By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Starting the season with back-to-back wins is something the Newport Central Catholic football team had never done in Dan Wagner’s first four years as head coach of the Thoroughbreds.
Wagner has to admit he’s a little surprised to see this year’s team sporting a 2-0 record with the number of underclassmen and first-year starters he has in the lineup.
“We’ve got a fair amount of younger kids in certain key spots so it’s been a little bit of a surprise from that standpoint,” Wagner said. “But we think they can be good football players and the older guys have been showing them the correct way to do things so it’s working out OK so far.”
In their first two wins over Scott and Cooper, the Thoroughbreds scored 46 points and gained a net total of 616 yards of offense. Their opponents had combined totals of 14 points and 414 yards.
Junior running back Kyle Kelly has been NewCath’s top performer on offense. He has 298 yards rushing and 117 yards receiving for a per-game average of 207.5 with two touchdowns.
Kelly also plays outside linebacker on defense and ranks among the team leaders with 13 tackles. The only players ahead of him are sophomore Daniel Craig with 17 tackles and junior Hezekiah Miller with 15.
“He’s a big, strong kid who plays hard,” Wagner said of Kelly. “He’s run over a few people already when he gets the ball in his hands. He gets overlooked on defense, but I think he’s pretty darn good there too. He’s just a tough kid to block and he’s extremely fast.”
The coach has used junior Hunter Cain and sophomore Paul Kramer at quarterback in the first two games. Cain completed 6 of 12 passes for 125 yards against Scott. Kramer went 5-for-13 for 84 yards and one touchdown against Cooper.
“We’ll go with two for a little while,” Wagner said of the alternating quarterbacks. “In my head, I’ve got an idea who will be taking over, but it’s still early. They’re both valuable players no matter what they do for us. I talked to them early on and told them, ‘If you’re not the quarterback, you’ll still be playing a lot of football for us.”
Cain and Kramer are both starting safeties on the NewCath defensive unit that will face a major test this Friday in a game at Campbell County (1-1). The Camels have a balanced offensive attack that’s averaging 394 yards per game.
“They’re pretty impressive and move the ball well,” Wagner said. “We’ve definitely got our work cut out for us this week.”
If the Thoroughbreds win Friday’s game, they’ll get off to an 3-0 start for the first time since 2010 when they won their last Class 2A state championship.
“It feels good to be 2-0, now we just have to keep getting better every day,” Wagner said. “And, as young as we are, I fully expect us to do that.”
