All Roy Lucas asked of his Simon Kenton Pioneers coming out of halftime was simply to give him “the first five minutes, just the first five minutes of the second half.”
They gave him that. Two touchdowns in the first 6:25 of the third quarter extended their lead in this Class 6A, District 6 showdown against Ryle to 31-14.
But the first five minutes wouldn’t be close to enough in this back-and-forth shootout against a Ryle team that would simply not go away on its visit to Independence.
Lucas’s Pioneers would need to give him the last five minutes as well.
Which is exactly what they did on a Chase Crone-led, 13-play, 65-yard drive — all on the ground behind that behemoth offensive line – to take the district title and earn a couple of home games to open the playoffs.
“Neers Nation” will get a couple more shots to work the magic that had Ryle Coach Mike Engler saying, “I’m glad I don’t have to see Crone play anymore,” after the senior quarterback’s unofficial 377-yard (192 passing, 185 rushing, producing four touchdowns) performance.
But as Engler said to Lucas in the handshake line: “Actually, we’d like to see you one more time.”
Which would mean that both Northern Kentucky teams had survived the first two playoff rounds against the likes of Louisville schools Ballard and Trinity sitting there in Week 2.
“We’ll have Ballard. They’ll have Trinity,” Engler said, although Simon Kenton would get both games at home starting with Marshall County from more than 300 miles away in far western Kentucky, Friday, Nov. 4. Ryle will play Louisville Eastern that night, also at home.
But enough of games two weeks away, even if that’s when teams begin the season that counts, Engler told his team of the playoff possibilities. “I’m proud of you guys, that was a great game . . . it’s only going to make us better.”
“They stopped us and then we stopped ourselves, too,” Lucas said after an amazing offensive effort that produced an incredible unofficial 623 yards on a hard-to-believe 85 plays in the Pioneers’ super-fast-tempo offense that produced five touchdowns and four turnovers – two lost fumbles, two interceptions.
“We want our offense on the field,” Lucas said after Ryle’s Gavin Moses had finished off a 17-point rally to tie things up at 31 with a 28-yard field goal with 7:32 left.
Chase Williams, who had already scored a TD on a perfectly executed 23-yard route from Crone, returned the kickoff to the 35, which is where the final drive started.
Three tailbacks joined Crone on the run-pass option game that had no pass option now that we look back on it, to pound a solid Ryle defense again and again and again. Sophomore Durrell Turner came on with junior Kaleb Bleier and senior Jayden Lawson, who had already scored on a lightning 36-yard burst right out of halftime – as they all complemented Crone, who either gave it to them or pulled it out and took off with it himself.
Just as Crone did after getting laid out on a late hit that earned a roughing the passer penalty and almost had the teams squaring off as his teammates took umbrage, earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for the Pioneers.
After a long delay to settle things down, all Crone did was take it the last 41 yards to the end zone himself – on the very next play. “I don’t know how he does it,” said Simon Kenton O-lineman Nathan Bieber. “I don’t know if he’s running it or not. He just knows when he can go.”
Crone also knew something else. Thinking about all those yards and all those turnovers, the wasted opportunities, wouldn’t do his guys any good. “We just got to let it go,” he told them. “We can’t get our heads down . . . and I can’t show weakness.”
So when he busted through the right side of the line on that scoring run, all he could think of with the end zone ahead: “Don’t get caught.” He didn’t.
And yet the Pioneers did. Even though Crone got them out front almost immediately with a 36-yard pass to Nathan Kitchens when his Ryle defender slipped. “It feels so good to be healthy,” said Crone, who missed 2 ½ games last month with an injury.
It must feel good to carry the load the way Crone did, passing it 23 times, carrying it another 24 times. Do the math. Forty-seven of the Pioneers’ 85 offensive plays had Crone either carrying it or throwing it although as the quarterback, he handled it every play.
Especially on that final 13-play drive that ended the right way for Crone — with a TD from the 1 on a third-down keep.
“I didn’t have to tell him a thing,” Lucas said of the game-winning drive. “He knew what to do.”
But to finish this one off, against the likes of Ryle quarterback Logan Verax, who like Crone, produced four touchdowns (three passing for 293 yards, one rushing for 34 yards) and 327 yards of offense. Unlike the senior Crone, as Engler pointed out, he’ll be back next season.
Verax got great help from senior receiver Jayce Harden, who scored on back-to-back TD catches from 53 and eight yards out in the third quarter to pull the Raiders withing three, 31-28.
But in the end, it was a defensive play that stopped a nine-play, last-second drive as Pioneer DB Brayden Ross’ leaping interception of a tipped Verax deep middle heave with 11.1 seconds left stopped the Raiders’ last gasp.
“Our defense came up huge on that last play,” Lucas said.
Both teams finish up the season on a high non-district note next Friday with Ryle (5-4, 2-1 in the district) playing host to Covington Catholic at 7 p.m. Simon Kenton (6-3, 3-0 in the district) plays host to one of CovCath’s Class 5A nemeses – unbeaten Woodford County, a team that hasn’t had a close game yet – at 7:30 p.m.
SCOREBOARD
RYLE 7 7 14 3 31
SIMON KENTON 10 7 14 7 38
SK: KITCHENS 36 PASS FROM CRONE (PETTY PAT KICK GOOD)
SK: PETTY 37 FG
RYLE: VERAX 3 RUN (MOSES PAT KICK GOOD)
SK: WILLIAMS 23 PASS FROM CRONE (PETTY PAT KICK GOOD)
RYLE: GARDNER 24 PASS FROM VERAX (MOSES PAT KICK GOOD)
SK: LAWSON 36 RUN (PETTY PAT KICK GOOD)
SK: CRONE 41 RUN (PETTY PAT KICK GOOD)
RYLE: HARDEN 53 PASS FROM VERAX (MOSES PAT KICK GOOD)
RYLE: HARDEN 8 PASS FROM VERAX (MOSES PAT KICK GOOD)
RYLE: MOSES 28 FG
SK: CRONE 1 RUN (PETTY PAT KICK GOOD)