By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Ashland Blazer Coach Chad Tackett wasn’t blowing smoke.
“I think we have a state championship offense,” Tackett said after his Tomcats’ 35-28 second-round Class 4A playoff loss to unbeaten Covington Catholic Friday in a chilly Park Hills.
The problem for Tackett and the Tomcats, now 10-2: That wasn’t good enough against a senior-led CovCath offense firing on almost all cylinders with Evan Pitzer throwing three TD passes to UK-bound tight end Willie Rodriguez and tailback Owen Leen running in the other two.
“We knew they were really good,” Tackett said of the 12-0 Colonels. “We just couldn’t get enough stops.” But the Tomcats challenged a sometimes uncharacteristically tackle-missing CovCath defense that allowed Ashland 406 yards.
Not that CovCath was far behind with the 6-foot-5 Pitzer completing 11 of 14 for 180 yards and those three TDs. Leen carried it 21 times for 103 yards and his two TDs.
And Rodriguez? The 6-4, 240-pound soon-to-be-SEC player caught six passes for 115 yards with three ending up in the end zone as Rodriguez shed Tomcat tacklers by the handfuls on his trips to the end zone from 14, 21 and 45 yards out with the fifth and final game-clinching score coming on the final play of the third period.
It wasn’t that Ashland couldn’t tackle him, the Tomcats couldn’t hold on to him after Rodriguez resisted their attempts and tossed them to the turf.
“Willie’s always ready like that,” CovCath Coach Eddie Eviston said. But teams don’t always try to single-cover him. Ashland did at times. And then couldn’t get him down with a half-dozen who tried and failed after Rodriguez got up a head of steam.
“Survive and advance,” Eviston said, thankful that “we came out strong.” The Colonels’ quick 14-0 advantage turned into a 21-7 lead with a possibility of making it 28-7 but that possession failed and made this something of a shootout with Ashland closing it to 21-14 at halftime with a 14-play, 66-yard drive.
“Our skilled players are really skilled,” Tackett said of stars like quarterback LaBryant Strader, a 6-2, 225-pound senior quarterback who accounted for all four Ashland touchdowns after completing 12 of 17 for 199 yards and two TDs while carrying it 12 times for 65 yards and two more TDs without a sack.
“We knew this was one of the toughest second-round games in the state,” Eviston said for his Colonel team that played all of its toughest games – against Ryle, Highlands, Beechwood and Dixie Heights – in the first half of the season.
“Coach (Eviston) and I talked before the game about how tough the East half of the state is in 4A,” Ashland’s Tackett said as Corbin and Boyle County face off next week while CovCath, as the top-rated RPI 4A team, will stay home to face an 8-3 Johnson Central team that beat Ashland 36-33 in the regular season.
“We gotta’ shore up some things,” Eviston said, but getting linebacker Josh Flood back on defense helped. Flood led the CovCath defense with 11 tackles, adding to the production of Tate Kruer (nine tackles), Logan Sanning (eight) and Ben Reeves (seven).
Also pitching in was tailback Leen, who came in as a nickel back. “That was like I did against Beechwood when they passed the ball a lot,” Leen said as the Colonels worked on maintaining their one-TD lead the second half.
“We knew we had to play our A-game (on defense),” Reeves said, even if they didn’t always. Especially when it came to missing too many tackles against the hard-running Tomcats.
“For sure,” Reeves said.
“We always mention tackling,” Eviston said of his halftime talk after giving up a long TD drive. “We fully expected that,” he said of Ashland’s offensive challenge.
So will having maybe the biggest challenge and toughest game in the state in Week 2 help his Colonels as the playoffs proceed?
“I guess we’ll see,” Eviston said.
We will indeed.
Score by Quarter
Ashland (10-2) 7 7 7 7–28
CovCath 14 7 14 0–35
Scoring Summary
CovCath: Rodriguez 14 pass from Pitzer (Weitzel PAT)
CovCath: Leen 11 run (Weitzel PAT)
Ashland: Adkins 32 pass from Strader (Sexton PAT)
CovCath: Rodriguez 21 pass from Pitzer (Weitzel PAT)
Ashland: Strader 2 run (Sexton PAT)
CovCath: Leen 1 run (Weitzel PAT)
Ashland: Strader 9 run (Sexton PAT)
CovCath: Rodriguez 45 pass from Pitzer (Weitzel PAT)
Ashland: Adkins 5 pass from Strader (Sexton PAT)
Featured photo: Coach Ed Eviston and tri-captains Willie Rodrigues, Ben Reeves, and Evan Pitzer come out for the toss before the playoff game against Ashland. (NKyTribune photo)