Camels hand Thoroughbreds 30-17 defeat

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds football team played better than the first game.

But the Thoroughbreds (0-2) could not make the plays they needed in a 30-17 loss to the Campbell County Camels on Friday. NewCath has lost three straight in the series to Campbell County.

“The effort was good,” said Dan Wagner, Thoroughbred Head Coach. “If we keep making strikes this week to the next week, we’ll be fine. We had a couple breakdowns we have to fix. We gave them a touchdown we shouldn’t have.”

Sophomore quarterback Patrick Henschen made his first varsity start for NewCath. He completed 15-of-20 passes for 162 yards. Brandon Gray had seven of those catches for 68 yards and Jacob Smith had four for 56 yards.

The total plays for each team were nearly even. The Camels ran 57 to 53 for the Thoroughbreds.

Campbell County ran the ball better going for 197 yards on 40 carries. Junior quarterback Carson Plessinger led the way going for 75 yards on 19 carries and three touchdowns. Plessinger ran for 135 yards on 35 carries in the 23-16 loss to Highlands a week ago. Senior running back Josh Carroll had 47 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown.

Plessinger also completed 8-of-17 passes for 88 yards. Junior Tight End Eric Bingham led the way with two catches for 46 yards.

On the other side, NewCath rushed for minus-one yards as the Camels sacked Henschen six times. Smith had 17 carries for 45 yards.

Campbell County scored first and never looked back. Senior Strong Safety Kyle Edgley sacked Henschen in the end zone with 3:12 left in the first quarter.

Plessinger scored his first touchdown with 10:09 left in the half from a yard out and sophomore Trey Schierenbeck made the extra-point attempt. The Camels led 9-7 at that point.

But NewCath came back and Smith scored from the samd distance. Ryan Hans made the extra-point kick with 5:29 left to cut the score to 9-7.

Campbell County picked up some momentum going into halftime. Plessinger scored from seven yards out with 1:24 left to give the Camels a 16-7 halftime advantage.

The Camels pulled away in the third quarter. Caroll scored from seven yards out with 10:42 left in that quarter and Plessinger scored from 10 yards out with 6:04 left in that quarter.

The Thoroughbreds scored their final 10 points in the fourth. Smith scored on an 11-yard run with 8:23 left before Hans made a 28-yard field goal with 4.2 seconds remaning.

NewCath has faced Class 5A and 6A schools in recent years. The Thoroughbreds finished 1-4 against them last year and 1-2 against them in 2012.

“You’re never happy with a loss,” Wagner said. “We’d like to have more schools our size play us. But we have to go with what we got.”

NewCath welcomes the undefeated Simon Kenton Pioneers (3-0) to Newport Stadium on Friday. Game time is 7 p.m.