On the field, Friday night’s Newport Central Catholic-Beechwood game in Fort Mitchell was like so many in the rivalry between the two Northern Kentucky small school powers.
There were two ranked teams rushing for a combined 429 yards and the Thoroughbreds holding off a late Beechwood rally for a 26-22 win.
But there was also something very different, as for the first time since 1965 head coach Bob Schneider was not present on the NewCath sideline.
“He has a blood clot issue in his left leg and a little bit in his lungs,” said offensive coordinator Dave Schneider, Bob’s son who is now only 342 wins behind his dad. “They got it under control and they feel pretty good about how it’s going. It just a matter of rest and getting everything under control.”
Rest is not something Kentucky’s winningest head coach would have gotten at the game, as NewCath blitzed the Tigers for 26 second-quarter points to open up a 26-10 halftime lead, then needed Brian Doyle’s interception in the end zone with 17.1 seconds left to preserve the four-point win.
“He was trying to lay low,” Dave Schneider said of his father. “I don’t think my mom was going to let him (do anything except) just watch the little ticker on TV. We’ve got to keep him calm. We didn’t do our job in the second half keeping him calm.”
NewCath maintained its 16-point lead throughout the third quarter, but Beechwood quarterback Matt Rigdon scored on the second play of the fourth quarter to start a Beechwood comeback.
After NewCath went three-and-out on its next possession, Rigdon completed a five-yard pass to Cory Schuler to keep Beechwood’s next drive alive on fourth down and a 32-yard pass to Cameron Vocke for a touchdown on third-and-12.
Beechwood’s final drive began at its own 15 with 2:37 remaining, and Rigdon again kept the Tigers moving with an 11-yard pass to Vocke on a fourth down at midfield and an 18-yard run to the 14 to convert a third down. A five-yard run by Rigdon advanced Beechwood to the 9-yard line, but he was sacked by Garrett Brown for a 10-yard loss on second down and Doyle’s interception on third down sealed the NewCath victory.
“They just kept on scrapping,” Schneider said. “No. 3 (Rigdon) is just amazing, and he just kept on making plays. We finally made a play at the end to get the win.”
Rigdon finished with 122 yards on 11-of-22 passing and ran 17 times for 108 yards. Beechwood had 183 rushing yards as a team and 305 yards of offense for the game.
NewCath gained 319 yards, 246 on the ground and 73 in the air. Nearly half of those yards came in the second quarter when sophomore quarterback Brady Hightchew scored three times and junior running back Chris Kelly once after Beechwood had taken a 3-0 lead with a field goal on its opening possession of the game.
“We mainly ran one play that got us all those yards in the second quarter,” said Hightchew, who finished with 22 carries for 158 yards. “We didn’t score any in the first, and in the second quarter we really came out to play. Jake Smith just did a nice job of picking up the open man on that play, that counter.”
Beechwood punted on all three of its offensive possessions in that quarter, with its only points coming on a 99-yard touchdown return by Schuler after Hightchew’s second touchdown, a 13-yard run, had put NewCath ahead, 13-3.
Kelly followed with his own 13-yard touchdown following Beechwood’s touchdown return, and Hightchew scrambled in for a 10-yard score 7.5 seconds before halftime to push NewCath’s lead to 16, 26-10.
“You can’t play a good team like that and play two-and-a-half quarters of good football and expect to win,” Beechwood head coach Noel Rash said. “We had a chance. That tells you how hard we did play in the second half.”
The result left both teams with as many losses as they’ve had in a season this decade heading into the playoffs.
“You can’t go 15 weeks and expect not to be able to deal with adversity. You going to see it and sometimes in massive doses,” said Rash, whose 6-4 Tigers will host a first-round game with Trimble County. “When you do you have to be able to overcome it or you’re going to pack your stuff, you’re going to end your season, and I don’t want to see that for our eight seniors. They have overcome so much over their four years and to be in the position they are in says a lot about their character.”
NewCath (5-5) will host Carroll County, and Dave Schneider said his father’s status for the game is still undetermined.
“He’ll know more early in the week,” Schneider said. “He’s got a doctor’s appointment. We’re hoping.”
Meanwhile, Bob Schneider’s presence still remains with the Thoroughbreds as they look to rebound from their 1-5 start to the season.
“There was a team two or three years ago that won the state being 5-5 in the regular season,” said Hightchew, referring to NewCath’s 2006 state championship team. “That was his (Coach Schneider’s) goal for us.”NEWCATH 0-26-0-0—26
at BEECHWOOD 3-7-0-12—22
B-Nussbaum 25 FG
N-Hightchew 5 run (Miller kick)
N-Hightchew 13 run (kick failed)
B-Schuler 99 kickoff return (Nussbaum kick)
N-Kelly 13 run (run failed)
N-Hightchew 10 run (Miller kick)
B-Rigdon 8 run (run failed)
B-Vocke 32 pass from Rigdon (kick failed)
RECORDS: Newport Central Catholic 5-5, Beechwood 6-4.
