About the only rushing plays that went backwards for Covington Catholic on Friday night against Beechwood were the final couple plays when they were in victory formation.
Other than that, the Colonels ran all over the place in a 49-28 victory in Park Hills to win their third straight game after an 0-2 start.
They accumulated 561 rushing yards on the evening, ripping off 12.5 yards per carry.
“Things were clicking,” Colonels coach Eddie Eviston said. “Boys were running well, we were getting some creases and guys were running hard. It’s good to see and made things a lot easier from a playcalling standpoint.”
It’s a Covington Catholic team that’s growing confidence with each passing game, one that is executing at a much higher clip than their 0-2 start showed. Quite possibly the play of the game however was a passing play.
Trailing 21-20 and Beechwood having momentum on their side after a kickoff return for a touchdown before the first half and a touchdown out of the half, the Colonels were faced with a 4th-and-10 at the Tigers 18-yard line.
After a Beechwood timeout, Cash Harney sent Dylan Gaiser in motion out of the backfield, Gaiser making a move on a Tigers linebacker in his route and Harney hitting him up the seam for an 18-yard touchdown.
“Big play,” Harney said. “I know Coach E trusted us for that and we trusted ourselves. Everyone trusted each other and it worked out. Great playcall.”
It triggered 29 straight points for the Colonels as they continued to pound the rock and Beechwood could do nothing about it.
“We got dominated,” Tigers coach Jay Volker said. “We got dominated up front, couldn’t tackle. We knew going in order to win the game we had to dominate on the offensive and defensive line and we did not. We thought we were big and physical and they put it to us tonight.”
The Tigers, down two receivers with Tyler Fryman and Luke Erdman out due to injury, were unable to hit on their patented homerun balls in the contest. CovCath contained Beechwood gunslinger Clay Hayden to 156 yards passing, limiting him to 11 completions on 22 attempts with two touchdowns and an interception.
Special teams helped keep Beechwood in it, Nathan Pabst’s 94-yard kickoff return before the half helping them steal a possession before the break, the Colonels taking a 20-14 lead at halftime.
Beechwood came out of the half and took a 21-20 lead on a Hayden pass to Flaherty from 16 yards out, but it was all Colonels from there until Pabst returned another kickoff for a score, but that made it 49-28.
“Nathan showed up for us last week for us when guys went down. He played a great game on offense and a great game on defense,” Volker said. “He showed it on the special teams side of it today and we know we can build on him and some of those young guys. We hope we can get Luke (Erdman) and Tyler Fryman to help us out with some skill, but we have to get better up front. Even with those two guys tonight, we still lose.”
Both teams face a similar challenge now, staying locked in for the next four to five weeks as what’s expected to not be as strong district opponents compared to what they faced the first five weeks.
“We weren’t really sure about who we were and what we were doing,” Eviston said. “You play timid, to be successful in football you have to be able to attack and that’s been our concentration these last couple of weeks. We’re still not there yet, but we’re getting there.”
Three Colonels cleared 100 rushing yards on the night. Gaiser finished with 208 yards on 14 carries, Andrew Bessler had 170 yards on eight carries while Harney had 138 rushing yards to go with 84 passing yards and three touchdown throws.
“The line really did everything,” Gaiser said. “The holes were open every time. I just tried to hit the holes as fast as I could. We keep building on the year and keep getting better each game.”
Harney, now a junior, played as a freshman on Beechwood’s state championship team, wanted to make this one mean a little bit more.
“I was known as Clay’s backup,” Harney said. “That kind of put a chip on my shoulder and a grudge, I hated that.”
CovCath gets Holmes next week on the road in a Thursday night district tilt, Beechwood hosts Gallatin County to get their district play underway.
Some more photos of Friday night’s contest, provided by Charles Bolton:
COLONELS 49, TIGERS 28
BEECHWOOD — 0-14-7-7 — 28
COVINGTON CATHOLIC — 7-13-8-21 — 49
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
(CC) Bessler 7-yard run (:40) Urti kick
2nd Quarter
(CC) Pitzer 2-yard run (6:24) Urti kick
(B) Hayden 7-yard pass to Flaherty (2:23) Lair kick
(CC) Pitzer 7-yard run (:43) Kick failed
(B) Pabst 96-yard kickoff return (:29) Lair kick
3rd Quarter
(B) Hayden 16-yard pass to Flaherty (8:10) Lair kick
(CC) Harney 18-yard pass to Gaiser (3:45) Harney run
4th Quarter
(CC) Harney 21-yard pass to Gaiser (11:52) Urti kick
(CC) Harney 7-yard pass to Guard (9:43) Urti kick
(CC) Bessler 20-yard run (1:34) Urti kick
(B) Pabst 91-yard kickoff return (1:21) Lair kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Beechwood 156 (Hayden 11/22, 2 TD, INT), CovCath 84 (Harney 8/13, 3 TD)
Rushing Yards: Beechwood 65 (Flaherty 16-59, Hayden 1-6), CovCath 561 (Gaiser 14-208, Bessler 8-170, Harney 17-138, Pitzer 5-37, Sanning 1-7)
Receiving Beechwood (Flaherty 4-49, Pabst 3-47, Cusick 2-34, Flesch 1-21, Arrasmith 1-5), CovCath (Gaiser 2-36, Krallman 1-15, Link 1-13, Kruer 1-7, Guard 1-7, Sanning 1-6, Bradshaw 1-0)
Turnovers: Beechwood 1, CovCath 0
Penalties: Beechwood 2-11, CovCath 1-5
First Downs: Beechwood 12, CovCath 27
Records: Beechwood 4-1, Covington Catholic 3-2