Owensboro Catholic’s balanced ground game and strong defense led them to victory on Friday night, closing out the regular season at home with a 43-9 win over Elizabethtown.
The Aces got good field position to start the night, as senior Jack Terry took the kickoff to the 45. Owensboro Catholic nearly fell short of finishing the scoring opportunity sophomore Waryn Ebelhar dropped a ball in the endzone on second down, but on third and 10 sophomore Vince Carrico took a handoff 29 yards to the crib to make it 7-0 with 8:53 left in the opening quarter.
Elizabethtown responded swiftly on their next drive, getting a 20-yard field goal to make it 7-3 after the Aces held them from scoring after a 44-yard pass put them at the 11. Terry nearly fumbled on the anyone kickoff for Owensboro Catholic, but was ruled down first and started the drive off at the 38 with 4:09 left in the first quarter.
A nice 13-yard run from sophomore quarterback Brady Atwell a few plays later and another quick run after put the Aces in the redzone, with Atwell’s two-yard keeper capping off the drive and making it a 14-3 game with 14.1 seconds left in the first quarter.
After forcing the Panthers to punt to the 49 on the next drive, Owensboro Catholic quickly marched downfield and got a 10-yard rushing touchdown from junior Elijah Blair to make it 20-3 after a misplayed extra point with 7:23 left in the first half. Minutes later Atwell helped pad onto the Aces lead, cutting back in from the left sideline to a wide open middle of the field and taking off for an 88-yard touchdown to take a 27-3 lead with 3:09 to play in the second quarter.
Elizabethtown tried to find the endzone for the first time on the night to close out the first half, but were unable to as Owensboro Catholic took its 27-3 lead into the locker room.
The Panthers came out of halftime looking to climb its way back into the game, getting a 14-yard touchdown pass with 9:15 left in the third quarter. The Aces were able to block the PAT though, keeping it at 27-9.
Owensboro Catholic took advantage of the mishap and kept its foot on the gas, getting a keeper from Atwell on the ensuing drive to make it a 34-9 game. The very next play was a recovered squib kick for the Aces, allowing senior Dominic Ranallo to make a 27-yard field goal to make it 37-9 with 1:37 left in the third.
Less than 30 seconds later Owensboro Catholic’s defense stifled Elizabethtown again, as Vince grabbed an interception to put the Aces on the 46 with 1:22 left in the third quarter. This led to a long drive that poured into the fourth quarter, with Vince himself taking a handoff six yards for a touchdown to make it 43-9 with 8:04 to go after a failed two-point conversion.
Head Coach Jason Morris was proud of his team’s persistence on the night, sticking to the course and finishing the game out strong. The all-out effort helped them especially on the offensive end, taking advantage of the gameplan they prepared for the matchup.
“We’ve got some dogs,” Morris said. “We saw in the film that we thought we could run the football effectively. In my opinion, to win a state championship you have to run the football when you want to run the football and you have to be able to run the football when they know you’re running the football. We did that tonight.”
The Aces used a balanced attack in that area of the game, getting rushing touchdowns from four different players on the night. Morris said that they have a lot of horses and great linemen that help set them up for success night and night out.
“Eli Blair was great for us tonight and so was Brady Atwell,” Morris said. “When you can run the quarterback you’ve always got your numbers right because you got plus-one. Vince Carrico is a stud [and so is] Tutt Carrico. We just spread it around to all these backs and we’ve got great senior offensive linemen in Gabe Hodskins and Logan Bell at guards giving us a great push.”
Morris was proud of his team’s response defensively in the second half as well, not slipping up and letting things get away from them after giving up a quick score right out of halftime.
“Defense was bend but don’t break tonight,” Morris said. “They stepped up great there [early in the second half]. We did a great job of stopping their run game and trying to make them one-dimensional. We saw on film that if you make them drive it sometimes they get turnover prone and so we were just trying to make sure that we didn’t give up the big play—which we did a few times… But [it] was a great job by our defense on two or three different goal line stands where we didn’t give up a touchdown.”
Owensboro Catholic closes out the regular season owning a five-game winning streak, sitting at 7-3 overall on the season. Their efforts have earned them some home field advantage in the playoffs, starting with their first round matchup against Fort Campbell next Friday at 7 p.m.
Morris and company have been taking a playoff-esque mental approach to this latter half of the season, but with the postseason truly arriving the Aces have to continue to live by that mentality and come ready to work in practice this upcoming week to prepare for what they hope is a big postseason run.
“We’re trying to stay humble right now and take it one game at a time,” Morris said. “I just talked to the guys. Now we get the first real round of the playoffs and this Monday [in practice] has gotta be exactly the same as it has been the last two weeks. We gotta stay focused, continue to be us and just do what we do.”
