Covington Catholic traveled to perennial power Louisville St. Xavier Friday night, looking to end the regular season with a bang against one of the state’s premier programs. But the Colonels (5-5), winners in five of their last six games, instead, fell flat on the rain-soaked turf with a resounding thud, 63-7.
“We knew coming into the game that it would be a tall task,” said CovCath head coach Dave Wirth. “That said, you certainly don’t come into the game thinking it’s going to be a 63-7 game, but that’s where we’re at right now.”
The Tigers (9-1) were practically flawless, scoring on 9 of 10 offensive possessions, only turning the ball over on downs midway through the fourth quarter with most of their starters on the bench.
Five of the St. Xavier touchdown drives took less than two minutes off the clock; two of them were one-play strikes.
The Tigers outgained CovCath 466-109, while averaging almost 10 yards-per-play for the game.
“I think we were outmatched,” Wirth said. “We’re in a pretty serious rebuilding year, and we were just outmatched.”
St. Xavier was especially dominant running the ball, amassing 371 yards on the ground using a trio of explosive backs who were virtually untouchable in the open field.
Tigers junior running back Jeont’a Hayden carried just four times for a staggering 134 yards and two touchdowns, a 57-yarder in the third quarter and a 68-yard ramble for the game’s final score. Senior Michael Montano had 10 carries for 108 yards and touchdown, and junior La’Mont Murray added 59 yards and two touchdowns on six carries.
The Colonels faced a tough test regardless, but certainly weren’t helped by very wet conditions that made devastatingly agile runners nearly impossible to bring down. Sophomore linebacker Tanner Coyne-Chailand led the defense with 10 tackles, one for a loss, and senior defensive back Chris Garnick was second on the team with seven tackles.
The rain also hurt CovCath in the passing game, especially out of the shotgun, with Colonel signal-callers letting snaps slip through their hands on consecutive possessions in the third quarter. One was recovered by the Tigers and punched in for a touchdown. The Colonels fell on the other in their own end zone for a safety.
Most of CovCath’s yards did come through the air, however, as senior Brayden Erpenbeck and sophomore Brady Reese combined to complete 10 of 16 passes for 95 yards.
Erpenbeck started the game under center and completed 6 of 12 passes for 54 yards. Reese came on in relief as the score grew more lopsided and went 4 of 4 for 41 yards, while leading the Colonels on their only touchdown drive.
CovCath finally strung together a nine-play, 60-yard touchdown drive with 3:39 left in the game, capped by junior running back Alex Slabaugh’s 11-yard touchdown run. Slabaugh finished with 17 yards on four carries.
Despite the sound thumping the Colonels received, Wirth pointed out two bright spots: They came out of the contest healthy, and they won’t be facing St. Xavier next week.
“I think we’ll rebound fine, and I think they understand where they are in the process of rebuilding this program,” he said. “I also think they know what lies ahead of us next Saturday (in the playoffs), and it isn’t exactly St. Xavier. It’s still going to be a good, playoff-caliber football team, but we’ll be fine.”
CovCath will look to regroup ion the first round of the playoffs as they host Woodford County on Nov. 7.COVCATH 0-0-0-7--7
at ST. XAVIER 13-29-15-6--63
SX-McMurray 18 run (pass failed)
SX-McMurray 18 run (Gray kick)
SX-Neal 4 run (Gray kick)
SX-Montano 37 run (kick failed)
SX-Neal 54 yd pass from Brohm (Gray kick)
SX-Safety
SX-McMurray 9 pass from Neal (Gray kick)
SX-Hayden 57 run (Raque kick)
SX-Goodwin 4 run (kick failed)
SX-Safety
CC-Slabaugh 11 run (Talkers kick)
SX-Hayden 68 run (kick failed)
RECORDS: St. Xavier 9-1, CovCath 5-5.
