By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Beechwood football coach Noel Rash didn’t mind the long bus ride home after his team’s 63-7 win over Campbellsville on Friday in the semifinals of the Class 1A state playoffs.
“I was extremely impressed,” Rash said of his team’s performance. “We dominated in all phases of the game from the very start. You had to keep yourself in the game as a coach and not stand there and watch them as a fan sometimes.”
It was the fourth time this season that Beechwood (11-2) scored more than 60 points in a game and it firmly established the Tigers as the favorite in next week’s state championship showdown against Raceland (10-4) at 2 p.m. Friday at Kroger Stadium in Lexington. If they come out on top in that game, they’ll claim their second straight Class 1A state title and 13th overall.
Beechwood took a 48-0 lead in the first half against Campbellsville. Senior running back James Davis rushed for 195 yards and three touchdowns to fuel the team’s fast start. Senior quarterback Brayden Burch did his part by throwing three TD passes.
Davis has rushed for 408 yards and six TDs in the Tigers’ first three playoff games. He’ll go into the championship final with team-high season totals of 1,344 rushing yards and 21 TDs.
“He’s just a great player and in the playoffs he’s ramped it up to another level,” Rash said of Davis. “He runs through people, he runs around people, he slashes. I mean, every part of his game was good (Friday), and he’s been that way for the last several weeks.”
Davis did not return to the backfield in the second half, but he did run back a kickoff 77 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.
Beechwood’s other outstanding player was junior Logan Castleman. He scored the team’s first two touchdowns and intercepted a pass, which was one of five takeaways for the Tigers.
“He’s an all-in kind of young man,” Rash said of Castleman. “He plays extraordinarily physical and then you add in how fast he is.”
Raceland defeated Pikeville, 17-14, in the other Class 1A semifinal game on Friday. The Rams won the game with a 36-yard field goal as time expired and advance to the state finals for the first time in program history. Beechwood has a 12-5 record in 17 previous state title games.
BEECHWOOD 21 27 7 8 — 63
CAMPBELLSVILLE 0 0 7 0 — 7
B – Castleman 1 run (Mescher kick)
B – Castleman 17 pass from Burch (Mescher kick)
B – Davis 16 run (Mescher kick)
B – Davis 69 run (Mescher kick)
B – Davis 46 run (run failed)
B – Moore 35 pass from Burch (Moore kick)
B – Moore 10 pass from Burch (Moore kick)
C – Cubit 3 run (Richardson kick)
B – Davis 77 kickoff return (Moore kick)
B – Howard 1 run (Jeffries run)
RECORDS: Beechwood 11-2, Campbellsville 7-7