Covington Catholic didn’t need style points Friday night.
It needed muscle.
After three first-half turnovers put the Colonels in a 14-7 deficit against rival Beechwood, CovCath went back to its identity — a bruising ground game that wears teams down. And once the engine got rolling, there was no stopping it.
The Colonels hammered out 486 rushing yards and six touchdowns in a 42-14 victory, scoring the game’s final 35 points to seize control in one of Northern Kentucky’s most anticipated rivalries.
“When we weren’t hurting ourselves, good things were happening,” Colonels coach Eddie Eviston said. “So that’s what we told them halftime. They haven’t stopped us yet, we’ve been stopping ourselves too many times. So once we did that, stuck the ball on the ground and let our o-line lead us.”
The 1-2 punch of Dylan Gaiser and Cash Harney set the tone. Gaiser churned out 188 yards and three scores, while Harney added 161 yards and two touchdowns — including the game’s defining moment just before halftime.
With the clock ticking down and CovCath clinging to a 14-14 tie, Harney took a snap up the middle, bounced right, then cut all the way back across the field. He slipped one tackle, turned the corner, and suddenly had daylight down the sideline. Seventy-one yards later, he was in the end zone, the Colonels had the lead, and Beechwood’s momentum had vanished.
“That was a bunch of yards. I was tired after,” Harney said. “I felt like I needed to do something after the two turnovers they were on me and needed to do something to get our team back to a high standard and felt like that set the tone for the second half.”
That score made it 21-14 at the break, and the second half was all Colonels. With a clear message in the locker room — run it until they stop it — CovCath lined up and pounded away. They ran the ball 24 times against just three pass attempts in the game’s final 24 minutes, chewing up 246 rushing yards while shutting Beechwood out.
“They make their blocks. They make guys miss. We didn’t get off blocks. We definitely didn’t make any tackles,” Tigers coach Jay Volker said. “We knew going into it whoever wins up front is going to win the game.”
Gaiser’s bruising touchdown runs of three and 23 yards put the game out of reach, before Mac Cogswell capped the night with a 66-yard burst in the closing minutes.
“Just do what they can’t stop us and just keep doing it,” Gaiser said. “If they can’t stop it, just keep doing it.”
Even the defense fed off the physicality. After surrendering a 52-yard Nathan Pabst run on Beechwood’s first play of the second half, CovCath locked in, holding the Tigers to just 101 yards the rest of the way. Freshman Brandon Smith’s interception in the red zone later in the third was Beechwood’s last real threat.
The Tigers (3-1) had started fast, cashing in on turnovers with an Emmett Queen 60-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Fryman and a 1-yard keeper from Queen to go up 14-7. But once Harney flipped the momentum, Beechwood’s defense couldn’t get off the field, and its 13-game winning streak — dating back nearly a year — was over.
Still, there’s a familiar path forward. Last season, a loss to CovCath was the spark for a 10-game run that ended with a state championship.
“Now we evaluate everything. Now we get to see what our guys are good at,” Volker said. “Honestly, if we win that game, it’s hard to evaluate. We probably feel pretty good about it, and we just keep doing what we’re doing, even if we’re not schematically perfect. I think we got to get in better shape. I don’t think we’re in very good shape. Maybe that’s from only having to play two quarters in the last three games, but we got guys playing one way that aren’t in shape. So we’ll put it on our sports performance coach to get them faster, stronger, in better shape and then it’s going to put it on us to as coaches to make sure that our scheme is a little bit more sound than what it was tonight, but we have to continue to get better. The ultimate goal is still there.”
For CovCath (3-2), though, the statement was loud and clear. Just three weeks ago, the Colonels looked vulnerable at 0-2. Now, behind a stout run game, they look like a team hitting its stride.
“We’re playing well,” Eviston said. “We got some injury bugs hitting us right now, but we’ve got to continue the next man up. Obviously got a tough, tough go right now in the schedule, but we’re ready to go back to work tomorrow and see what next week brings.”
The Colonels are also facing what they hope is a similar path. After starting 0-2 last year, they won 11 straight and advanced all the way to the state semifinals.
The Colonels will look to make it four in a row when they travel to Louisville Central next week. Beechwood begins their district slate with a home game against Owen County.
PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton
COLONELS 42, TIGERS 14
COVINGTON CATHOLIC — 7-14-0-21 — 42
BEECHWOOD — 7-7-0-0 — 14
Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
(CC) Gaiser 2-yard run (2:04) Zembrodt kick
(B) Queen 60-yard pass to Fryman (:44) Mercer kick
2nd Quarter
(B) Queen 1-yard run (7:02) Mercer kick
(CC) Harney 3-yard run (3:15) Zembrodt kick
(CC) Harney 71-yard run (:17) Zembrodt kick
4th Quarter
(CC) Gaiser 3-yard run (11:56) Zembrodt kick
(CC) Gaiser 23-yard run (5:34) Zembrodt kick
(CC) Cogswell 66-yard run (3:39) Zembrodt kick
Game Stats
Passing Yards: CovCath 44 (Harney 4/7, INT), Beechwood 208 (Queen 17/28, TD, 2 INT)
Rushing Yards: CovCath 486 (Gaiser 23-188, Harney 13-161, Cogswell 1-66, Sanning 4-61, Pitzer 1-10), Beechwood 148 (Pabst 8-75, Fryman 7-43, Queen 6-25, Sowder 2-5)
Receiving: CovCath (Gaiser 1-14, Brooks 1-12, Pitzer 1-9, Clukey 1-9), Beechwood (Fryman 5-99, Arrasmith 4-47, Pabst 4-34, Sowder 3-16, Siemer 1-11)
Penalties: CovCath 3-32, Beechwood 4-45
Turnovers: CovCath 3, Beechwood 2
First Downs: CovCath 22, Beechwood 16
Records: Covington Catholic 3-2, Beechwood 3-1