable,” Burke said. “It’s on me. It’s gap integrity. If you’re not disciplined enough to be in the right gap, that Counter Trey offense is going to be an issue. There were times where we played it exactly like you draw it up defensively then there were other times where we were completely outside of our gap and in the wrong positions so I have to teach that better. Our young men and our coaching staff are going to go to work and make some corrections to try to give ourselves a chance against (the next opponents). There is never a week where I don’t think we can’t compete and win every single game. But the little things matter. We have to understand that and execute that.”
The Pioneers constantly put pressure on Gregg all game. Selm, senior linebacker Josh Bowling, senior defensive lineman Josh Brophy and senior linebacker Desmond Betancourt all recorded sacks of Gregg or tackles for a loss. Kitchens had the interception with Bleier recovering an onside kick.
“We could stay with their fast-paced offense,” Brophy said. “Ours is fast. But they can go and run a bit. Big props to our secondary for playing well helping us get after it in the pass rush.”
Simon Kenton junior kicker Andrew Petty made all nine point-after touchdown kicks. He added a 40-yard field goal with 9:12 left in the game to make the final score.
“When I kick the ball and we get it back, that’s huge for our offense,” Petty said. “It gives us that motivation to go score again. That’s exactly what we did. (The kicking game) helps the team.”
Both teams return to action next week. Simon Kenton travels to Campbell County (3-3) on Thursday for a 7 p.m. game and Dixie Heights travels to Ryle (3-3) on Friday, Oct. 14 for a 7 p.m. game.
Box Score
Simon Kenton 28 21 14 3 – 66
Dixie Heights 16 0 7 0 – 23
First Quarter
Simon Kenton (10:42) – Chase Crone 8 run (Andrew Petty kick).
Simon Kenton (9:47) – Crone 9 run (Petty kick).
Simon Kenton (6:17) – Jayden Lawson 5 run (Petty kick).
Simon Kenton (3:32) – Kaleb Bleier 11 run (Petty kick).
Dixie Heights (2:12) – Trey Barnette 57 pass from Armani Gregg (Andrew Kohls kick).
Dixie Heights (2:06) – Safety, Simon Kenton recovered bad snap in own end zone.
Dixie Heights (:48) – David Anderson, 8 run (Kohls kick).
Second Quarter
Simon Kenton (9:31) – Crone 1 run (Petty kick).
Simon Kenton (4:19) – Crone 1 run (Petty kick).
Simon Kenton (1:59) – Lawson 5 run (Petty kick).
Third Quarter
Dixie Heights (10:05) – Caleb Hinkle 1 run (Kohls kick).
Simon Kenton (9:50) – Lawson 90 run (Petty kick).
Simon Kenton (6:39) – Nathan Kitchens 20 pass from Crone (Petty kick).
Fourth Quarter
Simon Kenton (9:02) – Petty 40 field goal.
