By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
The Newport
Central Catholic Thoroughbreds football team can easily add this clause to the
old saying, “Winning is contagious.”
Shutting
out second-round Class 2A playoff opponents is also contagious.
The
Thoroughbreds did that for the third straight year and fifth time since 2004
with a 36-0 blanking of the Walton-Verona Bearcats on Friday at Newport
Stadium. The 8-4 Thoroughbreds advanced to their 14th consecutive regional
title game as a result.
“This was the best game we’ve had so far other than
that one drive where we had some penalties,” said Dan Wagner, NewCath Head Coach. “All you want to do is try to keep getting better. I said from the
beginning that it’s amazing that you don’t have to tell these kids to work
hard. We go out and off they go. It’s all a credit to the seniors.”
NewCath blanked
Covington Holy Cross (52-0) last year in the second round and Lloyd Memorial
(49-0) the year before. The other two second-round shutouts came in 2007, also
against Holy Cross (28-0) and in 2004 against Fairview (42-0).
NewCath has
not lost in the second round of the playoffs since 1999. That came in the form
of a 28-6 loss to Bellevue.
The
Thoroughbreds also recorded their third shutout of the season. They blanked
Bishop Brossart (41-0) and Covington Holy Cross (48-0) in district action
during the regular season.
The
Thoroughbreds dominated the line of scrimmage against the Bearcats (9-3).
NewCath gained 492 yards of total offense and 16 first downs on 50 plays to 168
yards and eight first downs on 55 plays for Walton-Verona.
Defensively,
NewCath focused on Walton-Verona junior running back Mason Compton. He finished
with 100 yards rushing on 26 carries.
“I can live with that,” Wagner said. “We
stuck them pretty hard. In the first quarter, we roughed the kicker and gave
them a few more downs but after that, we stopped them and they really didn’t
get close (to scoring). I’m happy with the way they performed (defensively).”
NewCath did
most of its damage on the ground rushing the ball 40 times for 372 yards. Senior
quarterback Mac Franzen led the way gaining 179 yards on 12 carries to go with
two touchdowns and sophomore Jacob Smith had 16 carries for 145 yards and a
score.
“The offensive line played really well,” said Dave Schneider, NewCath Offensive Coordinator. “They had a really nice week of practice
and they’re starting to gel. We ran a trap several times and they did a nice
job executing the trap. It will be interesting to see how we progress as teams
start to get better.”
Franzen
also completed 6-of-10 passes for 120 yards. He completed a 12-yard score to
Brandon Gray to give NewCath the only touchdown it needed in the second
quarter.
But Franzen
broke loose for a 94-yard touchdown run later in the quarter. That gave the
Thoroughbreds a 14-0 lead after John Caudill made the second of four
extra-point attempts.
The
Thoroughbreds added to their lead in the third quarter. Jack Sutkamp scored
from a yard out and Franzen scored on a 20-yard scamper to put NewCath up 29-0.
“They definitely trust (Franzen),” Schneider said. “He
is our leader. He’s done a nice job maturing into that position. It took a
while. But he’s done a nice job.”
NewCath
scored one more time in the fourth quarter. Smith scored on a 9-yard run.
Off to Warsaw:
NewCath
hopes to capture its 9th Region crown since 2000 on Friday at Gallatin County.
The
Wildcats downed Carroll County, 49-26 to make it to the regional title game for
the first time in school history with a school-record 10-2 record. They are in
their eighth season of varsity football and had just one playoff win prior to
this year. They moved into Class 2A in 2011.
“They run a Tony Franklin (Spread) system,” Wagner said. “It
similar to what Bellevue runs so we have to get prepared. It’s the first team
that we’ve seen throw the ball (a lot) in a while.”
The
Thoroughbreds have only faced the Wildcats twice in school history and they
happened to be in the first round of the playoffs the previous two years. NewCath
won last year’s game 49-13 after beating the Wildcats, 56-0 two years ago.
Gallatin
County does like to throw the ball. Quarterback Austin Chapman had completed
92-of-176 passes for 1,930 yards in 11 games for the District 5 champions, who
only beat one-win Holy Cross, 26-19 in the first round of the playoffs.
His leading
target has been Nate McCoy. McCoy has 47 catches for 1,062 yards and 13
touchdowns in the first 11 games.
The
Wildcats have had three players rush for more than 355 yards. Chris Brown leads
the way with 869 yards and 11 touchdowns.
NewCath is
a perfect 12-0 all-time against teams from District 5. The Thoroughbreds have
never played Trimble County.
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