We made it!
The KHSAA football regular season has reached its end and it’s now a race to the first week of December at Kroger Field in Lexington.
This will be the last of the prep football standouts/takeaways for the season as we shift our focus to solely on the postseason.
See below from Week 11 on the gridiron that was.
Here are the top passers, rushers, receivers, defensive and kicking standouts from the final week of the regular season.
And the final 10 takeaways included:
10 takeaways
— Conner’s regular season ended with an improbable comeback and overtime victory. Trailing 31-19 with under three minutes remaining, the Cougars scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick and went ahead 34-31 with under a minute to play. Henry Clay drove down to tie the game up with a field goal, where the Cougars eventually won in overtime. Grayson Montgomery threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns, Shepherd Dozier hauling in 14 passes for 188 yards and three touchdowns.
— Cooper’s 55-29 victory was quite the night for two Jaguars. Cam O’Hara threw eight touchdown passes, a program record and tying Highlands grad Gino Guidugli for most in a game in NKY and one shy of the state record. Ryker Campbell caught six touchdown passes, which was also a program record.
— Scott’s Trey Cook set the program record for passing touchdowns in a game with seven in their 54-0 victory over Holmes. It’s just a shame it had to happen the way it did. Throwing the ball up 48-0 in the final minute of a running clock game with starters in? (Nothing against Trey by the way, solid two-sport athlete.)
— Newport Central Catholic’s Eddie Bivens had quite the day in the Thoroughbreds 42-21 victory over Mason County. Bivens ran for 174 yards and three touchdowns, had two catches for 41 yards and a touchdown and also picked off a pass on defense. Bivens is at 939 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns on the season while also catching 20 passes for 218 yards and three touchdowns. NewCath ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak to get to 6-4.
— Beechwood’s high-flying offense finished the season with 516 points while the stingy defense allowed just 80 points. The 516 points leads the state, the 80 points allowed is fourth in the state. Despite their dominance, they’re most likely going to have to win on the road in the state semifinals if they reach that point.
— Newport’s offense has 98 points scored in their last two games. If they can continue that kind of production on that side of the ball mixed in with their defense, they can make some noise in the Class A playoffs. A potential matchup with Holy Cross in the second round is intriguing.
— Holy Cross and Lloyd Memorial finished off their 10-0 regular seasons. It was the first in program history for the Indians, the first since 1995 for the Juggernauts. They are just two of 10 programs in the state to finish the regular season undefeated. The others are Middlesboro (1A), Prestonsburg (2A), Christian Academy-Louisville (3A), Murray (3A), Glasgow (3A), Johnson Central (4A), Franklin County (4A) and South Warren (6A).
— Some of your more intriguing first round playoff matchups in NKY:
-South Oldham at Cooper
-Oldham County at Simon Kenton
-Collins at Dixie Heights
-Bellevue at Bishop Brossart
-Walton-Verona at Morgan County
— The last and final RPI update:
-In 6A: Ryle No. 6, Simon Kenton No. 15, Campbell County No. 19
-In 5A: Cooper No. 9, Conner No. 18, Dixie Heights No. 20, Boone County No. 24, Scott No. 35 (eliminated from playoffs)
-In 4A: Highlands No. 4, Covington Catholic No. 9
-In 3A: Lloyd Memorial No. 2
-In 2A: Beechwood No. 5, Walton-Verona No. 31, St. Henry No. 35
-In 1A: Newport Central Catholic No. 6, Holy Cross No. 8, Newport No. 11, Bishop Brossart No. 16, Bellevue No. 17, Ludlow No. 23 and Dayton No. 25.
— I’ll explain what these RPI ratings mean for the third round and beyond later in the week. I’ll also forecast the third and fourth round playoff matchups if things hold true to form (they won’t), but still fun to look ahead.
200-yard passers
Cam O’Hara, Cooper — 19/32, 453 yards, 8 TD
Grayson Montgomery, Conner — 26/40, 341 yards, 4 TD
Landon Spaulding, Bishop Brossart — 15/27, 322 yards, 3 TD
Emmett Queen, Beechwood — 14/20, 277 yards, 5 TD
Trey Cook, Scott — 16/22, 278 yards, 7 TD
Jackson Mays, Ludlow — 16/20, 270 yards, 2 TD
100-yard rushers
Kendall Buck-Barber, Newport — 22 rushes, 239 yards, 3 TD
Eddie Bivens, Newport Central Catholic — 17 rushes, 174 yards, 3 TD
Emmanuel Miles, Newport Central Catholic — 17 rushes, 146 yards, 2 TD
Brian Ferguson, Holy Cross — 9 rushes, 137 yards, 3 TD
Charles Oglesby, Holy Cross — 18 rushes, 137 yards
Bently McKinzie, Bishop Brossart — 23 rushes, 127 yards, TD
Jacob Savage, Ryle — 9 rushes, 111 yards, 3 TD
Keagan Maher, Cooper — 22 rushes, 105 yards
Landon Brown, Simon Kenton — 16 rushes, 104 yards
100-yard receivers
Ryker Campbell, Cooper — 8 receptions, 278 yards, 6 TD
Tyler Fryman, Beechwood – 8 receptions, 194 yards, 4 TD
Shepherd Dozier, Conner — 14 receptions, 188 yards, 3 TD
Nicholas Cozzi, Bishop Brossart — 4 receptions, 131 yards, 2 TD
Defensive standouts
Austin Grant Ashcraft, Ludlow — 22 tackles, tackle for loss
Javier Diaz, Boone County — 16 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, sack
Alexander Yutze, Walton-Verona — 14 tackles, 2 tackles for loss
Jacob Savage, Ryle — 12 tackles, interception
Ashton Hummel, Ludlow — 12 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, sack
Joesiah Hernandez, Conner — 12 tackles
Max Wethington, Cooper — 11 tackles, tackle for loss sack
Dax Bolen, Cooper — 11 tackles
Jason Rabe, Simon Kenton — 11 tackles
Cooper Burch, Walton-Verona — 10 tackles, 3 tackles for loss
Alex Riedinger, Campbell County — 10 tackles, tackle for loss
Elijah Depperschmidt, Campbell County — 10 tackles, tackle for loss, sack
Tyler Crafton, Ludlow — 10 tackles, tackle for loss
Henry Krallman, Conner — 10 tackles
Dakota Daniels, Boone County — 9 tackles, 5 tackles for loss
Shawn Sinkhorn, Walton-Verona — 9 tackles, 2 tackles for loss
Dustin Wilson, Holy Cross — 9 tackles, tackle for loss, sack
Lucas Walton, Bellevue — 9 tackles, tackle for loss
DeMareon Peterson, Lloyd Memorial — 9 tackles, tackle for loss
Lincoln Tomlinson, Lloyd Memorial — 9 tackles, tackle for loss
Garrett Frederick, Holy Cross — 8 tackles, tackle for loss, sack
Trevin Figgs, Holy Cross — 8 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, .5 sack
Andrew Smith, Ryle — 8 tackles, .5 tackle for loss
Brayden Schoborg, Simon Kenton — 8 tackles, sack
Jeremiah Sanchez, Boone County — 8 tackles
Nick Strunk, Cooper — 8 tackles
Elijah Brandt, Newport — 8 tackles
Shouncey Wynn, Ryle — 8 tackles
Andre Englemon Jr., Ludlow — 7 tackles, interception
Kayne Ross, Bellevue — 7 tackles, tackle for loss, fumble recovery
Avery Conrad, Lloyd Memorial — 7 tackles, fumble recovery
Quentin Tischner, Bishop Brossart — 7 tackles, tackle for loss, sack
Shepherd Dozier, Conner — 7 tackles, tackle for loss
Jacob Rieselman, Holy Cross — 7 tackles, tackle for loss, .5 sack
Kai Workman, Ryle — 7 tackles, tackle for loss, .5 sack
Brayden Ennis, Scott — 6 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, fumble forced
Matthew Riegler, Bishop Brossart — 6 tackles, tackle for loss, sack, fumble recovery
Travis Keen, Conner — 6 tackles, 3 tackles for loss
Joel Mazala, Boone County — 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, sack
Hunter Rose, Boone County — 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss
Max Hunt, Holy Cross — 6 tackles, tackle for loss, sack
Landon Ruth, Bishop Brossart — 5 tackles, tackle for loss, 2 sacks
Kaiden Bohn, Scott — 5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss. .5 sack, fumble recovery
Brody Aylor, Beechwood — 4 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 sacks
Andrew Lynn, Walton-Verona — 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, sack, interception
Tyler Fryman, Beechwood — 4 tackles, interception
Colin Morris, Beechwood — 4 tackles, interception
Kevin Buanga, Cooper — 4 tackles, fumble recovery
Owen Flamm, Cooper — 4 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks
Brady Boruske, Bishop Brossart — 3 tackles, 2 interceptions
Jaxon Miller, Bishop Brossart — 3 tackles, tackle for loss, sack, fumble recovery
Mason McKinzie, Bishop Brossart — 3 tackles, interception
Colten Barger, Lloyd Memorial — 3 tackles, interception
Ryder Brewer, Newport — 3 tackles, fumble recovery
Benjamin William Contreras, Boone County — 3 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, sack
Derrick Fortner, Bellevue — 2 tackles, tackle for loss, sack, fumble recovery
Issac Amin, Bishop Brossart — 2 interceptions
Kaydenn Marshall, Scott — fumble recovery, interception
Alijah Griffin, Lloyd Memorial — interception
Dominick Taylor, Lloyd Memorial — interception
Landen Yates, Ludlow — interception
Eddie Bivens, Newport Central Catholic — interception
Thomas Messmer, Newport Central Catholic — interception
William Stevie, Newport Central Catholic — interception
Ryan Miller, Lloyd Memorial — fumble recovery
Aiden Tillman, Newport Central Catholic — fumble recovery
Kicking standouts
Colson Lair, Beechwood — 5/5 PAT, 1/1 FG
Gavin Moses, Ryle — 8/8 PAT
Eyler Tibbs, Cooper — 7/7 PAT
Finn McMillan, Ludlow — 3/3 PAT, 1/1 FG
Vincent Mazzoca, Newport Central Catholic — 3/3 PAT
Max Meyer, Newport Central Catholic — 3/3 PAT
Miles Mullen, Simon Lenton — 3/3 PAT
Missing stats from: Dayton, Dixie Heights, Holmes, St. Henry