By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Opening Night doesn’t get much better than this – new turf field, new stands, and the start of a new role for the Lloyd Memorial Juggernauts in a 24-7 romp over a visiting Newport Central Catholic team that had dominated this series much of the last four decades.
“Seventeen times in 35 years, the coaches told us,” said Lloyd senior defensive lineman Avander Abrams, “the grandpa” Coach Kyle Niederman calls him, as he described Lloyd’s losing history here. Just not anymore. Not now.
“We beat ‘em once in 35 years,” Niederman said. Make that twice now.
“This is a new Lloyd,” Abrams said, surrounded by the more than $3 million in new facilities that easily withstood the early raindrops that didn’t seem to discourage a celebratory standing room only crowd at “historic Cecil Dees Field,” as the PA man described it.
Abrams, a 5-foot-9, 260-pound two-way tackle who specializes in getting to the quarterback, was a perfect example of Lloyd’s physical superiority here on a night when NewCath senior quarterback Kolton Smith, all 6-4 and 230 pounds, spent most of the night running for his life. Who could blame him, he was sacked seven times for a minus 68 yards.
Down 14-7 at halftime, the NewCath offense recorded minus yardage the second half when the Thoroughbreds faced third-and-36 and third-and 27 situations. No good play calls for that, especially without your injured center and O-line leader Evan Turpin.
“I didn’t anticipate that many sacks,” Niederman said, saying the best thing about this night was “our line play.”
“We call ourselves ‘Dark Side Pride’,” said Abrams, who calls himself the little guy on the line at 260.
“Everybody else is 270, 280,” he said. But Abrams has a second act, and it’s why he wears No. 5. “I’m a power back,” he said after scoring Lloyd’s game-tying touchdown with 3:09 left in the first quarter.
That Lloyd would trail was a result of the game’s first play when the Juggs – against everything they’d worked on all week – kicked off to NewCath’s Demetrick Welch, who took the line drive on a bounce and busted it 73 yards through the right side to get the Breds on the board 13 seconds into the game.
“Don’t kick it to No. 7,” had been the watchword of the week, Niederman said. “But they’re 15-year-old kids.” And they did just exactly the opposite of that. But for the next 47 minutes and 47 seconds, the Lloyd defenders didn’t allow any of the NewCath numbers to hurt them.
“We’ll probably count it as a defensive shutout,” said Abrams who spent more time in the NewCath backfield than in Lloyd’s with his pass rushes on the pinch down moves that had him flying free against Smith’s deep, straight drops that put no pressure on the Lloyd defensive front.
“Those were way better drops for me to make my moves,” Abrams said. “We were yelling out their plays.”
And while NewCath was missing its center, Lloyd was without starting sophomore quarterback Kaleb Evans, out indefinitely with a broken collarbone. The same thing happened last season with Isaiah Sebastian stepping in as the signal-caller then as well.
All the junior had to do was step in again, although replacing Kaiden Zulager as the main running back is Yurii Collins Comer, a pee wee football teammate of Sebastian’s.
Comer put Lloyd ahead, 14-7, with a 22-yard, inside then out cut to beat the Breds’ defenders to the goal line on his way to 102 yards rushing on 17 carries. “The way our line blocks, I usually only have to beat one man,” he said. He would follow that up with a one-yard plunge to make it 21-7 with 8:17 left in the third.
Elijah Westwood’s 29-yard field goal finished off the scoring with 34.8 seconds left in the third to make it 24-7. And with NewCath’s offensive woes and Lloyd’s defensive heroics, that wasn’t about to change in a scoreless final quarter.
After moving up to Class AAA this season, and not being ranked in the Top 10 in the first poll, Niederman said he “embraced the fact that we’re not.” Ditto for his team. “What I love is they could care less,” he said. “They’re a great group of kids. I love ‘em.”
With Collins Comer named MVP, Niederman said that’s another area where this team could care less.
“Nobody cares,” who won, or didn’t win, an award on this night. “It’s pretty cool,” the Coach said. “They show up and play, that’s what they care about.”
Getting to run together in the same backfield the way they did in pee wee football is not a problem even though “everybody knows what’s coming” from the two of them, Sebastian says. “The read option is the best thing ever. And we haven’t even shown the triple option yet.”
And while NewCath couldn’t protect enough to get its passing game going, Lloyd didn’t have to worry about that.
“I thought we’d play well,” Niederman said. “Did I think it’d be 24-7?” Not if you believe history.
But there was more than history going here. This was the only game in the state of Kentucky. And in Greater Cincinnati. The TV crews were here. And it was the first of more than 1,100 games in Kentucky this season. And one of two Skyline Crosstown Shootout games in Northern Kentucky this year.
And a night to show off in Erlanger with the two Lloyd Memorial state championship football teams invited back for a pregame dinner.
All because Lloyd asked if they could go ahead and play on a Thursday like every other week of the season even if it was a day before the official start in the state. And when NewCath said yes, it was a go.
“They were fired-up,” Niederman said of his players. And it showed.
As for Class A NewCath, as one fan on the sidelines said, “I didn’t expect this.” Neither did Coach Steve Lickert.
“We’ve got a week to get better,” he told his team after the game. “This should be a wakeup call.”
But if Niederman was telling his team “It’s a long game” after that first score, Lickert was telling his guys “this thing’s a marathon, not a sprint . . . our goal is to be ready by Week 11, 12, 13 and 14” when its postseason time.
Week 1 losses – especially against bigger programs – don’t end the season if you make them work for you.
As that hopeful fan made clear for his Thoroughbreds: “This will make us better.”
NEWPORT CENTRAL CATHOLIC 7 0 0 0—7
LLOYD MEMORIAL 7 7 10 –24
SCORING:
NEWCATH: Welch, 73-yard kickoff return (Collopy kick)
LLOYD: Abrams, 2 run (Westwood kick)
LLOYD: COLLINS COMER, 22 run (Westwood kick)
LLOYD: COLLINS COMER, 1 run (Westwood kick)
LLOYD: WESTWOOD 29 field goal
RECORDS: Lloyd Memorial, 1-0; Newport Central Catholic, 0-1