By Chad Hensley
Special to NKyTribune
A trio of Joey Runyon touchdowns in the fourth quarter ignited Newport Central Catholic’s 42-21 win at Louisville Holy Cross in the Class 1A region finals on Friday night.
Runyon, a senior running back, rushed for 191 yards on 28 carries and tallied four touchdowns as the Thoroughbreds improved to 8-2. NewCath quarterback Malaki Herndon added 80 yards rushing on 16 carries with a touchdown.
Runyon’s 7-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes remaining in the contest snapped a 21-all tie. Sam Lavin’s extra point kick was good and gave NewCath a 28-21 lead.
The Thoroughbreds forced the Cougars (7-2) into a three-and-out deep inside their own territory, and a bad punt gave NewCath the ball inside the red zone.
Three plays later, it was Runyon with another 7-yard touchdown run. Lavin converted the extra-point try to extend the NewCath advantage to 35-21 with 6:56 left in the fourth quarter.
Runyon intercepted Chaz Geraghty’s pass on the next Louisville Holy Cross series, and he then punched it in from 5-yards out to put the game out of reach.
Until Runyon’s scoring outburst in the fourth quarter, the game was a back-and-forth affair with NewCath scoring and Louisville Holy Cross countering with a touchdown.
Runyon started the scoring on NewCath’s first series with a powerful 33-yard run that capped an 11-play drive that covered 80 yards.
Geraghty hooked up with Tate Gaw on a 9-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to even the score at 7-7.
NewCath then used another long drive to retake the lead on Herndon’s 5-yard touchdown run. The drive covered 60 yards on 10 plays and took 3:41 off the clock.
Louisville Holy Cross dove deep into its bag of tricks for its next score. Geraghty threw the ball backwards to wide receiver Chris Perry, and Perry then connected with Gaw for a 54-yard touchdown pass. Jackson Gawarecki’s extra point was good to knot the score at 14-all just before the halftime break.
After a Luke Runyon interception of Geraghty early in the third quarter, NewCath received three big plays to set up its next score.
Herndon’s pass to Quentin Meyer went for 38 yards on the first play of the series. It was followed by an 11-yard carry from Runyon and a 12-yard run from Herndon. Buddy Atkins finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to give NewCath a 21-14 lead with 5:35 left in the third quarter.
When star running back Lex Thomas went out of the game with an injury on the next series after getting the ball inside the NewCath 10-yard line, Geraghty ran the ball four consecutive times and scored on a 2-yard carry to tie the game for the third and final time.
The fourth quarter was all NewCath, thanks to Runyon’s offensive prowess. The win gave the Thoroughbreds their first region title since 2015 and revenge against the Cougars, who eliminated NewCath in the region finals last year.
NewCath dominated the rushing yardage by a whopping 308-48 margin and finished with a 383-221 edge in total offense.
Geraghty entered the game with 1,004 yards rushing, but the NewCath defense held him to 20 yards on 14 carries.
Thomas rushed for 871 yards during the first eight games for the Cougars, but he was limited to 28 yards on five carries before his injury.
NewCath will travel to Paintsville (8-2) next Friday night in the Class 1A state semifinals. Paintsville posted a 39-7 win over Hazard in its region final on Friday night.
LOUISVILLE TRINITY DEFEATS DIXIE HEIGHTS: Armon Tucker rushed for 96 yards and three touchdowns as top-ranked Louisville Trinity coasted to a 56-0 win over Dixie Heights in the Class 6A state quarterfinals on Friday night. Trinity (8-0) held Dixie Heights to just 46 yards of total offense.
Brad West added 72 yards and two touchdowns on the ground for Trinity, which will meet St. Xavier next week in the state semifinals. St. Xavier (6-2) knocked off previously unbeaten North Hardin (9-1) on Friday night by a 16-9 score.
Dixie Heights, which knocked off Ryle a week earlier, finished the season with a 6-4 record.