Cincinnati Elder’s talented veterans too much for CovCath’s young guys in Colonels’ home opener

By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter

For a veteran, battle-tested and seriously talented Cincinnati Elder football team, it was pretty much business as usual on the Panthers’ trip to Park Hills Friday night.

“Good win, clean up the sideline and get on the bus,” 30-year coach Doug Ramsey told his Elder team after a 56-20 win over a young, untested Covington Catholic team in front of a standing room only crowd ay Dennis Griffin Stadium.

“We’re not evaluating ourselves on that score” said CovCath coach Eddie Eviston of the deceptive final margin. “We’ve got a good team.”

Or they will have one. As for that score, had two plays not gone sideways for the Colonels in the last five minutes, it would have been 14 points closer after the Colonels gave up a touchdown on a blocked punt and then saw a 74-yard completion come up short on the 1-yard line as the final horn sounded.

That was pretty much the way this one went all night as Elder’s brilliant three-year starter at quarterback, Kaden Estep, made the most of every opportunity against an overmatched-at-times CovCath defense, piling up an amazing 453 yards of total offense – passing and rushing — by himself

And it didn’t take long as Estep hooked up with speedy transfer wide receiver Andrew Lynam on Elder’s first offensive play for a 75-yard TD, one of his two with 125 yards on six receptions.

“He has the kind of speed we haven’t ever had,” Ramsey said of Lynam, explaining how rare it was for Elder to open with a bomb like that. That was speed the CovCath defenders certainly haven’t seen in Northern Kentucky.

“Our advantage in this game, we thought, was our wide receivers against their secondary,” Ramsey said, while praising CovCath’s young offensive leaders and senior defensive end Jonny Lind, heading to West Point next year.

“He worried us,” Ramsey said of Lind. “We tried to give our tackles help against him. While accepting the compliment, Lind talked of how this game “was the start of a learning curve for us.” And what was the lesson for the young Colonels? “The speed of the game,” Lind said.

Not that the Colonels didn’t have their own big plays – “Too many of them,” Ramsey said. – but they also moved it on the ground with 6-foot-1, 215-pound sophomore Kyan Miller, who gained 55 yards on 13 carries with a TD while spinning and second-efforting his way against a tough Elder defense.

“I liked a lot of their players (on offense),” Ramsey said of so many young Colonels in just their second varsity start. First in that group had to be junior lefty Dylan Courtney, whose 313 yards passing came on a 12-of-26 effort with bombs of 74 and 66 yards. Thanks to those yards, CovCath gained 415 yards on offense compared to Elder’s 549.

Of that number, Elder’s Estep’s 453 – 114 on just seven carries and 339 more on 22 of 27 passing – produced one rushing TD, one passing.

“That’s him,” Ramsey said. “He just knows where to go with the ball – always.” And that was the difference, CovCath’s Eviston said. It was a three-year experienced star “against our guy starting his second game . . . he’s going to be fine.”

And Miller? “He’s going to be special,” Eviston says. And for his sophomore ball-carrying buddy with a burst, Jamir Kirtley, “he’s a playmaker.”

Scoring by quarters

Scoring Summary