Goal-line stand helps Tates Creek take down district rival Dunbar. ‘Our kids are growing.’

Second-year Tates Creek coach Jonathan Hawks’ reconstruction of the Commodores football program at some point had to include a win against Paul Laurence Dunbar, the three-time defending champions of their district.

It didn’t matter that the host Bulldogs were 1-5 going into Friday night’s matchup at Jon R. Akers Stadium. Tates Creek hadn’t beaten Dunbar since 2019, a span of five games.

And it maybe didn’t help that the Commodores had lost three straight this season heading into their district schedule. Or did it?

“It’s been hard, but our kids have been resilient,” Hawks said of his team’s losses to Frederick Douglass, Bryan Station and Ballard, all top-10 teams in Class 6A. “I’ve told many people when they ask ‘how are we doing?’ I say, ‘man, our kids are growing.’ They have no fear of playing top-10 teams. They know that’s what we have to do in order to get better as a program.”

The Commodores (4-3) snapped all their losing streaks Friday with a 42-21 win over the host Bulldogs, taking the first step toward winning their first Class 6A District 7 championship since making it all the way to the state semifinals in 2019. They’ve had three losing seasons since.

“It feels good to beat any team, but it feels good to beat Dunbar,” Tates Creek senior quarterback Andrew Witherington said. “We just really came together as an offense. We put a lot of pieces together, worked on a lot of stuff and didn’t try to do too much.”

Witherington threw for 216 yards and two TDs and ran for 75 yards and two more scores while the Commodores’ defense clamped down on the Bulldogs in the second half.

“Right now, we’re missing about three players on the defensive side of the ball, so our younger players stepped up tonight,” Hawks said. “Our captain, Logan Julian, rallied our guys to the ball and made sure they were fighting just like he was.”

The defensive performance included denying Dunbar a tying score in the third quarter with a critical goal-line stand. Julian and Michael Winn combined on the tackle of Dunbar running back Noe Kayembe at the 2-yard line with the Bulldogs trying for a tying touchdown with 11:54 left in the game and the Commodores leading 28-21.

“We just knew what we had to do and we knew we had to get the offense the ball back,” Julian said.

Kayembe gashed the Commodores’ defense for 123 yards rushing and had a 26-yard score on Dunbar’s previous possession. With a first-and-goal at the Tates Creek 9-yard line, Dunbar tried to pound the ball into the end zone on four consecutive rushes by two different backs to no avail.

“We just had to stay calm. Things are going to happen,” Julian said. “We’re not going to get the best result out of every play, but if we stay calm and get our communication down and all of us get that right, we’ll be all right in the end.”

Early on, the contest looked like it would be a shootout. Dunbar took four plays to score on a 63-yard pass from Ethan Teall to Harrison Simpson after the opening kickoff.

Tates Creek answered with three consecutive touchdown drives that were capped by a 3-yard TD run by Tony Bell, a 9-yard TD run by Mar’Quevion Smith and a 33-yard TD pass from Witherington to Luke Cooper.

Dunbar responded with a 6-yard TD pass from Teall to Mason VanDyke just before halftime. The Bulldogs overcame penalties and converted two fourth down plays during the drive, including the final play for the score with 30 seconds left in the second quarter. Tates Creek led 21-14 at halftime, but had a fight on its hands.

“They understood we were playing a really good Dunbar team, regardless of their record,” Hawks said. “I have a lot of respect for Coach Wes Johnson, and I knew he’d have his team prepared to play.”

After the goal-line stand, Tates Creek was able to gain enough yards to flip the field position game back in its favor and its defense held Dunbar to a single yard on its next drive.

The Commodores then blocked Ethan Teall’s punt and took possession on the Dunbar 7-yard line.

Two plays later, Witherington rolled right and dove for the pylon to put Tates Creek up 35-21. Creek tacked on an 11-yard TD pass to Mason Jackson in the final minute that didn’t sit well with Dunbar’s players, but the coaches shook hands after the game.

Tates Creek has a bye week ahead of its final three games. Wins against 1-5 Lafayette and 0-6 Henry Clay would mean a district title. A victory over 5-2 West Jessamine would mean a winning season..

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Hawks said.