By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
How could this not be the new start for the season for both teams: You had Newport hosting Newport Central Catholic in a Class A district-determining opener at the brand new Newport High School Stadium.
It doesn’t get much newer than that. Both teams were coming off a bye week and focused on the Newport Firemen’s Bell, the trophy that goes to the winner. Newport at 4-1 with the higher RPI rating.
NewCath at 3-3 after an explosive 3-0 start before stubbing its toe against a tough out-of-district schedule.
But for Friday to be all about ringing in the new, it would have had to be a new century for the host Wildcats who have yet to beat their crosstown rivals in the 21st Century. Not since 1998 – 24 games and counting – had the Thoroughbreds not gone home with the hardware. The announcer called it a “traveling trophy bell” but it’s been anything but that, staying put for a quarter-century now on Thoroughbred Hill.
In a hard-hitting game in front of a near-capacity crowd, NewCath remembered how the Breds had raced out to that 3-0 start in a businesslike 35-7 romp over Newport. Maybe that should not have been a surprise considering NewCath’s 27-14 opening win over a tough Lloyd Memorial team that had rocked Newport, 39-7, two weeks ago. Forget the RPI that had Newport seven spots ahead of NewCath in Class A.
That Lloyd game made it clear: This NewCath team, minus the mistakes that cost them a couple of games, can be a pretty formidable bunch behind its lead defender/running back duo of senior 215-pound power back Kaleb Cole, who pounded in for the game’s first four touchdowns and his junior sidekick, 180-pound speedster Eddie Bivens.
Just don’t ask Cole about that 25th straight win that the NewCath cheerleaders reminded the crowd with their banner the Breds ran through that had a big number 25 on it. “I had no idea,” said Cole, No 26, wondering if they were saluting him and missed by one “or maybe the Class of ’25.” When they told him it was the win streak over Newport, he said, “Oh, OK, that’s great.”
NewCath Coach Stephen Lickert had no idea either about the number 25. “I’m just worried about 2024,” he said.
No need to. For the past two weeks, “We worked to keep each other accountable,” said Cole, the leader of a four-deep pack of running backs who can get a bit of a rest on offense but not defense where Kaleb can’t come out,” Lickert said. With Cole and his backfield buddy Bivens coming hard most every play on defense, Newport quarterback Kyle Lee was running for his life more often than not.
Five times NewCath sacked Lee while forcing one interception and another intentional grounding. Lee didn’t give in, however, scrambling 28 yards to the 1-yard line on game’s penultimate play to set up Newport’s lone score when Lee, stopped on a quarterback sneak, improvised with a pitch to Kendall Buck-Barber who ran 30 yards to get the one yard needed to get to the end zone.
But that was the highlight reel for the Wildcats except for an earlier 30-yard completion to Newport’s Outstanding Player Rodzion Thompson, who kept blasting into a NewCath defense geared to stopping him and Lee.
“We knew this was going to be a tough one,” said Newport Coach Paul Wiggins, an alum back home this year after creating a top program at Bishop Brossart. “They were blitzing Kaleb Cole and we were living very far away from the goal posts.” Especially early when it took six plays to get positive yardage on offense. “The Achilles’ heel for us this year has been up front,” Wiggins said. And NewCath took advantage.
“We knew this would be a tough one,” Wiggins said after giving Thompson a big hug and encouraging him that they can still finish second in the district and get a home playoff game.
Bivens is looking for more than that. “I don’t think anybody can stop us,” said Bivens, if the Breds play like this. “The only person who can stop us is ourselves. If we don’t stop ourselves, we can win the state.”
Lickert doesn’t disagree. The challenge for the last two weeks was for his team to stop “making mistakes and start making plays.”
The way Cole did, after opening the game with a 20-yard run where he lost the ball at the end of it. And then he followed that up with four straight TD runs – from four yards out to end a 12-play, 77-yard drive for the game’s first score in the opening minute of the second quarter. Then in succession came a one-yard TD run before halftime, a seven-yard run in the third and a 10-yarder for a score in the fourth.
“We can run the ball,” Lickert said, noting how quarterback Manny Miles can fly, as he did on a 37-yard option run for the final NewCath score. But then he added: “We can throw it,” too, just that on this night they didn’t have to. And to go a long way in the playoffs, especially on the road, this offense, which adds all-purpose runner Louie Collopy, who added five-for-five on PATs as well.
“We’ve got a chance,” Lickert says of NewCath’s (4-3, 1-0) Class A state hopes.
As for Newport (4-2, 0-1), this is the turnaround year, not a short-term project, Wiggins says. He’s in it for the long term with the Wildcats who have to learn how to do things right.
SCORING SUMMARY
NEWCATH 0 14 7 14—35
NEWPORT 0 0 0 7—7
NewCath: Cole 4 run (PAT) Collopy kick good
NewCath: Cole 1 run (PAT) Collopy kick good
NewCath: Cole 7 run (PAT) Collopy kick good
NewCath: Cole 10 run (PAT) Collopy kick good
NewCath: Miles 37 run (PAT) Collopy kick good
Newport: Buck-Barber 1 run (PAT) Reynoso kick good
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dweber3440.
