Wyatt Hatfield stayed patient. Even learned a few things at his new position as he recovered from an injury.
But Friday night was his time to shine at his natural position…quarterback.
The Cougars senior returned as the starting quarterback in Conner’s 35-14 victory over Newport Central Catholic at Covington Catholic.
He tallied 169 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns to go with 55 yards passing as Conner (3-1) handed NewCath (3-1) their first loss of the season.
“He’s tough,” Cougars coach David Trosper said. “I mean, he’s a football player. He loves the game. He’s ate up with it. He watches film with me every day after practice and he loves what he does and he loves the game. And he’s different. He can give you different looks. He can shake you, he can hit you and he’s not scared and he’s very physical and he’s just a wonderful kid.”
Whatever Hatfield needed to get in terms of yardage on down and distance, he did, weaving through a Thoroughbreds defense that struggled to tackle on the night. He had a trifecta of touchdowns in the first half, his fourth giving the Cougars a 28-7 lead with 7:33 left in the second.
Hatfield played receiver the first three games, slotting in some at quarterback during that time, but was limited in throwing the football. Playing receiver gave him a fresh perspective as the signal-caller.
“I’ve never played varsity receiver, so I mean getting out there and just seeing what my players are seeing as they’re running the routes, that helps me,” Hatfield said. “It opens up a lot of things.”
He wasn’t called on much to use his arm, didn’t really need to as the Cougars churned out 274 rushing yards as Cordion Abernathy added 97 yards on the ground, including the last score of the night for the Cougars on a 10-yard run into the end zone.
NewCath came in hoping for their first 4-0 start since 2020, the last time they reached the state semifinals. While Friday night was certainly a step in the wrong direction, it’s a loss they hope to grow from.
“We need to learn from this, but have a short memory,” Thoroughbreds coach Stephen Lickert said. “In the end, this game doesn’t mean much. It’s one of the games on our schedule. We just have to focus on us, get better. We go out and block and tackle we win and tonight we just didn’t do those things.”
Special teams plagued NewCath early on, a short kickoff to open the game and a penalty putting Conner inside the Thoroughbreds 30-yard line before two plays from scrimmage even happened. Hatfield later ran one in from 17 yards out.
The Thoroughbreds inability to get much going on possessions certainly hurt as well, finishing the night with four possessions that resulted in a three-and-out. The first one was capped off by a negative-4 yard punt, giving the Cougars the ball at the NewCath 26. Hatfield’s second rushing TD followed, this one a 2-yard run to make it 14-0 with 2:08 left in the first.
NewCath got some momentum on their side after a fumble was recovered on a long Conner punt return, Kaleb Cole later scoring on a 14-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7 with 7:40 left in the first half.
Then Conner imposed their will. A 9-play, 90-yard drive in a little over five minutes was capped off by a Hatfield 40-yard run to paydirt, alluding several tacklers on his way to six. Conner averaged 7.4 yards per carry on the evening as the offensive line paved the way.
“Four of those guys, the nucleus of those guys have started for three years,” Trosper said. “If not for them, Wyatt doesn’t get to do what he needs to do. The communication and the moving parts is the biggest thing and we’ve really been working on that.”
NewCath was able to tally 289 total yards, a large chunk of that coming in the game’s final moments when quarterback Emmanuel Miles hit Grayden Schirmer for a 94-yard touchdown pass to make the final score. Otherwise, Miles struggled to find open passing lanes on the evening, sacked five times in the contest.
“We needed to get better at that,” Trosper said. “That was one of the things that we have talked about the past couple of weeks was getting pressure. So we moved some guys around, got some guys that could get some pressure and we were able to get pressure.”
Cole earned his yards, finishing with 92 rushing and 15 receiving. NewCath takes on another big school next week, facing Campbell County at Dixie Heights.
“They physically beat us up,” Thoroughbreds coach Stephen Lickert said. “Disappointed in our tackling, I didn’t recognize the tacklers on the field today. That’s not the same group that’s been tackling this year for us. Games like this is what we do to prepare for the 1A football playoffs. We won’t see a team like this until we get very deep into the 1A playoffs.”
Conner’s schedule really ramps up, starting next week at Simon Kenton.
“We like the underdog role,” Trosper said. “I’ve been here 18 years and we’ve always been the underdog. We’re always going to take that and use it as a tool and continue to work. Our demeanor will remain the same and we’ll get back to focus.”
Check out more photos from the game below provided by Charles Bolton.
COUGARS 35, THOROUGHBREDS 14
CONNER — 14-7-7-7 — 35
NEWPORT CENTRAL CATHOLIC — 0-7-0-7 — 14
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
(C) Hatfield 17-yard run (8:48) Herron kick
(C) Hatfield 2-yard run (2:08) Herron kick
2nd Quarter
(NCC) Cole 14-yard run (7:40) Collopy kick
(C) Hatfield 40-yard run (2:15) Herron kick
3rd Quarter
(C) Hatfield 5-yard run (7:33) Herron kick
4th Quarter
(C) Abernathy 10-yard run (10:29) Herron kick
(NCC) Miles 94-yard pass to Schirmer (1:03) Collopy kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Conner 55 (Hatfield 5/9), NewCath 209 (Miles 14/22, TD)
Rushing Yards: Conner 274 (Hatfield 15-169, Abernathy 16-97, Dozier 1-8, Buckler 3-0, Wilson 2-0) NewCath 80 (Cole 15-92, Collopy 1-1, Bivens 2-8, Miles 8-(minus)21)
Receiving: Conner (Abernathy 1-22, Bailey 2-22, Caplinger 1-6, Montgomery 1-5), NewCath (Schirmer 4-120, Collopy 4-39, Ford 2-29, Cole 3-15, Bivens 1-6)
Turnovers: Conner 1, NewCath 0
Penalties: Conner 3-30, NewCath 2-20
Records: Conner 3-1, Newport Central Catholic 3-1