By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
You would think the way Beechwood’s unbeaten Tigers have finished the regular season, things couldn’t possibly be going any better for the 18-time state champions.
After all, with Friday’s 62-6 win at Class 6A Campbell County, the Ft. Mitchell guys have finished six straight games with a running clock.
“Really? I don’t keep track of that stuff,” said coach Noel Rash, enjoying the heck out of his return to coaching this year without worrying about the score “We are playing well.”
Yes, they are. Playing well enough with this Class 6A win over the Camels and an earlier 6A win over Simon Kenton (41-0) along with a preseason scrimmage win over 6A Ryle that the guys from the small Ft. Mitchell school would also qualify for the 6A district title here in addition to the 2A crown if they were allowed to do double duty.
There’s also the win over Ohio state challenger Indian Hill (41-0) and one over Class 4A toughie Covington Catholic (42-35), maybe the best single win by any Class 2A team in the state.
“And yet, we could be fourth in RPI (in the state 2A),” Rash said with a shake of his head at the ridiculous sound of it. “We’ll know in an hour or so when all the results are in . . . I hope we can get third.”
And when all the results were in Friday, Beechwood did make it up to third but still behind a two-loss Lexington Christian Academy and a one-loss Owensboro Catholic, two of the teams Beechwood has beaten in its recent state championship appearances.
And yeah, Rash isn’t happy about the way Kentucky’s RPI works out for border teams from Northern Kentucky who play out-of-state powers like Indian Hill and Cincinnati Elder for Highlands and CovCath and get little credit for it.
Which is why Owensboro Catholic, with a 31-point loss to a Boyle County team Highlands beat by 20, is ahead of the Tigers. “I had a long meeting with the Commissioner (Julian Tackett) about how unfair that is,” Rash said. And he might as well have been whistling in the wind. “They said they don’t have enough people to calculate that (out-of-state rankings),” although the Ohio High School Athletic Association does have the manpower for its computer system to rank out-of-state games fairly.
Why that matters is that the higher-ranked RPi team gets the playoff home game, sending Beechwood on the road, potentially, against a team incredibly ranked ahead of it in RPI.
Although if the way the Tigers started Friday with three touchdowns the first three times they touched the ball – including a Tyler Fryman punt return TD called back for a dubious blind-side block – Beechwood can handle the road as it did in jumping out to a 41-6 halftime lead and raining on Campbell County’s Senior Night parade.
“I’m really pleased with the way our guys started out,” Rash said, “and the way we handled things when it got a little chippy there at the end” with late hits and personal fouls by the none-too-happy Camels.
As to the game, “We kept grinding it out” with “our pair of tailbacks,” Rash said with senior Nathan Pabst going for three touchdowns with his power, speed and terrific ability to plant and go the other way.
Junior Garrison “Garry” Wilson added two TDs including the game’s first on the Tigers’ first play – a 53-yard burst with a smooth change of direction.
“They were doubling Fryman,” Rash said of his UK-bound speedster who can play multiple positions. “But that’s all right,” he said of his 1-2 tailback punch the way Wilson has come on. All right as well was the Tigers’ run defense, holding the Camels to minus-30 yards rushing on 22 carries.
“He’s worked so hard,” Rash says of Wilson. And if Fryman can’t beat you returning punts, he can beat you blocking them as he did in the second quarter, flipping the ball high up into the air where 6-foot-2 junior basketballer Abe Greber tracked it down from his defensive line spot over the guard, pulled it in and scooted some 30 yards into the end zone, earning Player of the Game honors for Beechwood.
And while the POG honors might have been a bit of a surprise on a team loaded with offensive stars, the blocked punt wasn’t. “Tyler did that against Dixie Heights,” Greber said, and he was eyeing that ball, too, but Fryman beat him to it. Not on this night.
POG honors came for Campbell County’s Cade Anthrop who had 111 yards receiving and beat the Beechwood secondary for a 72-yard scoring strike from Xander Guy for the night’s only serious breakdown by the Tigers’ defense.
Now it’s a weekend off tor Beechwood as a 1-8 Morgan County, down to 15 players, made the call not to play the playoff game and make the trip up from Morgan County Friday. “They were great,” Rash said, “they handled it with class, letting us know plenty early.”
Beechwood will face the winner of the St. Henry-West Carter game Nov. 13 in Week 2 of the playoffs and will cut back a bit on the practice schedule while keeping to it for the most part. Campbell County will head to Louisville Male for the Camels’ first playoff game Friday.
“We’ve got to learn how to play ball,” Campbell County coach Rick Honaker told his 4-6 team afterward. “It’s only a failure if you don’t learn anything.”
SCORING SUMMARY
BEECHWOOD 21 20 14 7—62
CAMPBELL CO o 6 0 0—6
Beechwood: Wilson 53 run (Mercer PAT kick)
Beechwood: Pabst 67 run (Mercer PAT kick)
Beechwood: Greber 30 blocked FG return (Mercer PAT kick)
Campbell Co: Anthony 72 pass from Guy (kick blocked)
Beechwood: Pabst 12 run (PAT kick fails)
Beechwood: Pabst 1 run (Mercer PAT kick)
Beechwood: Wilson 3 run (Mercer PAT kick)
Beechwood: Fryman 5 run (Mercer PAT kick)
Beechwood: Ritter 5 run (Wilson PAT kick)
Beechwood: Siemer 5 run (Wilson PAT kick)