Highlights: Douglass gets road win at Trinity; Franklin County stuns Bryan Station
Highlights from Saturday’s Kentucky high school football games:
Frederick Douglass 17, Trinity 14: The Broncos’ defense held Trinity scoreless for the game’s first 43 minutes as it built a lead the Rocks’ could not overcome despite some late success.
Douglass (1-1) jumped on Trinity with a 32-yard Cooper Ranvier field goal and a Kaden Clay 21-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter. It then got a 69-yard TD pass from Jaxon Strautman to Derion Talbert to go up 17-0 with 8:42 to play.
“It’s early in the season, but I thought our defense was really, really good,” Douglass Coach Nathan McPeek said. “Trinity’s good on defense, too. We did enough offensively to be in the mix.”
Trinity capitalized on an interception midway through the fourth quarter that put the Rocks in position for a 34-yard TD pass from Zane Johnson to Lucas Sasser to end the shutout. It then recovered an onside kick and subsequently scored again to make it interesting on Johnson’s 17-yard TD pass to Jeremiah Lynn with 2:57 left.
Douglass got a first down on its next series to run out most of the game clock and deny the Rocks another drive.
Franklin County 17, Bryan Station 10: Christian Moore rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns while the Flyers’ defense frustrated their bigger Class 6A opponents all afternoon in the first game of Saturday’s Rebel Bowl at Boyle County.
“It’s a great early season win,” said Franklin County Coach Eddie James, whose team ranked No. 6 in Class 4A and moved to 2-0. “We kind of know where we stack up now, but we’ve got to get back to work.”
While the Class 6A No. 5 Defenders (0-2) could not get much offense going, it mustered a Zachary Gentry 20-yard field goal late in the first half and a game-tying 29-yard touchdown run by Bayubahe Benit midway through the third quarter. Those two scoring drives accounted for 118 of Station’s 158 yards of total offense.
Meanwhile, Station could not stop Franklin County in the second half. Moore’s 1-yard TD run capped a 14-play 80-yard drive to give Franklin County the lead with 11:09 to go in the fourth quarter.
“We just gutted it out,” said Moore, who got his second TD of the game on a fourth-and-goal despite a noticeable limp between plays. “I was hurting, but my offensive linemen pushed through for me.”
Franklin forced a quick punt on Bryan Station’s next possession and embarked on a 15-play drive that incredibly consumed the final 10 minutes of the game.
Lexington Catholic 47, Madison Central 0: The Knights (1-1) dominated their hosts from the outset as a special teams miscue and four interceptions helped doom the Indians (0-2).
LexCath’s Sam Clements and Sam Smith each had two interceptions and each returned one of them for a touchdown.
The Knights’ Joaquin Pereira notched the first two TDs of the game on short rushes. His second was set up by Madison Central’s snap over its punter’s head in the first quarter, which put the Knights’ offense at the Indians’ 3-yard line.
Quarterback Jackson Wasik threw TD passes of 49 yards to Matthew Kern and 55 yards to Clements. Alex Rayyan added an 18-yard TD run in the rout.
Tates Creek 37, Madison Southern 7: For the first time since 2013, Tates Creek (2-0) is off to a perfect start through two weeks.
A morning win at Madison Southern (0-2) saw Tates Creek score 37 consecutive points after Madison Southern’s Preston Williams got a pick six at the goal line for the Eagles in the first quarter.
Creek quarterback Andrew Witherington threw two first half TD passes and in the second half, Marquevion Smith had two rushing scores and a 15-yard touchdown pass. Kicker Emmanuel Castro added a 32-yard field goal. Witherington finished with 227 yards and three TDs passing.
Sayre 40, Bracken County 21: Charlie Slabaugh and Brock Coffman each had a pair of first-half TDs as the Spartans (2-0) were never threatened by the visiting Polar Bears (1-1).
Coffman’s three scores included a 73-yard TD pass from Luke Pennington. Chase Parker grabbed a 26-yard TD pass from Pennington and had an interception on defense. Bracken’s TDs included a 90-yard kickoff return by Daulton Tarter.
Mercer County 42, Paul Laurence Dunbar 17: The Titans (2-0) piled up 283 yards of rushing offense and got two TD runs each from Thaddeus Mays and Ashton Drakeford and 128 yards rushing and a score from Denim Griffieth.
Griffieth’s 5-yard TD run midway through the third quarter seized on a Dunbar fumble deep in its own territory and staked Mercer to a 28-10 lead. Malachi Davis tacked on another Mercer TD late in the game.
Dunbar scored on TD passes from Ethan Teall to Trae Berry and Conner Norsworthy and a 42-yard field goal by Ryan O’Hara.
Scott County 35, Great Crossing 14: Ellis Huguely and Jacob Fryman each rushed for a pair of touchdowns and 161 and 137 yards, respectively, as the Cardinals (2-0) overcame a fumble on their first play from scrimmage to win their fifth straight against their sister school.
Great Crossing (0-2) capitalized on the Cards’ early turnover with a 10-yard TD pass by Jeremiah Clark to Hunter Moody and got a Isaiah Johnson TD run in the third quarter, but it was all Scott County the rest of the game as the Cardinals outgained the Warhawks 492 yards to 208. Huguely also caught a TD pass from Andrew Hickey.
Pulaski County 47, Danville 6: Zak Anderson threw for 244 yards and four TD passes and Kasen Brock rushed for 165 yards and two scores as the Pirates (2-0) routed the host Admirals (0-2).
Boone Godby had two of the TD catches with Ryan Anderson and Ethan Idlewine notching one each. Danville avoided the shutout on a TD pass from Enrique Gutierrez to D’Montae Trumbo in the third quarter.
Ashland Blazer 56, West Jessamine 13: LaBryan Strader threw a pair of TD passes to Brandon Houston, rushed for another score and the Tomcats (2-0) got a pair of TD runs by Braxton Jennings in the rout.
Maverick Ashby added a first half pick six for Ashland, who also got an 84-yard TD run by Cam Davis. Gabriel Smith scored both TDs for the Colts (1-1).
Pikeville 21, Johnson Central 14: Blake Caudill’s 78-yard touchdown run gave the Class A No. 1 Panthers (2-0) the lead midway through the fourth quarter and their defense turned back the Golden Eagles (1-1) twice late to preserve the win.
Pikeville’s Brenden Anthony scored two TDs in the first half that were matched by Johnson Central scores by Logan Music and Christian Barnes for a 14-14 tie at the break.
Western Hills 28, Powell County 26: The Wolverines (2-0) got a pair of TD runs by Jaden Samuels and one each from Garrison Graves and Anthony Sutton before fending off a second half rally by the Pirates (0-1).
James Rhody chased down a Powell defender at the Wolverines’ own 29-yard line as a 51-yard fumble return threatened to let the game slip away. Western Hills defense bowed and Clay Seaton intercepted Powell quarterback Aiden Larrison to seal the win in the closing moments.
Collins 34, Spencer County 13: Freshman quarterback Kade Goodin rushed for 146 yards and three touchdowns and threw a 12-yard TD pass to Zaiden Baker as the Titans (1-1) ended a two-game losing streak to the Bears (0-2).
Lynn Camp 33, Berea 6: After an overtime loss last week, Lynn Camp (1-1) got its first win of the season and more than 200 yards rushing by quarterback DJ Wren. Berea (0-2) got its first points of the season on a 6-yard touchdown run from sophomore Aidan Huston.
Fourth quarter stop helps Boyle County hold off Lexington Christian in a thriller
Highlights: George Rogers Clark stuns Belfry; several games postponed by storm