Newport Central Catholic went into Friday night’s 63-19 rout of Carroll County in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs with its head coach at home resting, a sophomore quarterback, a junior running back, three junior receivers, and no shortage of leadership.
That’s because NewCath features a senior-laden offensive line that bulled the Thoroughbreds to their fifth straight victory following a 1-5 start to the season.
The Thoroughbreds will now play Louisville Christian, which defeated Lloyd, 55-29.
“We have four returning starters on the line,” said 6-foot-3, 255-pound left tackle Jake Smith. “Our four O-linemen that are seniors are all four captains and we just love to grind the ball and get stuff done.”
Smith and classmates Mike Leopold at left guard, Paul Eviston at center, Garrett Brown at right guard and even junior right tackle Jake Giesler got their wish Friday as NewCath rolled up 391 yards on the ground against the overmatched Panthers.
Smith and the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Brown also start for a defensive line that helped limit Carroll County to 42 rushing yards, well below the Panthers 268.8 yards-per-game average in the regular season.
Instead of challenging the NewCath defensive line, Carroll County elected to line up leading rusher Andy Sisenstein as a receiver, and although the senior finished with seven catches for 127 yards, the strategy did not work out as the Panthers hoped.
Sisenstein caught a 32-yard pass on Carroll County’s first play from scrimmage, but senior Austin Siemer intercepted a pass three plays later to set up Chris Kelly’s second touchdown run of the first quarter, and junior Brian Doyle ended Carroll County’s next possession by returning an interception 38 yards for a touchdown.
“We’ve had a little bit of trouble with our DB’s,” Smith said, “but they’ve picked it up the past couple of games and they’ve been playing well.”
Doyle, who was tied for the Northern Kentucky lead with six picks during the regular season, also caught a 47-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Brady Hightchew that gave NewCath a 28-0 first quarter lead.
Freshman Dylan Hayes followed with the first of two touchdowns, a 15-yard run in the second-quarter run that was part of a breakout game.
“He’s been on the freshman team all the way through and we moved him up a couple weeks ago,” Schneider said of Hayes, who had 150 yards on 11 carries. “He had a nice game against Newport, almost 100 yards in that game, and then he got sick for a week and kind of got out of the rotation.”
Junior Chris Kelly led NewCath with 18 carries for 191 yards and four touchdowns while Hightchew, the Thoroughbreds second leading rusher with 956 yards in the regular season, ran the ball just twice and threw only five passes, completing two for 67 yards.
After Siemer extended NewCath’s lead to seven touchdowns, 49-0 with a 48-yard punt return for a TD, Sisenstein responded with a pair of touchdowns to make it 49-13 by halftime.
Sisenstein first returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, and after Carroll County recovered an onside kick, Sisenstein hauled in a 52-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Trent Davis.
“We needed to shut down No. 11 (Sisenstein) – he’s a good player,” Smith said. “That was our main goal this whole week. He made a couple plays, but that will happen. I think we did a good job, we just let up early, but we came out alright.”
Sisenstein gained no yards rushing on eight carries for the Panthers.
Touchdown runs by Kelly and Hayes pushed NewCath’s lead to 50, 63-13 in the second half and led to a running clock through the majority of the fourth quarter.
Carroll County closed out its first winning season since 2004 by scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run by Andy Little with about six minutes remaining.
NewCath, meanwhile, is looking to continue its season long enough to not only reach a fifth-straight state championship game, but also see the return of it’s head coach.
“He’s doing well,” said Dave Schneider, who is now 2-0 while filling in for his dad, Bob Schneider, Kentucky’s all-time wins leader in football. “He’s still resting and trying to get his blood clots under control. He’s got to get back to 100 percent before he’s allowed to do anything.”CARROLL CO. 0-13-0-6—19
at NEWCATH 28-21-7-7—63
NCC-Kelly 21 run (Miller kick)
NCC-Kelly 3 run (Miller kick)
NCC-Doyle 38 interception return (Miller kick)
NCC-Doyle 47 pass from Hightchew (Miller kick)
NCC-Kelly 27 run (Miller kick)
NCC-Hayes 15 run (Miller kick)
NCC-Siemer 48 punt return (Miller kick)
CC- Sisenstein 96 kickoff return (Stewart kick)
CC- Sisenstein 52 pass from Downs (kick failed)
NCC-Kelly 1 run (Miller kick)
NCC-Hayes 3 run (Miller kick)
CC-Little 1 run (kick failed)
RECORDS: NewCath 6-5, Carroll County 6-5.
