Highlands continues District 7 action at Harrison County

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

It is a tale of two football teams at completely opposite ends of the Class 4A spectrum.

The Highlands Bluebirds sit pretty at 5-0 overall and 1-0 in District 7 action following a 35-21 win over Covington Catholic on Friday. Class 4A’s top-ranked squad owns a 25-game winning streak and is 78-2 since the start of 2007. The Bluebirds average 51.8 points, 7.4 touchdowns and 492.8 yards of offense per contest. Highlands’ average margin of victory is 28.8 points.

Highlands travels to Cynthiana on Friday to face a struggling Harrison County Thorobreds football team that has a new head coach in Jim Carr. Harrison County is 0-5 coming off a bye week and faces Highlands for its first district contest of the year. The Thorobreds average just 12.6 points and 213.4 yards a game.

Highlands won last year’s contest 68-0 and this year’s result could be similar based on two common opponents in Scott County and Mason County. A week after Highlands handed 2011 Class 6A state runner-up Scott County its only loss this year 60-37, Scott County manhandled Harrison County, 61-6. Mason County beat the Thorobreds, 37-22 on Sept. 7 before coming to Fort Thomas and losing 61-3 to the Bluebirds a week later.

Highlands just has to be itself to win this game. The Bluebirds wear teams down with their depth. They don’t plan to take their feet off the gas pedal even though they are heavy favorites. Teams often get upset when that happens.

“One thing about us offensively and defensively is we’re geared to adjust to whatever the other team is doing,” said Dale Mueller, Highlands Co-Head Coach. “This week is getting ready for Harrison County, but really, it is a lot more so getting better as a football team. Even (Tuesday at practice), we put our ones against our ones working on making blocks and getting off blocks.”

With their spread offense, teams don’t know if Highlands will pass a lot, run a lot or use a balanced attack on a weekly basis. The Bluebirds have run for 1,457 yards and passed for 1,007.

“It just says we’re a group of guys that work really hard to do a lot of things,” said Justin Weyer, Highlands sophomore wide receiver. “We have a lot of confidence in Coach Mueller that he’ll come up with great schemes to help us win the game.”

Highlands senior quarterback Donovan McCoy leads Highlands with 441 yards on 62 carries with 10 touchdowns for an average of just more than 7.1 a touch. Teammate Zach Harris has 392 yards on 66 carries with eight touchdowns for an average of just less than six yards a touch. Ryan Donovan, Colin Seidl and Jaylen Hayes have rushed for at least 168 yards for the Bluebirds.

McCoy has also completed 63-of-105 passes for 919 yards and 11 touchdowns. Fourteen different receivers have catches for Highlands. Luke Turner leads the way with 12 for 217 yards and Seidl has nine for 136. Nick True, Ryan Greene, Turner and Jac Collinsworth have two touchdown receptions a piece for the Bluebirds.

The Highlands defense is allowing 23 points per game but has improved in recent weeks. The Bluebirds just have to watch the trick plays. Covington Catholic and Scott County burned them for scores on those trick plays. Quentin Murray and Blake Schutte lead Highlands with two interceptions each.

“You just have to play your key better,” Schutte said of defending trick plays. “If you know what you need to do, things will play out right. We’re trying to get better and better.”

Harrison County has rushed for 628 yards and passed for 439. Deshon Talbott has 376 yards rushing on 47 carries with four touchdowns for an average of eight yards a carry. Quarterback Robbie Stroub has completed 26-of-55 passes for 354 yards. Harrison County’s leading receivers are Justin Hunter with 11 catches for 123 yards and LeeRonte Roberts with 10 catches for 205 yards.

Teams are scoring an average of 44.6 per contest against the Thorobreds. Robert Pawley has one interception for Harrison County.

“They play a very attacking defense,” Mueller said. “Mason County had a tough time getting the ball off against them. They were sending six, seven or eight guys regularly. With it being a new head coach, we’re not really sure what they’re going to wind up doing against us. We’re going into the game prepared for anything.”

Game time is 7:30 p.m. in Cynthiana.

Coaching Clarification:

After the win Friday against Covington Catholic, Mueller said to call himself and Brian Weinrich co-head coaches. The roster lists Mueller as Head Football Coach and Weinrich as Assistant Head Coach.

The two consult each other on a lot of aspects of the program. Mueller makes a lot of the decisions on offense and Weinrich on defense.

Mueller took over the program in 1994. Weinrich joined the staff a year later and has been the Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator for 10 years.