By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Just what you’d expect from two teams just a couple of miles down the Dixie Highway from one another.
Of course there would be one of those big banners, as constructed by the 30-strong Beechwood cheerleaders for the visiting Tigers to run through at Covington Catholic’s Dennis Griffin Stadium: “Can’t Be Beat by the School Down the Street,” it said.
Here’s the problem in a rivalry game: Sometimes people can write a banner/check that their team, even this unbeaten Beechwood team, can’t cash.
Which was the case in this one as the fast-improving Colonels took inspiration from their chest-painted, plaid-skirt-wearing (as close as they could come to kilts) Colonel Crazies on “Braveheart Night” for a 49-28 romp that saw CovCath pile up 624 yards of total offense, 561 of that on the ground.
“We thought we were big and physical,” Beechwood Coach Jay Volker said of his now 4-1 Class 2A Tigers after their first loss, “but not as big and physical as CovCath.”
Not even close. Not against a Class 4A CovCath team that has won three straight now after opening with two losses against toughies Ryle and Highlands.
“We got dominated, dominated up front,” Volker said, “and we couldn’t tackle.”
“We weren’t sure where we were,” CovCath Coach Eddie Eviston said coming into this game, “and we’re still not there yet.”
But they’re getting there.
Although there was a moment when CovCath wasn’t quite certain where it was in this one after pulling out to a 14-0 lead before allowing Beechwood to score three times in 6:13 – two at the end of the first half, one on the first drive of the second – for a 21-20 edge, its only lead of the game.
Was this the moment that CovCath would find out who it is, down to start the second half? Eviston had no doubt. “Continue to do us,” he told his Colonels. And they did.
“We didn’t hit the panic button,” Eviston said, “we were able to change that momentum pretty quick.” As in scoring the next 29 straight points.
Only sophomore Nathan Pabst’s incredible kickoff return performance – a final 89-yard TD with 1:21 left in the game on top of a 96-yard score to finish the first half – saved the Tigers from serious embarrassment with speedsters Tyler Fryman out with a broken collarbone and Luke Erdman limited with an AC sprain.
“Even with those two guys we probably don’t win,” Volker said, so thoroughly did CovCath dominate up front. And at the two key skill positions.
Skyline Chile Crosstown Shootout MVP Dylan Gaiser gained 208 yards on the ground on 14 carries (a 14.9-yard average) with a long run of 68 yards, another 19 in the air, with a pair of TD — one on the first snap of the fourth quarter, a 21-yard sweep where he was just too quick for the Beechwood defenders.
“It was my line,” the junior Ludlow native said, “I just try to go as fast as I can . . . you’re not really thinking out there” but playing like this “just took a little getting used to” Gaiser said.
As for Harney, also a junior, he admitted – as a person on the Beechwood sideline wondered if he wasn’t “that quarterback who played for us two years ago” – that yes, indeed, he was that guy. “I am,” he said of stepping in for five games as a freshman starter when Clay Hayden, a year ahead of him, was injured.
“I played backup,” Harney said with a big grin. “I hated being a backup . . . I had kind of a chip on my shoulder” before transferring to CovCath a year ago. And now, after completing eight of 13 for 84 yards and two TD and running for another 138 on 17 carries (an 8.1 average) with a long gain of 60, he had a win over his old team as a starting quarterback.
“Each game I’m getting a little more confident,” Harney says of a rushing attack that allows him to run a couple of quarterback-draw-type plays where he waits, reads the blockers and the rush of the defense and then takes off. “I can’t wait to see him in five weeks,” Eviston said, “he’s a guy who loves to compete.”
And he’s growing into the spot as he showed when he “picked up on the safeties” and knew the play was there on that 19-yard easy TD pass to a wide-open Gaiser, as did Gaiser.
But they weren’t alone. Big sophomore running back Owen Pitzer scored a pair of TD as did senior Andrew Bessler.
For Beechwood, QB Hayden hit on 11 of 22 for 156 yards, two TD and one INT. Tailback Chase Flaherty ran it 16 times for 59 yards and caught four passes for 49 yards and a pair of TD. Beechwood punter James Cusick averaged 54.0 yards on three punts with a long one of 64 yards.
Tate Kruer led CovCath in tackles once again with a game-high nine.
Both teams move on to district play next week with CovCath at an 0-5 Holmes team that’s been outscored 182-12 Thursday and Beechwood hosting 1-3 Gallatin County Friday.
FOOTNOTED: Really nice pregame moment as the capacity crowd was asked to honor the memory of two state championship-winning coaches who died this fall – one from each school. Beechwood’s Mike Yeagle, who died earlier in the fall, won eight state football championships in making the Tigers a perennial Kentucky powerhouse and Andy Hagedorn, who died Sept. 7, who won three state swimming titles in his 13 years at CovCath before moving on to teach and coach another 35 years at Rockhurst HS in Kansas City in his 54 years of teaching and coaching.
Score by Quarters
BEECHWOOD 0 14 7 7—28
COVCATH 14 6 8 21–49
COVCATH: Bessler 7 run [PAT] Urti kick good
COVCATH: Pitzer 2 run [PAT] Urti kick good
BEECHWOOD: Flaherty 7 pass from Hayden [PAT Lair kick good]
COVCATH: Pitzer 7 run [Urti PAT failed]
BEECHWOOD: Pabst 96 Kickoff return [PAT] Lair kick good
BEECHWOOD: Flaherty 16 pass from Hayden [PAT} Lair kick good
COVCATH: Gaiser 19 pass from Harney [2-point PAT] Harney run
COVCATH: Gaiser 21 run [PAT] Urti kick good
COVCATH: Guard 6 pass from Harney [PAT} Urti kick good
COVCATH: Bessler 20 run [PAT} Urti kick good
BEECHWOOD: Pabst 89 kickoff return [PAT] Lair kick good
TEAM TOTALS
Tigers Colonels
First Downs
12 27
Third Down Efficiency
4-9-44% 4-8-50%
Fourth Down Efficiency
0-1-0% 3-4-75%
Rushing Att-Yards-Avg
17-65-3.8 45-561-12.5
Passing Att-Yards-Avg
22-156-14.2 13-63-9.0
Pass Cmpt-Att-Int-%
11-22-1-50% 8-13-0-62%
Tot Off Yards
212 624
Sacks-Yards
0-0 1-9
Penalties-Yards
2-11 1-5
Fumbles-Lost
0-0 1-0
Time of Poss
25:39 31:29
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.