A week before the game, Beechwood coach Jay Volker and Mayfield coach Joe Morris urged that their heavily-anticipated Class 2A KHSAA semifinal matchup would come down to one final play.
Turns out: they were right.
Cardinals junior linebacker Carter Morris capped a frenetic final three minutes with an interception of star Tigers quarterback Clay Hayden in the right flat, senior running back JuJu Starks cobbled together four carries to get inside the four-yard line — and with two seconds to go, senior kicker Lincoln Suiter basked in redemption with an 18-yard field goal to win the game, 31-28, to knock off the three-time defending state champions at War Memorial Stadium Friday night in Mayfield.
The make came nearly one year after he missed the game-tying PAT against Beechwood in the 2022 state championship game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
And now, he sends them there — where they will face Owensboro Catholic for the all those marbles.
“I couldn’t even watch,” noted coach Morris. “If he did miss that one, you know, how dejected he would be. I just kind of turned around, and I heard our crowd go crazy. And I looked out and they were hugging him. It was great. Redemption from last year.”
Stunned, and mostly in silence, several Tigers stood motionless near the goal-line. In their eyes, a comeback was nearly complete, and a jarring back-and-forth finale was finally teetering their way.
Volker urged that it was imperative to put the ball in Hayden’s hands for that final drive. A prudent move, considering that up to that point, he’d thrown for more than 400 yards.
“I’m sure, looking back on it, I don’t know off the top of my head if he made the right read, or that [defender] made a good play, or he made a bad read,” Volker said. “But we trusted him. He’s led us this far. Been a great leader for us. Unbelievable quarterback. And that’s why, with a minute left in the game, you put the ball in the quarterback’s hands. I had the utmost confidence in our offense to go out and score.”
Down 28-14 at the half, Beechwood possessed nearly all of the momentum in the third and fourth quarters. And some of that momentum drew the ire of Mayfield’s passionate, explosive fan base.
On their first possession out of halftime, the Tigers marched methodically from the 3-yard line to cut it down to 28-21. Hayden buried a 42-yard-bomb to fellow junior Luke Erdman in double coverage, and on third-and-two, freshman wideout Tyler Fryman continued his big game with a 29-yard scamper.
The Cardinals nearly had the answer, but a hold on the left guard brought back a Starks touchdown, and senior quarterback Zane Cartwright was stopped millimeters away from converting 4th-and-4 from the Tigers 28.
Beechwood marched inside the Mayfield 25-yard-line to start the fourth quarter, but three straight incompletions — including a deflection from Mak Hoover at the goal line — stymied the Tigers.
Starks had another touchdown called back for a hold with 7:10 left in regulation, and it was the kind of penalty that inflamed Morris, his staff, and every Cardinal fan in Graves County. It followed with a blocked field goal on Suiter’s attempt.
From there, Hayden went straight to work — particularly over the middle, 21 yards to Fryman, 14 yards to Fryman, 14 yards to Erdman. A fourth-down conversion from Hayden. Then, with 2:17 remaining, a 24-yard strike to Erdman at the left pylon.
Tie game, 28-all.
Running their two-minute drill from midfield after a late hit penalty on the return, Cartwright’s pass to Murray transfer Xavier Biggers created space, and he juked to get the Cardinals inside the 20.
Two carries later, Starks bruised his way into the end zone. However, the ball was punched out and recovered by Beechwood with a shade less than a minute to go. Was his knee down? Did he make it?
It doesn’t matter. The Morris interception gave Mayfield an extra life.
“Well they hit that play on us several times,” coach Morris said. “Salad cross, or salad dig. He looked up at the receiver, and man, what a great play. He’ll be remembered for that play for a long time here. He’ll remember it. And a lot of Mayfield folks that were here tonight will remember that play.”
If the second half sounds like ridiculously good football, the first half set the stage.
Beechwood turned it over on its opening drive: a Hayden pass swatted and snatched at the line by Landon Kemp. Starks, who finished with more than 200 yards rushing despite the called-back holds, gashed 56 yards for a 6-0 lead with 9:19 left in the first frame.
Mayfield looked on the march again with its second drive, before a Xavier Campbell deflection nearly turned into a pick six.
“It’s the losses, for real,” Campbell said, talking about what he’d remember most. “You know, freshman year in 2019 I lost down here. And they’re a heck of a team. Heck of a community. [Mayfield’s] coaches, I have the utmost respect for them. They came up and talked to me before and after the game. They said, ‘They hate playing me. They hate playing us.’ But they love playing us at the same time. We always give them a good game. It’s high school. I’ll use this to help me get to the next level.”
Flaherty’s cutback for 15 yards tied the game seven-all with less than four minutes to go before the second quarter. Mayfield, however, would answer: a 35-yard pass from Cartwright to Hoover over the middle, on third-and-12, no less, to make it 13-7.
Beechwood had its own beef on the following drive, when James Cusick looked as if he was still driving his feet on third-and-15 near midfield. The whistle blew him dead, and a Hayden incompletion on fourth down thwarted promise.
Four rushes from Starks, a 13-yard pass from Cartwright to Biggers, a 27-yard over-the-middle-floater from Cartwright to Will Morris, and a Starks burst put the Cardinals up 20-7 with 6:51 left in the half.
Hayden, however, answered again. Fryman got behind the zone defense for a 56-yard gain. Flaherty, from one yard out, made it 21-13 with 5:04 before the break.
A terrific punt return from Hoover and a 17-yard catch from Biggers on 2nd-and-20 positioned Starks for his third touchdown of the first half, and still Beechwood failed to relent. Hayden made connections of 22 and 46 yards.
But an Ian Williams sack on a zero blitz pushed the special teams out of the red zone, and a missed field goal kept the Tigers down 28-14 into the locker room.
“We just want to thank our seniors as much as possible,” Volker said. “With being the new coach, I know they didn’t want this year to go the way it did. I know they wanted coach Rash to probably stick around one more year. Everybody is always going to want him for their senior year. I’ve told them ‘thank you’ about a million times for buying into the changes I’ve made and the things that we’re doing. So I appreciate our seniors with it.
“But after a game like that, we’ve just got to make one more play. It’s a one more play type of thing.”
MAYFIELD 31, BEECHWOOD 28
Tigers 7 7 7 7 — 28
Cardinals 14 14 0 3 — 31
SCORING
MAY: JuJu Starks 56 rush (Lincoln Suiter PAT), 7-0, 9:19 1Q
BEECH: Chase Flaherty 15 pass from Clay Hayden (Colson Lair PAT), 7-7, 3:59 1Q
MAY: Mak Hoover 35 pass from Zane Cartwright (Suiter PAT), 14-7, 1:28 1Q
MAY: JuJu Starks 5 rush (Suiter PAT), 21-7, 6:51 2Q
BEECH: Chase Flaherty 1 rush (Lair PAT), 21-14, 5:04 2Q
MAY: JuJu Starks 15 rush (Suiter PAT), 28-14, 1:04 2Q
BEECH: Tyler Fryman 29 pass from Hayden (Lair PAT), 28-21, 5:38 3Q
BEECH: Luke Erdman 24 pass from Hayden (Lair PAT), 28-28, 2:17 4Q
MAY: Suiter 18 FG, 31-28, 0:00 4Q
PASSING LEADERS
MAY: Zane Cartwright 11-17-176-1. Clay Hayden 25-44-405-2-2.
RUSHING LEADERS
MAY: JuJu Starks 36-214-3. BEECH: Chase Flaherty 26-78-1.
RECEIVING LEADERS
MAY: Xavier Biggers 5-59, Mak Hoover 3-46-1. BEECH: Luke Erdman 8-145-1. Tyler Fryman 6-142-1. Chase Flaherty 3-39-1.
MISCELLANEOUS
First Downs: MAY 17, BEECH 19.
Penalties: MAY 7-55, BEECH 5-40.
Turnovers: MAY 1, BEECH 2.
Records: Beechwood 12-2, Mayfield 12-1
All stats provided by Larry Lancaster, Danny Rodgers and the Red Helmet Club.