Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
The
combination of the visitors’ running game and special teams spelled doom for
the hosts on Friday near Pikeville.
The Newport
Central Catholic Thoroughbreds had two punt returns and saw junior running back
Jacob Smith run wild in a 43-16 Class 2A semifinal win over the Shelby Valley
Wildcats (11-3).
NewCath
(8-5) won its 13th straight semifinal contest using its experience. Teams have
to generally win three playoff contest to make it to the state semifinals. The
Thoroughbreds have only lost in the state semifinals once to Somerset back in
1983.
“We jumped on them early,” said Dan Wagner, NewCath Head Coach. “With the offense they run, we knew they’d
be in trouble. It worked out the way we wanted it.”
Shelby
Valley had only won two playoff games between 1998 and last year. The last one
came in 2009.
The
Wildcats outgained the Thoroughbreds, 257-250 in total offense and gained nine
first downs to three for NewCath. But most of those yards came in the second
half.
Smith
rushed for 218 yards on nine carries and three touchdowns. He also returned a
punt for a touchdown and John Harris rushed for another.
The
Thoroughbreds returned two punts for a touchdown. Nate Enslen had the other.
NewCath
focused on Shelby Valley running backs Chandler Rowe and Kasey Tackett. Rowe
rushed for 173 yards on 22 carries and Tackett finished with 56 on 14 carries
in the Double-Slot Wing-T offense.
“They’re more athletic than you think,” Wagner said. “They
have some nice players. We had to take (Rowe) and (Tackett) out of the ballgame
and we did a good job of that. They had just one big drive in the first half of
60 yards.”
The teams
combined for four yards passing. Shelby Valley quarterback Donavon Layne
completed one of his two passes for those four yards.
NewCath
forced the running clock in the second quarter. They led 28-0 after the first
quarter. Smith recorded a 53-yard touchdown run just 22 seconds into the game
before Enslen returned a punt 65 yards with 9:19 left in the quarter.
The Thoroughbreds
had two more rushing touchdowns in the quarter. The first came with 5:25
remaining when Harris scored from five yards out and the other came with 3:28
left in the game when Smith recorded a 48-yard run.
NewCath put
the game away in the second quarter. Smith had a 78-yard touchdown run and
quarterback Patrick Henschen completed the two-point pass to Brandon Gray to
give the Thoroughbreds a 36-0 advantage.
The final
Thoroughbred score came with 1:46 left in the half. Smith had a 71-yard punt
return to put NewCath up 43-0 at halftime.
Shelby
Valley scored its two touchdowns in the third quarter. Tackett had a 20-yard
run with 7:41 left in that stanza and Rowe ran it in from 31 yards out.
The
Thoroughbreds take on Louisville DeSales (13-1) for the Class 2A state
championship at Western Kentucky University on Friday at 3:30 p.m. DeSales beat
NewCath, 34-26 in the title game last year.
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