By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
If there’s one thing that’s simply too difficult for high school football players to absolutely master, it has to be pass defense. Even the best teams don’t seem to have enough athletes in the secondary — or pass-rushers — for that matter.
Not against the top quarterbacks and receivers so many offenses are producing these days.
So the fact that Covington Catholic’s top running back, Owen Leen, was out with an injury the school’s coaches and administrators would not describe in detail – “We just sat him,” head coach Eddie Eviston said, “Just bumps and bruises,” said another – was not actually a problem.
Not for the unbeaten Class 4A Colonels. That just allowed them to put the ball even more on the strong, accurate arm of 6-foot-5 senior Evan Pitzer – and a whole host of CovCath stand-ins running for Leen as they handed Class 6A Simon Kenton (1-1) its first loss, a 50-12 throttling that fortunately triggered a second-half running clock in front of a standing-room-only crowd of more than 3,000 at Chlorine Menefee Stadium in Independence.
Well, the crowd was over capacity until the Colonels scored twice in the final 53 seconds before intermission inspiring the third-quarter singing by the “CovCath Crazies” student section of “Silent Night” as Pioneer fans headed to the parking lots on their way to the 3L Highway.
No coming back from 36-6 at halftime.
Aba Selm, Simon Kenton’s 6-4, 290-pound senior headed to Kentucky as the state’s top lineman, had a one-word summary as to what was needed by the Pioneers. “Effort,” Selm said.
CovCath’s Eviston had some good words to say to his 3-0 team: “Nice win over a good program,” he told them, but then came the kicker.
Sure we “made a lot of great individual plays,” Eviston said. But often that came after or at the end of a not-so good play. “Like that fumble after a 12-yard run,” he said, leading to the game’s first score.
Simon Kenton’s Durell Turner had exploded for his second big gainer in a scoreless game, moving the ball into CovCath territory before a big hit shook Turner up and the ball loose with Colonel Ben McEvoy picking it up. And in a sign of things to come, on the next play, fill-in junior Andrew Bessler ripped off 26 yards and the Colonels were off.
“Football’s a team game,” Eviston said, “next man up.”
Make that “men” as seven Colonels would score in this one with Bessler, a 5-10, 185-pound two-way player, scoring twice – the first time on a 13-yard pass from Pitzer, the second on a 10-yard delayed burst to the right side of a Pioneer defense that just wasn’t there.
Which would be as much a commentary on the efficiency – and the lethality – of CovCath’s downfield blocking on both pass completions and runs.
Pitzer himself would sneak one in from the 1 while throwing for three TDs. There was the one to Bessler, another to Oliver Link right before halftime from 11 yards out and a third to UK-bound Willie Rodriguez, who high-stepped it 59 yards while emerging from a scrum of a half-dozen Simon Kenton tacklers who the 6-4, 235-pound top prospect brushed off like gnats on his way to the touchdown despite all getting their hands on him.
But we’re not done yet. Senior Will Michels punched one in from the 1. And sophomore transfer Cash Harney, who stepped in so well as a freshman the first half of last season at quarterback for Beechwood, came on for Pitzer and ran a quarterback keep 64 yards to paydirt leaving the Pioneers in the dust.
“He’s got a nice burst,” Eviston said with a grin, knowing that had he wanted to, he could have had Harney, who already has a TD this year on a pick-six at Highlands, stand in for Leen as he finished with 85 yards on three carries. Bessler would add 45 on six. And with five unassisted tackles, Harney was also one of CovCath’s top defenders.
Pitzer would be nearly perfect passing, hitting on 13 of 16 for 249 yards and those three TDs with no interceptions as CovCath had no turnovers while racking up 480 yards of offense to Simon Kenton’s 211.
And yet, as Eviston noted, nearly perfect isn’t good enough.
“Some people took broken-down plays and made something of them,” Eviston said. The execution, he contended, was only partially great.
Unless of course, you were Simon Kenton’s Pioneers. Then it was pretty much a total execution.
“We just struggled filling the gaps,” Selm said, in a game where CovCath had no problem playing without its leading ball-carrier. “We need to do a better job covering,” Selm said, “and our offense needs to catch the ball.”
Tysin Weaver caught it from 25 yards out in the second quarter to get the ‘Neers, as their T-shirts call them, on the board on a nice pitch-and-catch from junior Brady Lee, who hit on 12 of 17 for 115 yards with two interceptions, half of Simon Kenton’s four turnovers. And then sophomore Landon Brown ran it in from the 1 in the final minutes.
But that was it. Selm is convinced the Pioneers can turn things around as they head to another unbeaten team – although barely – Beechwood, after its 49-48 overtime win against a Dixie Heights team Simon Kenton beat 29-19 in the opener.
As for CovCath, the Colonels host that same Dixie Heights team in the battle of the Dixie Highway next Friday.
COVCATH 9 27 14 0 — 50
SIMON KENTON 0 6 6 0 — 12
CC — Andrew Weitzel 33 field goal
CC — Evan Pitzer 13-yard pass to Andrew Bessler (PAT failed)
SK — Brady Lee 25-yard pass to Tysin Weaver (PAT failed)
CC — Pitzer 29-yard pass to Willie Rodriguez (Weitzel kick)
CC — Will Michels 1-yard run (Weitzel kick)
CC — Pitzer 1-yard run (PAT failed)
CC — Pitzer 11-yard pass to Oliver Link (Weitzel kick)
CC — Bessler 10-yard run (Weitzel kick)
SK — Landon Brown 1-yard run (PAT failed)
CC — Harney 64-yard run (Weitzel kick)
High school football scoreboard
FRIDAY GAMES
Ryle 28, Cooper 10
Covington Catholic 50, Simon Kenton 12
Beechwood 49, Dixie Heights 48 OT
Highlands 67, Campbell County 35
Lloyd 47, Holmes 8
Conner 34, Lexington Lafayette 7
Lexington Sayre 14, Ludlow 0
Newport Central Catholic 59, Scott 27
Owen County 14, Dayton 6
Holy Cross 21, Grant County 18
Newport 56, Pendleton County 6
Bellevue 32, Riverview East (Ohio) 22
SATURDAY GAME
Brossart at Pineville, 6 p.m.