Dave Wirth fell short of admitting he was happy with where his Covington Catholic football team was halfway through the season.
But he did acknowledge his pleasure at the progress of his quarterback, senior Brayden Erpenbeck, who threw just 24 passes last regular season as a backup to Zach Isler.
Thanks to Erpenbeck and a CovCath offense that scored touchdowns on four of its first five possessions, the Colonels beat Beechwood, 43-14 at Wooten Stadium on Saturday.
“(Erpenbeck’s) really never been trained as a quarterback – realistically, for me anyhow,” Wirth said. “He’s playing his fifth game as a quarterback and he’s doing a good job.”
It was the second straight win for the Colonels, who started the season 0-3 under the first-year coach.
Compounding the level of difficulty was the new spread offensive system installed by Wirth, which Erpenbeck had to learn this summer after former coach Dave Brossart stepped down. Also, senior Michael Robinson was expected to be one of the Colonels’ top receivers, but he has missed the entire season with an internal injury.
“Coach Wirth said from the beginning our learning curve will be bigger than any other team around,” Erpenbeck said. “We started off slow but we all knew we’d get a lot better, and we have.
“In the summer when we were first putting in the offense, I thought to myself, there’s no way I’m going to remember everything.”
Erpenbeck was 17-for-20 passing for 169 yards and one TD, and he added 102 ground yards and three scores on 11 carries.
A key reason for CovCath’s success in the air has been the emergence of junior wide receiver Alex Connelly. A high jump state champion as a sophomore, Connelly had one career varsity reception entering this season.
Connelly caught five passes for a team-high 65 yards and the team’s lone receiving TD. In the game vs. Cincinnati La Salle two weeks ago, Connelly caught 10 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s grown mentally in terms of handling the highs and lows of the game, the good plays and the bad plays, the ball coming his way or not,” Wirth said. “But the more important thing is: (Robinson) can’t play yet, there’s a larger burden on him as an underclassmen – he has one career reception – so my God, he’s handled that really well.”
And Connelly said he has put in extra time practicing with Erpenbeck, which has helped his development as a receiver.
“Last year we played JV together, this summer and all of this year we stay after practice, five or 10 minutes, and just throw balls, make sure we have our timing together,” Connelly said.
Erpenbeck was one of three CovCath rushers to gain 100 or more yards on the ground. Junior running back Leo Schaefer led all rushers with 118 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries, and junior Alex Slabaugh had six carries for 100 yards and a TD.
Beechwood went three-and-out on its first possession, then senior Michael Rigdon’s punt was blocked and Rigdon had to cover it in the end zone for a safety.
Erpenbeck fumbled on the ensuing possession, but Beechwood’s offense was stagnant in the first half. The Tigers allowed an interception, lost the ball on downs twice and had a field goal blocked to end the half on their four possessions prior to halftime.
CovCath drove 40 yards on its next possession for a touchdown, capped off by a 12-yard Erpenbeck run, then the Colonels drove 89 yards on 10 plays for a score to make it 16-0.
Erpenbeck threw a 21-yard TD pass to Connelly with 3:49 left in the half to give CovCath a 22-0 lead.
CovCath drove 73 yards for another touchdown to open the second half to make it 29-0, then Beechwood finally got on the board with a seven-play, 72-yard drive that included a 26-yard run and a 14-yard TD run by senior Joe Colosimo.
Erpenbeck fumbled on a sack when CovCath got the ball back, and Beechwood went 15 yards for another score to make it 29-14 with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter.
But Erpenbeck took off down the right sideline for a 40-yard touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter to ice the game.
“I think that was really important,” Wirth said. “I think it reassured our guys that things would be OK, that this wasn’t going to be one of those games that spiraled out of control.”
Said Beechwood coach Noel Rash: “That’s what great teams do. They find a way to get it done, and CovCath did a heck of a job scheming against it and it showed on that play.”
The Colonels rushed for 340 yards and passed for 177 for a total of 517. Beechwood was held to 111 yards on the ground and 142 in the air for 253 total.
“They outmanned us in every form and fashion,” Rash said. “We just have to continue to get better. We’re a single-A football team and we’re playing like one right now. I was hoping we could play a little better but we weren’t able to."
Beechwood lost its first two games before beating Holy Cross, 36-35 last week. This loss drops the Tigers to 1-3, a position foreign to a defending two-time Class A champion team that had a 36-6 record under Rash entering this season, and 27-3 in 2007-08.
“I’m not getting them ready. It’s that simple and I don’t know what the answer is. I’ve tried different things and I just haven’t been able to get them ready. We’re going to keep working on the formula, I can tell you that.”
While both teams have three losses, Beechwood will still need vast improvement to become a major player this postseason, and CovCath appears on the track to success.
“You’re not going to ever get a 2-3 coach to say you’re happy with where he’s at," Wirth said. "I’m happy with the progress we’ve made recently. We were a lame duck the first game, we were OK the second game, we started getting good at some things the third game and we’ve just kind of progressed from there.”
BEECHWOOD 0-0-14-0—14 at COVCATH 9-13-7-14—43 C-Safety: Beechwood punt blocked, punter covered in end zone C-Erpenbeck 11 run (Talkers kick) C-Erpenbeck 3 run (Talkers kick) C-Connelly 21 pass from Erpenbeck (pass failed) C-Schaefer 6 run (Talkers kick) B-Colosimo 13 run (Nussbaum kick) B-Smith 8 pass from Rigdon (Nussbaum kick) C-Erpenbeck 40 run (Talkers kick) C-Slabaugh 5 run (Talkers kick) RECORDS: CovCath 2-3, Beechwood 1-3.
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