Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
Coming off
its most complete game of the year, the Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds
football team faces another potential challenge from a bigger school in
non-district action.
The 2-3
Thoroughbreds travel to Covington to face the improved 3-2 Holmes Bulldogs on
Friday. The Bulldogs time finished 4-7 last year in Terry Liggin’s first
season. They finished third in Class 4A, District 7 behind Highlands and
Covington Catholic before losing 66-20 at Johnson Central in the first round of
the playoffs.
Holmes
defeated Scott and 1A power Beechwood to open the season before losing on the
road to two undefeated teams in Simon Kenton and Cooper. They opened district
action with a 64-7 win at Pendleton County on Friday.
The only
common opponent is 6-0 Simon Kenton. The Pioneers beat the Bulldogs, 31-7 on
Sept. 7 in a game called at halftime because of lightning. Simon Kenton held
off NewCath, 28-20 at Newport Stadium eight days later in a game the
Thoroughbreds had a chance to tie before fumbling at the Pioneer 5 on 4th-and-2
with less than two minutes left in the game.
“(The Bulldogs) have very good talent and speed,” said Eddie Eviston, NewCath head coach. “It looks as if they are buying in (to
Liggins) and they do some things really well.”
Holmes’ quarterback
is Rashawn Colston. Their main offensive threats are running back Jonathan
Scruggs and wide receiver Desean Peterson. The NCC 4-4 defense will face a Holmes
offense that runs unorthodox Wing-T and Spread sets. The Bulldogs have a
Diamond shotgun package where two running backs line up next to Colston and
another behind him.
The
Bulldogs are outscoring opponents by an average of 25-20.6. Conversely, the
Thoroughbreds are outscoring the opposition, 31-23.8. NewCath has yielded 745
yards rushing and 783 passing for an average of 305.6 yards a contest.
NewCath
runs a spread offense. The Thoroughbreds average 348.4 yards per contest
offensively behind a good offensive line. They’ve run for 843 and passed for 899
yards offensively. Dylan Hayes leads NewCath with 523 yards rushing on 78
carries with eight touchdowns for an average of just more than 6.7 a carry.
“We’re getting a lot better at blocking,” said Steve Schneider, NewCath senior offensive right
guard. “We’re getting healthy and
knowing the formations and who to block is making us better. The (offensive)
line has had two good days (of practice) this week – a lot of energy.”
NewCath
quarterback Josh Cain has completed 68-of-108 passes for 899 yards and eight
touchdowns to 11 different receivers. Mac Franzen leads the Thoroughbreds with
23 catches for 442 yards and two touchdowns. Pete Collopy and Tyler Lyon also
have two touchdown receptions for NewCath.
Defensively,
Franzen leads the team with two interceptions. Teammate Mason Myers has two
fumble recoveries.
Eviston said
the injury situation is the about the same as last week. Several key players
are back but still nursing a few things with three or four players still out
for a while.
“It’s that time of the year, the heart of your season,
in which teams just have to grind,”
Eviston said. “I honestly believe the
teams that can practice well right now and truly focus on their task at hand
will be the teams that will be the most competitive at the end of the year. We
are preaching that as much as possible to our kids, and even though we have our
moments, our kids are working hard.”
Game time is
7 p.m.
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