By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Two of the three Northern Kentucky high school football teams playing in regional championship games on the road this Friday are favored to win. The other one will be facing a perennial powerhouse with a 27-0 record over the last two seasons that’s ranked among the top teams in the nation.
The Simon Kenton Pioneers get the unenviable task of playing Louisville Trinity in one of four Class 6A regional finals around the state.
Last year, Trinity won its 24th state championship to cap a perfect 15-0 season. The current team has a 12-0 record that includes four wins over strong high school programs from other states. That’s why the Shamrocks were No. 9 in the latest USA Today Super 25 national high school football rankings.
Simon Kenton coach Jeff Marksberry said his players know what they’ll be up against Friday and it hasn’t uprooted their confidence.
“Our kids have won a lot of football games so, of course, they’re going to be confident,” Marksberry said. “Good for them, I’m glad they are. I don’t want us to go in there like deer in the headlights and awestruck, thinking ‘Oh gosh, this is Trinity. We can’t win.’ I don’t want our kids feeling that way at all because we’ve got some really good football players and we’re a really good football team.”
The other regional championship games involving local teams are Beechwood at Kentucky Country Day in Class 1A and Covington Catholic at South Oldham in Class 5A. In the latest Litkenhous statewide power ratings, Beechwood and CovCath are No. 1 in their respective classes so they’re both expected to advance to next week’s semifinal round of the state playoffs.
Trinity is the top team in Class 6A with a 131.6 power rating based on strength of schedule, margins of victory and other factors. The computerized system has Simon Kenton listed at No. 5 in the large-school class with a 114.7 rating score.
To pull off an upset, Simon Kenton must find a way to contain Trinity’s pass-oriented offense that’s averaging more than 375 yards and 40 points per game. The fact that the Shamrocks’ last five victories were played with a running clock after their team took a 36-point lead makes those statistics even more impressive.
Trinity senior quarterback Nick Bohn has completed 229 of 289 passes for 2,965 yards and 34 touchdowns. The team’s leading receiver is Rondale Moore, a University of Texas recruit, with 84 catches for 1,184 yards and 13 TDs.
“Running the ball is not what they want to do,” Marksberry said. “They want to throw it around and that Moore kid has more than 1,000 of those passing yards. You’ve got to find a way to stop him or limit his touches or it makes for a long night. He really makes them go offensively. They’re definitely a different team with him in the game than without him.”
Simon Kenton’s defense will be doing whatever it can to put pressure on Trinity’s talented senior quarterback whenever he does drop back to throw.
“Offensive line-wise they’re not huge kids,” Marksberry said of Trinity. “I think that’s where we might have the best match-up – our defensive line and their offensive line. Our best match-up is not covering that fast kid (Moore), I can tell you that.”
The Pioneers have been having a lot of success running a no-huddle, up-tempo offense with senior quarterback Matt Shearer handling the ball. He has passed for 2,345 yards and 31 touchdowns while rushing for 581 yards and 13 TDs.
The return of injured junior running back Jon Sergent has also given the Simon Kenton offense a lift. He has rushed for 474 yards and 13 TDs in the team’s last five victories.
“We like to play fast and keep that up-tempo stuff going, calling formations from the sideline to keep (defenses) from lining up right,” Marksberry said. “It’ll be a little tougher to do against (Trinity) because they’re a two-platoon system as well and have kids that play on just one side of ball. But we still feel like playing up-tempo puts us in good situations to make plays.”