By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
All is going according to plan.
Talk to any one of these Covington Catholic Colonels before the season and they were upset about not playing to their potential, or their history, in recent years — a history that had Covington Catholic challenging deep into the playoffs season after season.
That was going to change, one player after another would tell you. And then the Colonels went out and stopped talking about it and just did it.
With Friday’s 35-7 home win over 6A Campbell County, CovCath’s 4A Colonels completed a 10-0 regular season that has them standing alone as Northern Kentucky’s only unbeaten team. And since they were the only team to beat Class 5A leader Highlands and three-time defending 2A champ Beechwood, that makes sense.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s not that I didn’t expect it,” CovCath Coach Eddie Eviston said of the way this senior-led team has developed, “but it’s fun to watch it.”
In this case, the “it” is a team that shows up every day, practices hard, doesn’t get ahead of itself, all of which allows “these guys to continue to grow, especially the seniors,” Eviston said.
Thanks to the talented right arm of senior quarterback Evan Pitzer, who threw for four touchdowns on 15 of 19 passing for 229 yards with no interceptions, CovCath jumped out to a 35-0 lead after three quarters and played the backups from then on.
But not before tight end Willie Rodriguez, a UK-signee who will be headed to watch the UK-Tennessee game Saturday, got them on the board with a 10-yard TD catch. He would later add a two-point PAT from Pitzer.
Sounding like his coach – exactly like his coach – the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Rodriguez said that keeping the Colonels going the second half of the season even though the big challenges from Highlands and Beechwood came in August and September, wasn’t that difficult a challenge.
“It’s just about practicing hard, that’s what we do,” said Rodriguez, one of the Colonels’ two-way players. And he’s not surprised he sounds like his coach. “He teaches us that.”
But ask Pitzer about his near-perfect four-TD night and what he liked best about it and the 6-5 senior, who also ran for 29 yards on four carries, gives an answer that it isn’t about him.
“The best play for me was a pass where I had horrible placement of the ball, but Oliver Link went up and made a great play and caught it anyway” (for a 25-yard touchdown in coverage) to make it 28-0. It came on the first play after a Cash Harney interception, one of his two on the night and one of CovCath’s three.
“It just shows what great receivers I have,” Pitzer says as he heads to his first-ever playoff game next week against Greenup County here in Park Hills. “I was injured as a junior and a sophomore,” he said. “I didn’t get to play.”
As to Pitzer’s best pass, a casual observer might say it was the 41-yard post pattern over the top to Noah Johnson on a perfectly thrown, perfectly timed deep ball.
More good news for the top-ranked Colonels in Class 4A is how the win should keep them No. 1 in the all-important RPI ratings that determine home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and will guarantee CovCath home games all the way.
And in a class with the top challengers from places as far away as Paducah, Ashland, Danville and Frankfort, not having to travel there “is a huge advantage,” Rodriguez says.
And while Eviston says he’s not exactly sure how the RPI system works, he knows what works for his CovCath team. “The biggest thing is we haven’t gone from our normal routine.”
Staying at home only makes that easier to do, especially avoiding a six-hour, 300-mile trip to another time zone.
But it wasn’t all offense for the Colonels as their defense made life tough on Campbell County senior quarterback Nathan Smith, one of Northern Kentucky’s least-known best athletes and competitors while toiling for the 3-7 Camels.
Smith gained 41 yards on eight carries with a TD despite losing 15 yards on two sacks while hitting on 13 of 26 passing for another 117 yards despite great pressure from the likes of Ben Reeves, Andrew Bessler and Rodriguez, each of whom had a sack.
For the game, CovCath outgained Campbell County, 421 yards to 218, while limiting top running back Owen Leen to just six carries for 41 yards and a TD.
As for just gutting this one out to finish the regular season, that’s not how Pitzer saw it. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “You don’t get to play Friday Night Football for that long. Coach says we’ll play you on I-75.”
But next week’s game is on the Dixie Highway. So what do you know about Greenup County?
Not a thing. “I haven’t thought about it,” Pitzer says, even though it will be his first playoff experience.
That’s for the coaches to know about until they tell the Colonels starting Saturday. But no thinking about the playoffs before this end-of-regular-season game. That would have broken the rule this practice-first team plays by.
“One game at a time,” Pitzer says, sounding like a player sounding like his coach.
Which is all part of the plan.
Score by Quarter
CAMPBELL CO. (3-7) 0 0 0 7–7
COVCATH (10-0) 13 8 14 0–35
Scoring Summary
COVCATH: Rodriguez 10 pass from E. Pitzer, Weitzel PAT kick
COVCATH: Kruer 19 pass from E. Pitzer (PAT kick failed)
COVCATH: Leen 3 run (PAT pass E. Pitzer to Rodriguez)
COVCATH: Link 25 pass from E. Pitzer, Weitzel PAT kick
COVCATH: Johnson 41 pass from E. Pitzer, Weitzel PAT kick
CAMPBELL COUNTY: Smith 1 run, Rose PAT kick good