By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
If you play Kentucky high school football, going to practice on Thanksgiving Day is something to celebrate. It means your team made it to semifinals of the state playoffs and the title hopes that were born during summer workouts are still alive.
Walton-Verona’s football team scheduled a holiday practice for the first time in the history of the program to prepare for Friday’s 7:30 p.m. home game against Mayfield in the Class 2A semifinals.
“I know we’ve got a very tough opponent ahead of us, but we’re not satisfied with just being where we are,” said Bearcats coach Jeff Barth. “We’re excited about it, but we’ve got to put all that behind us now. We’ve got to get ready for Mayfield, which is a very, very good football team.”
Mayfield (13-0) is one of the state’s perennial powers. The Cardinals have won 12 state championships, including the 2015 Class 2A title. They lost to Danville in last year’s championship game and really want to add another golden trophy to their impressive collection this season.
It will be a major upset if Walton-Verona (10-3) wins Friday’s game and makes it to the next week’s state finals at Kroger Field in Lexington instead of Mayfield.
“They’re a blue chip football program and we’re definitely going to have to play our A-plus game to win,” coach Barth said. “That’s what we’re trying to set the table for in practice.”
Walton-Verona won its first regional title in football last Friday with an 18-14 win over Glasgow. The Bearcats scored two passing touchdowns in the final minutes to pull off that upset victory. That game certainly lifted the confidence of the players, and coach Barth is telling them anything is possible against Mayfield as well.
“It’s just one of those things where we don’t have to beat them two out of three games,” he said. “We’ve just got to be better than them on one Friday night in November.”
Mayfield scored 57, 55 and 56 points in its first three playoff victories so Walton-Verona’s defense is going to be tested on Friday. The Bearcats will need another big game out of 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior linebacker Grant Grubbs, who made 18 tackles last week to give him a school record 130 stops this season.
“If he was 6-1 and 220 pounds, every (college) in the country would be talking to him,” Barth said of Grubbs. “He’s a sensational football player, great leader and has a great motor. The way he plays sometimes it looks like we’ve got 13 players out there on defense.”
Like many of his teammates, Grubbs is a two-way starter. He plays left guard on a veteran offensive line that includes right guard Sean Spillman, center Shane Thomas and tackles Logan Boone and Lukas Dietz.
With them providing run blocking and pass protection, the Bearcats are averaging 270 yards per game with most of it coming on the ground. The team uses multiple running backs with Peyton Smith, Micah Alford and Tyler Schrader combining for 1,892 rushing yards and a total of 34 touchdowns.
Walton-Verona senior quarterback Garrett Jones has passed for 705 yards and 14 TDs this season. He won last week’s playoff game with a 37-yard scoring pass to Smith coming out of the backfield.
“To the outsider looking in, that may have been considered an upset, but we’re really happy for our kids because they’ve put a lot of work into this,” coach Barth said. “Like I told them, if we play well enough to be able to pull off another upset, we’ll be heading for Lexington next week.”
Friday’s state semifinal football games
CLASS 1A
Campbellsville (11-1) at Beechwood (10-2), 7:30 p.m.
Raceland (11-2) at Pikeville (10-2), 7:30 p.m.
CLASS 2A
Mayfield (13-0) at Walton-Verona (11-2), 7:30 p.m.
Christian Academy of Louisville (13-0) at Somerset (11-2), 7:30 p.m.
CLASS 5A
Covington Catholic (13-0) at Pulaski County (11-2), 7:30 p.m.
South Warren (13-0) at South Oldham (12-1), 7:30 p.m.