By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
In his team’s last two victories, Lloyd senior quarterback Kaleb Evans completed all 18 of his passes for 269 yards and eight touchdowns to keep the 12-0 Juggernauts among the three undefeated teams in the Class 3A playoffs.
Evans has raised his season pass completion percentage to 71.8 (130 of 181), which ranks seventh overall in the state and third in Class 3A. He has thrown for 2009 yards and 32 TDs with only five interceptions to attract offers from several small college teams, including Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati.
Going into Friday’s 8 p.m. home game against Russell (10-2), Evans needs 117 passing yards to reach the 5,000 mark in his varsity career. He’ll be facing a Russell defense that’s allowing only 44.3 passing yards per game, but the Red Devils gave up 194 yards through the air during a 35-13 loss to Breathitt County three weeks ago.
Lloyd is also capable of moving the ball on the ground. The Juggernauts are averaging 157 rushing yards per game with sophomore Lincoln Tomlinson and junior Avery Conrad getting most of the carries.
Last year, Russell edged Lloyd, 21-20, in the second round of the playoffs. Evans passed for 269 yards and two TDs, but it was an uneven offensive performance. His team took a 20-7 halftime lead and did not score in the final two quarters.
The winner of Friday’s rematch will advance to the state semifinals. Three years ago, Lloyd made it to the final four in the Class 2A playoffs and lost to Beechwood, 48-0.
The other undefeated teams in the Class 3A playoff bracket are Murray and three-time defending state champion Christian Academy-Louisville. One of CAL’s victories came against Ryle, 34-27, on Sept. 12.
Two head football coaches announce their retirement
Campbell County and Holmes are looking for new head football coaches to replace Brian Weinrich and Jonathan Hopkins, who both announced they are retiring from coaching.
Weinrich spent the last four seasons as Campbell County’s head coach with his teams compiling a 12-32 record. He was head coach at Newport in 2021 after spending seven years in charge of the Highlands program. His career record is 66-76 in 12 seasons. He led Highlands to the Class 4A state championship in 2014.
“It got to be kind of hard teaching a full load (of classes) and coaching,” Weinrich said. “It’s just very difficult to keep that grind up for too long of a time.”
Campbell County posted a 3-8 record this season with mostly juniors and sophomores on the roster. The team leader in tackles was sophomore Alex Reidinger and the top scorers were sophomore Cade Anthrop and junior Ayden Earls.
“Expect for a few places, it’s getting harder and harder to gets guys to play football, but there’s plenty of them here,” Weinrich said. “We were playing a lot of young guys at the end of the season, so there’s a lot guys with experience and talent ready to move forward.”
Hopkins was interim head coach of the Holmes team that posted a 2-8 record after two winless seasons. Holmes dropped out of Class 4A district play and scheduled 10 regular season games as a first step toward getting the program back on track. The Bulldogs will do that again next year under a new head coach.
Earlier this month, Justin Franklin resigned as Scott’s head football coach after his teams posted records of 3-7 and 2-8 the last two seasons and missed the Class 5A playoffs.
Cross country champion will run in national qualifiers
State champion cross country runner Paul Van Laningham plans to compete in region qualifiers for two national high school championship meets over the next two weekends.
The Cooper senior, who won Class 3A state titles in record-setting times the last two years, will run in the NXN Southeast qualifier sponsored by Nike this Saturday in Cary, N.C. If he’s one of the top five finishers in the boys race, he’ll return to the national championship meet Saturday, Dec. 6 in Portland, Ore.
Last year, Van Laningham placed 33rd in the Nike national meet after earning an at-large berth with his sixth-place time in the Southeast qualifier that includes high school runners from 12 states.
The second qualifier on Van Laningham’s schedule will be Saturday, Nov. 29 at in Charlotte, N.C. In that one, he’ll compete with runners from 14 states, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands for 10 qualifying spots in the Brooks Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Dec. 13 in San Diego.
Van Laningham is the first Northern Kentucky cross country runner to win back-to-back Class 3A boys state titles. His winning time of 15:19.87 in 2024 set a state record that he broke this year when he crossed the finish line in 15:01.12.
He made a verbal commitment with the University of Wisconsin that will compete in the NCAA Division I men’s cross country championship meet on Saturday in Missouri.