By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
What was not to like in the early going for the home fans in Covington Catholic’s 2023 debut Friday?
A capacity Park Hills crowd with plenty of standees on this dedication night for the school’s brand spanking new Art’s Rental Field — and a 21-0 second-quarter lead over Ryle’s visiting Raiders.
Well, for one, Ryle didn’t much like it, rallying back to a 23-15 deficit before one too many fumbles – the Raiders lost three – and one or two too many big plays by the Colonel playmakers produced a 37-22 CovCath win that had both teams thinking they just might have a future down the road in their separate classes.
The fans didn’t have to wait long. Just 76 seconds into the game, 6-foot-5, 200-pound CovCath quarterback Evan Pitzer saw exactly what he was hoping to see. The Ryle safety was heading outside to support his corner and there flying down uncontained through the middle of the field from the 49-yard line was 6-4, 235-pound tight end Willie Rodriguez, one of the state’s top blue chip prospects, headed to the University of Kentucky.
“We’d worked on that,” Pitzer said. “I saw Willie coming across the middle.” The easy pitch and catch left Rodriguez with one tackler to shake loose, which he did, getting CovCath on the board with 10:44 left in the first.
Tough senior tailback Owen Leen scored from six yards out a little more than six minutes later with Pitzer himself taking it in from seven yards out in the second to put the Colonels up 21-0 with 6:36 to go until halftime.
“That’s a good team,” Ryle Coach Mike Engler told his Raiders after the game nodding toward CovCath.
“We wanted to answer who we are,” CovCath Coach Eddie Eviston said. “I was proud of how they came out and played.”
In the end, so was Engler, as his Raiders closed to within 23-15, with 10:28 left in the game as 6-3, 190-pound senior quarterback Logan Verax, on his way to a 28-of-33 passing night for 217 yards and one TD, did what he always seems to do. In his four-year career, he’d already thrown for 4,690 yards and 39 touchdowns. This night just gets him closer to eclipsing all the Ryle passing records set by Tanner Morgan, who went on to star at Minnesota.
“We had three turnovers,” Engler said to his team. “If we don’t have them, we can win this game. We’ve got to come together as a team.” But in the end, what mattered most, Engler said, is that “We fought hard, we never quit.”
After seeing their lead drop to eight points, the Colonels called on playmakers Pitzer, who finished up 21 of 28 passing for 188 yards and Leen, who rushed for 96 yards on 16 carries producing three TDs including an 18-yarder that saw him cut back across the entire football field and a final 19-yarder on a second-and-19 when he got to the right edge and just beat everybody to the pylon, diving into the end zone.
With 2:40 left in the game, were they just trying to run out the clock? No way, Pitzer said, “We were trying to score. Owen’s just a workhorse.” And a show pony, with those three TDs for the 5-10, 185-pound tailback.
Good thing they did because Verax came back with a final scoring drive of his own, hitting on eight of 10 passes for 77 yards and a final TD, a 16-yarder to Landon Lorms, who caught 13 passes for 127 yards.
“I think we’re really hungry,” Pitzer said. “The last couple of years, we haven’t quite reached our goals.”
“He could be right about that,” Eviston said, “when these kids were in middle school, we were in the state championship game every year.” But not since they were in school.
“We all went to grade school together at Blessed Sacrament or St. Pius,” said Josh Flood, who figured what happened here was the result of how “we just had a really good summer.”
Not only did Flood catch two passes for 31 yards, but he made the big fumble recovery that turned a Ryle drive into CovCath territory and pretty much made this one game over. “I really got blind-sided on that play and it was Tate Kruer who ripped the ball loose (from rugged 210-pound sophomore Mike Savage, who scored a pair of TDs).” But it was Flood who saw it bouncing near the sideline and scooped it up some 15 yards to set up CovCath’s final scoring drive.
“We weren’t perfect,” Eviston said, “and we have lots to work on.”
But with 466 yards of offense, to Class 6A Ryle’s 300, it was as good a start as the Class 4A Colonels could have asked for.
And a sign that with “teams in all six classes for the first time from Northern Kentucky,” Eviston said, a chance for local teams not to knock one another out.
That comes into focus next week when CovCath travels to longtime 5A rival Highlands, a 34-27 winner at Lexington Catholic. And Ryle comes back home to Union against a Class 5A Conner team that clobbered Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar, 45-21.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
RYLE 0 7 8 7 – 22
COVCATH 14 7 2 14 – 37
SCORING SUMMARY
COVCATH: Rodriguez 49 pass from Pitzer (Weitzel kick)
COVCATH: Leen 6 run (Weitzel kick)
COVCATH: Pitzer 7 run (Weitzel kick)
RYLE: Savage 1 run (Line kick)
COVCATH: Reeves safety
RYLE: Savage 2 run (Verax to Lee for 2-point extra point)
COVCATH: Leen 18 run (Weitzel kick)
COVCATH: Leen 19 run (Weitzel kick)
RYLE: Lorms 10 pass from Verax (Line kick)
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol,com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.