By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
With heavy rain in the weekend forecast, three high school football games involving Northern Kentucky teams will be played on Thursday night instead of Friday to avoid any chance of a washout.
The rescheduled games include Brossart at Bellevue, Newport at Owen County and Highlands at Scott County. The first game will start at 7 p.m. Thursday and the other two will kick off at 7:30 p.m.
An email was sent to the coaches and athletic directors of the other local high schools that have football games on Friday night. None of them replied with changes to the existing schedule.
Two years ago, heavy rain forced the Brossart at Bellevue game to be cancelled on a Friday night and the two teams squared off the next day. Brossart came from behind and won that game, 24-21, after going 0-4 in its previous games against the Tigers.
Last season, Brossart scored two touchdowns in the second half and defeated Bellevue, 13-6, so the last two games between the small-school rivals have been decided by a total of 10 points.
Brossart enters Thursday’s game with a 2-0 record and the Mustangs have allowed only one touchdown in their first two games against Dayton and Holmes. The team’s defensive standout has been junior linebacker Nathan Bezold with a team-high 21 tackles. Last Friday, he intercepted a pass and made two stops in a successful goal line stand to preserve his team’s 13-0 shutout against Holmes.
Bellevue (1-1) has a high-powered offense that scored 85 points in its first two games. Senior quarterback Eric Atkins has thrown for 496 yards and nine touchdowns with only one interception. The Tigers have five receivers who have caught scoring passes. Junior running back Will Ryan has scored two touchdowns receiving and two touchdowns rushing.
Brossart is averaging 350 yards per game with first-year quarterback Tyler MacDonald running its offense. The junior has passed for 406 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Both of his TD passes went to senior Bryce Donnelly, who has eight catches for 174 yards.
In last week’s win over Holmes, MacDonald passed for 230 of the Mustangs’ 298 total yards. He competed passes to six different receivers with Donnelly picking up 113 yards on four receptions.
The speed that makes Donnelly a big-play threat on the football field also carried him to runner-up finishes in the 200 and 400 meter dashes at the Class 1A track and field state championship meet last spring.
Since Donnelly also plays safety for the Mustangs, there’s a good chance he’ll be covering Bellevue wide receiver Seth Evers at some time in Thursday’s game. Evers won the 100 and 200 dash events in the Class 1A state track meet.