By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matter Sports Reporter
INDEPENDENCE
– The Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds needed to control the line of
scrimmage in order to have a chance Friday.
Instead,
the host Simon Kenton Pioneers did that in a 30-7 non-district victory here.
The Thoroughbreds (1-3) have dropped three in a row to bigger schools for the
second straight year and Simon Kenton remained undefeated at 4-0.
Simon
Kenton outgained NewCath, 335-137 in total offense, including 237-107 through the
air. Pioneer quarterback Brenan Kuntz completed 19-of-29 passes for 257 yards
and three touchdowns in the win. He often hurt NewCath when he broke outside
containment.
“That was absolutely a big part of the game,” said Dan Wagner, NewCath Head Coach. “We spent a lot of time on the field
defensively and you can’t let a kid of that caliber have that much time and
make that many plays or he’s going to hurt you and he did.”
Kuntz
completed most of his passes to senior wide receiver Grant Wassom. Wassom had seven
catches for 123 yards. Sophomore Dillion Powell led the Pioneers with 13 rushes
for 79 yards.
It did not
help that NewCath played without several key players in the loss. Senior
offensive and defensive lineman Stephen Brooks, senior offensive lineman/defensive
end Matt Lenz, junior offensive/defensive lineman Jacob Wieland, senior and
sophomore defensive end/wide receiver Luke Kues did not play and Wagner said
they’ll probably be out next week. That left NewCath down to its fourth-string
center.
“(Simon Kenton) is just bigger and
stronger than us up front,” Wagner
said. “We have to get better. We’re
banged up and playing a lot of young kids on the offensive line. Our kids know
we’re in a tough hole. We’ll keep positive and keep working hard. We don’t know
what else to do.”
NewCath did
not do much offensively until its second to last possession. Quarterback Mac
Franzen completed 11-of-26 passes for 107 yards, one touchdown and two
interceptions. Gray caught two passes for 47 yards to lead the Thoroughbreds.
No NewCath player rushed for more than 24 yards.
Simon
Kenton Head Coach Jeff Marksberry said the staff’s big concerns defensively
were containing Franzen on scrambles up the middle and the Thoroughbred bubble
screens. The Pioneers contained both.
“They (Pioneer defenders) were physical and ran to the
ball well,” Marksberry said. “It looked like they knew what NewCath was
going to do. They prepared well this week and you could tell.”
Penalties kept the Pioneers from more scores. Simon Kenton had eight
for 45 yards to NewCath’s two for 10 years. The Pioneers had five false start
penalties for 25 yards in the first half. That put them in fourth-and-long on
several drives inside the NewCath 20 that they did not convert.
“The sad thing is I think we’d been
penalized three times in our first three games,” Marksberry said. “We’d
been playing really clean. I don’t know what the deal was. I know we weren’t
very crisp in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. I tell the kids all the time
you’re going to play like you practice. I hope (Friday) illustrated that. I
hope they saw that and will take that to heart.”
Defensively,
NewCath sacked Kuntz three times. Jack Sutkamp, Jacob Smith and Kalvin Moore
recorded one each. Smith also recovered a Simon Kenton fumble in the end zone.
Simon
Kenton led 8-0 after the first quarter. The Pioneers scored just 2:01 into the
game when Kuntz completed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Wassom before Powell
completed the two-point pass to Logan Winkler out of the swinging gate
formation.
The
Pioneers extended the margin to 16-0 in the second quarter. Powell hauled in a
5-yard pass in the left flat for the score with 3:28 left in the half and
Powell added the two-point run.
Simon
Kenton then looked to use its depth to put the game away in the second half. The
Pioneers do not have players going both directions while the Thoroughbreds do.
Powell
extended the Simon Kenton lead to 23-0 just 1:35 into the second half and Tyler
Smith added the extra point before the Pioneers made it 30-0 with 7:53
remaining. Kuntz completed a 14-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Heflin and Smith
added the extra point after Simon Kenton intercepted a NewCath attempted screen
pass.
The
Thoroughbreds did avert their first shutout since a 45-0 loss to Ryle on Sept.
12, 2009 with a late touchdown. Franzen completed a 34-yard touchdown pass over
the middle to Gray and Wyatt Boberg added the extra-point kick.
NewCath
finishes its run of three straight games against Class 6A, District 6 opponents
next week with a trip to Dixie Heights on Friday at 7 p.m. The Colonels (2-1)
have won two in a row after beating Cincinnati Turpin, 38-7 on Friday.
