The blowing rain mixed with his tears, and the eye-black that decorated his face began to smear. Dixie Heights senior wide receiver Josh Raleigh most likely didn’t care. He meandered slowly off his home field for the final time, and, just before walking across the track and making his way to the locker room, he turned around and stared across the turf one last time.
His face registered sadness and hurt. He looked like he couldn’t fathom what had hit him Friday night. He looked like he couldn’t believe that, once again, Boone County had gotten the best of the Colonels.
Though they’ve had a tough season and though they had to be considered the underdog entering Friday’s game, the Rebels proved they still had enough to thwart Dixie Heights.
In danger of losing his job during the contest, Boone County senior quarterback Nate Alford hit junior fullback Jordan Oppenheimer for a 65-yard touchdown pass with 59 seconds to play, and the Rebels forced two fumbles from Colonels senior running back Corey Klei inside the Boone County 10-yard line to pull out the 28-21 victory.
It was the seventh-straight victory against the Rebels – clearly one reason Raleigh seemed so disappointed – and with a first-round playoff matchup against St. Xavier, it provided Boone County a nice shot of adrenaline before it has to travel to Louisville next week.
“I’m proud of our team for fighting hard and finding a way to get the job done tonight,” Rebels coach Rick Thompson said. “We’ve struggled at times, but we did a better job tackling tonight and we forced turnovers. The kids kept fighting even though they had a tough couple weeks. It’s nice to finish the regular season with a win.”
Despite the last-minute heroics of Alford and Oppenheimer, the key to Boone County’s (4-6) offense was the rushing of senior Charles Quainoo. He gained 255 yards on 39 carries, and his 50-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter tied the score at 21 and gave his team a nice momentum boost for the final nine minutes.
“They just ran it right down our throat the whole game,” said Dixie Heights coach Tom Spritzky. “They just kept doing it. Honestly, they deserved to win. We were probably lucky to even be in the game. We were going to have to outscore them, but because we turned over the ball over a couple times, we weren’t able to do that.”
The fact the Colonels (4-6) were called for five offside penalties – including two on third-and-short that gave Boone County an automatic first down – didn’t help. But the Dixie Heights offense also couldn’t finish drives.
In the second quarter, losing 7-6, quarterback Ryan Wilson’s 50-yard run gave the Colonels the ball at the 6-yard line. After a false start, he handed off to Klei, who lost the ball at the 4. Boone County then converted a 12-play, 96-yard drive to take an eight-point lead.
In the fourth quarter, with the chance to take a 28-21 lead, Klei – who rushed 11 times for 82 yards – fumbled the ball again, and the Rebels recovered at their own 7-yard line.
“That was big,” Thompson said. “It’s a tough break. The kid runs hard, and those things happen.”
This particular thing, though, happened to set up the game-winning score. All game long, Oppenheimer had told his coaches that they needed to call a pass play for him. He said it would work. He was right, as Alford – who perhaps saved his job with a nice performance Friday – hit him across the middle of the field. Oppenheimer then broke a Dixie Heights tackle, and he galloped about 40 yards for the score.
“I kept telling our offensive coordinator, ‘It’s going to be there, it’s going to be there,’” said Oppenheimer, who also scored the game’s first points on a 1-yard touchdown run. “I kept telling him. He called it, and it was there. You can’t ask for a better playcall by the coaches. I was just thinking the whole time, ‘Nobody catch me. Nobody catch me.’”
Now, the big question for Dixie Heights heading into next week’s first-round playoff contest at Ashland is how the Colonels will recover from two tough defeats in a row.
That’s a good question, Spritzky said. And he’s not sure he has an answer.
“We’re not playing very good football,” he said. “We can’t stop anybody, and when we get the ball in the red zone, we turn the ball over. You can’t win that way.
“Do I browbeat them? Do I pat them on the shoulder? Do I hug them? I can’t figure it out.”BOONE COUNTY 7-7-0-14–28
at DIXIE HEIGHTS 6-0-14-0–21
BC–Oppenheimer 1 run (Palmateer kick)
DH–Wilson 4 run (run failed)
BC–Quainoo 15 run (Palmateer kick)
DH–Bruns 17 run (Wilson run)
DH–Wilson 12 run (Bronner kick)
BC–Quainoo 50 run (Palmateer kick)
BC–Oppenheimer 65 pass from Alford (Palmateer kick)
RECORDS: Boone County 4-6, Dixie Heights 4-6.
