The dreary weather may have cleared up in time for the game, but Newport Central Catholic battled their own storm Friday night.
The Thoroughbreds faltered with three costly turnovers, leading to a 29-7 defeat against Raceland in Park Hills at Covington Catholic High School.
They had a fumble on a kickoff return in the third quarter and fumbled on back-to-back to possessions in the fourth quarter. It was the third straight loss for the Thoroughbreds after a 3-0 start to the season.
“We kept giving them the football,” NewCath head coach Stephen Lickert said. “We can’t beat good teams like that. We’re not making plays and we keep turning it over. I’ve got to figure it out.”
Along with the turnovers, the ‘Breds struggled to find a rhythm on offense. Their only touchdown came with 1:05 to play in the first half through a Kaleb Cole one-yard run.
They had just 85 yards on offense to their 363 yard average on the season, also completing only five passes.
“Our defensive guys play with an edge,” Raceland head coach Michael Salmons said. “We felt like the one touchdown we did give up was a gift. Obviously (Kaleb) Cole is a prolific back and that was the number one thing in our game tonight. We had to take him away.”
To go with his touchdown, Cole had 52 rushing yards.
NewCath was neck-and-neck heading into the locker room tied at seven.
The Rams put two touchdowns on the board in the third quarter by doing what they did best, running the ball.
Parker Ison had a one-yard score and Landon Stiltner had a nine-yard score. All of a sudden it was 22-7 in Raceland’s favor.
They continued to pour it on with a Shannon Marushi four-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
They ended the night with 150 rushing yards, led by Stiltner with 52 of them. Quarterback Jacob Waller finished with 126 passing yards, including a 27-yard passing touchdown to Ayden Cooper. Landon Arnett was his leading receiver with 76 yards.
“We try to balance our run and pass combos,” Salmons said. “We thought we had some opportunities in the passing game and credit to them, they did a really good job taking away our run game early on, but I think as the game went on we kind of wore on them.”
Their only struggle came in the penalty category where they had eleven for 75 yards.
The Rams (2-3) were able to collect their second win of the season and their first since the second week of the season.
Newport Central Catholic (3-3) has a bye week then comes district play against Newport on Oct. 11
“We need to play better everywhere on our team,” Lickert said. “If we turn it over that many times against Newport, we’re going to lose our district. We’ve got things to fix.”
RAMS 29, THOROUGHBREDS 7
NEWPORT CENTRAL CATHOLIC — 0-7-0-0— 7
RACELAND — 0-7-15-7— 29
Scoring Plays
2nd Quarter
(R) Waller 27-yard pass to Cooper (11:29) Waller kick
(NCC) Cole 1-yard run (1:05) Collopy kick
3rd Quarter
(R) Ison 1-yard run (6:56) Waller kick
(R) Stiltner 9-yard run (4:37) Waller pass to Lockwood
4th Quarter
(R) Marushi 4-yard run (1:36) Waller kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Newport Central Catholic 24 (Miles 5/10, Collopy 0/1), Raceland 126 (Waller 13/21, Ison 0/1)
Rushing Yards: Newport Central Catholic 61 (Cole 12-52, Collopy 4-29, Bivens 2-3, Miles 5-(minus)23), Raceland 150 (Stiltner 25-72, Marushi 4-32, Ison 3-28, Cooper 5-12, Arnett 1-4, Waller 1-2)
Receiving: Newport Central Catholic (Kraft 1-11, Ford 1-10, Meyer 1-3, Collopy 1-2 Bivens 1-(minus)2), Raceland (Arnett 7-76, Cooper 1-27, Rowsey 2-13, Rister 1-6, Ison 1-2, Stiltner 1-2)
Turnovers: Newport Central Catholic 3, Raceland 0
Penalties: Newport Central Catholic 3-15, Raceland 11-75
Records: Newport Central Catholic 3-3, Raceland 2-3