Not sure what all the uproar is about. A win is a win is a win. Many have to remember this is like going from steve spurrier to marvin lewis. Ultra conservative again last night, but never really felt game was in jeopardy. Kid makes great one handed catch or it may have ended 23 to 8.

Not sure what all the uproar is about. A win is a win is a win. Many have to remember this is like going from steve spurrier to marvin lewis. Ultra conservative again last night, but never really felt game was in jeopardy. Kid makes great one handed catch or it may have ended 23 to 8.

 

Agreed JOAT

 

Just got to clean up the sloppy penalties, unofficial 14 for 122yds, very un-Highlands like:thumb:

DJ told me walking out that is what the doc said. He has to see a surgeon tomorrow.

 

Careful...

Where is the patch of yellow?

 

They kept falling off anyway--you could see them laying on the field all the time.

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

Last year, Campbell County Head Coach Stephen Lickert said the Camels would continue to play the Bluebirds and he hopes to beat them at some point.

Friday’s 23-16 Highlands win marked the closest Campbell County has come to beating Highlands in the Bluebird 13-game winning streak in the series dating back to 1991. That’s when the Camels last beat the Bluebirds, 12-6. Highlands leads the all-time series, 52-9.

Prior to last year, Highlands and Campbell County last played in 2004. The teams met on an annual basis between 1995 and 2004. The Bluebirds won all 10 meetings. Highlands finished 11-0 against Campbell County in Dale Mueller’s 20-year tenure as head coach including a 50-8 verdict last year.

Prior to last night, Campbell County had not come within 10 points of Highlands during the streak. That close score came in 1997 in a 29-19 Bluebird victory. Highlands had beaten Campbell County by an average of just more than 39 points in the previous 12 meetings.

The Bluebirds have averaged point totals in the 50s in the last few years including 56.6 points per game in their last undefeated season of 2011. That team scored a state-record 849 points.

The win over Campbell County marked Highlands’ lowest point total dating back to 2010. The Bluebirds won 21-14 at Johnson Central on Nov. 19 of that year in the regional finals of the 5A playoffs that year. Their lowest point total last year was 27 in a loss at Cincinnati Elder and 24 in 2012 to the same Panther squad.

Campbell County is the Bluebirds’ fourth most common opponent in school history with 61 meetings. Highlands has only played Covington Holmes (72 times), Dixie Heights (70) and Covington Catholic (62) more times in school history.

That total surpassed Dayton. The Bluebirds and Greendevils have met 60 times with Highlands leading the all-time series, 47-10-3. But Highlands and Dayton have not played each other since 1986. The Bluebirds beat the Greendevils, 39-0 that year.

New Helmet Look:

Friday marked the start of the 100th season in Highlands football history.

The Bluebirds are commemorating it with a 100-year graphic on the right sides of their helmets. They have the usual Blue H on the left side.

The Bluebirds moved to 856-227-26 all-time with the win. They have not had a losing record since going 4-5-1 in 1955.

That total is the second-most wins in program history in the country. They only trail the 884-214-34 of Valdosta (Ga.) High. The host Wildcats (2-0) beat neighboring Thomas County Central on Friday.

Next Opponent Report:

The Bluebirds travel to Lexington to face the Bryan Station Defenders (1-1) on Friday.

Bryan Station is 1-1 on the young season. The Defenders opened with a 56-22 win over Harlan County on Aug. 23 in the Roy Kidd Bowl at Madison Central. They lost 28-13 to Louisville St. Xavier in the Bluegrass Bowl on Friday recording five turnovers including four interceptions.

Highlands beat the Defenders, 62-44 last year in Fort Thomas. Bryan Station finished 5-6 last year losing 55-7 to eventual 6A champion Scott County in the second round of the playoffs. The Bluebirds are 4-1 all-time against Bryan Station.

Only Northern Kentucky non-district opponent this season:

The Camels are Highlands’ lone non-district opponent from Campbell, Boone and Kenton Counties this year. That has been the case for the last couple years as local teams had been reluctant to schedule the Bluebirds. Highlands improved to 101-5 since the start of 2007 with the win Friday.

The Bluebirds have lost to only two Kentucky teams during that time. One came in last year’s 4A state championship to Collins (37-34) and the other came 28-26 at Ryle to finish the 2010 regular season.

That changes next year. The Bluebirds take on five non-district teams from the northern three Kentucky counties. They battle Simon Kenton, Cooper, Boone County, Campbell County and Ryle in non-district action.

 

FORT THOMAS MATTERS: Bluebird Notes: Highlands moves to 101-5 since 2006; Graybill verbally commits to BGSU

Highlands up 23-0 in a quarter. What happened on offense the rest of the game to kill drives? Penalties, turnovers, play calling, good D, or just poor execution. i've heard all of the above.

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The game started off on the usual great note for the visitors Friday.

The tradition-rich Highlands Bluebirds scored 23 points in the first quarter and appeared headed for another blowout win. But that didn’t happen. The defenses took over and the Campbell County Camels made a late run before Highlands escaped with a 23-16 win.

“We came out and executed well. (Campbell County) didn’t make any adjustments,” said Brian Weinrich, Highlands Head Coach. “They were just sound with what they were doing. They took away some stuff. Give them credit. They played hard until the very end. It could have gone either way at the end. We’re happy that we came away with the win. That’s what you have to do.”

Highlands unleashed senior quarterback Beau Hoge and he gave the Camels fits with his arm and feet in the Bluebird spread offense. Hoge completed 15-of-29 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown. He also ran the ball 12 times for 96 yards and two touchdowns.

Hoge hit his top target in senior wide receiver Alex Veneman five times. Veneman finished with 66 yards and a touchdown.

“(Hoge) gives us another option to extend plays,” Weinrich said. “There are going to be some big plays at some point.”

The offense drove inside the Campbell County 10-yard line three times during the game, but came away with no points. The Bluebirds lost a fumble at the Camel 3 on the opening drive. They also had 14 penalties for 112 yards compared to six penalties for 64 yards on the Camels.

Highlands still outgained Campbell County, 356-254 in total offense. The Camels ran quarterback draws and sweeps with junior quarterback Carson Plessinger just more than 60 percent of the time on 35-of-58 plays behind their offensive line that averages 6-feet and 235 pounds.

Plessinger completed just 3-of-9 passes for 80 yards. One went for 57 yards to Matt Mayer in the fourth quarter.

“We lost a little bit of intensity in the third quarter,” said Shelby Jones, Highlands Defensive Coordinator. “(Plessinger) is just a really good back. He just continues to move his feet, get his legs going and gains extra yards. One thing he does well is fall forward. We didn’t keep driving him back. We felt like we were doing pretty well (getting to him), then he would get an extra yard or two.”

The Highlands offensive line gave Hoge plenty of time. He sometimes stood in the pocket for five seconds before running or throwing the ball. The Bluebirds moved senior Matt Gall and junior Bo Hebel to the offensive side of the ball after they played on the defensive line last year.

“I think we’ve improved every week,” Hebel said. “We just shot ourselves in the foot a lot. We need to get rid of all the penalties. We’ll need to be sharper the next time we come out.”

After the lost fumble in the first quarter, Highlands senior defensive lineman D.J. Mills sacked Plessinger in the end zone for a safety with 7:54 left in the quarter. The Bluebirds struck quickly after Veneman returned the free kick to the Campbell County 40-yard line. Veneman burned the Camel defense for a 40-yard score just 18 seconds later to put Highlands up 9-0.

“We definitely wanted to start off in a positive way,” Jones said. “I felt like we came out and played well for the first game. There is obviously some things we need to do better. So we’ll continue to work on that and look at the things we do well and get ready for next week. It’ll be a whole different story.”

Highlands had a good mix of running and passing. The Bluebirds ran for 173 yards total. They tried to get senior running backs Josh Watson and Griffin Urlage involved in addition to junior Nick Kendall. Watson and Urlage did not play in the scrimmage at Cincinnati St. Xavier a week ago.

“We’ll get better. We’re still figuring out the rotation,” Urlage said. “It changes day-to-day. We need to step it up a little bit and we’ll be fine.”

The Bluebirds struck again with 3:52 to go in the first. Hoge faked the sweep right and ran the option left. He found daylight for a 15-yard touchdown run. Junior kicker Jared Dougherty made his second of three extra-point attempts to put Highlands up 16-0.

Hoge scored his second touchdown with 32 seconds left in the first. He ran around left end for a 27-yard score. That put the Bluebirds up 23-0.

They held that lead until 11:58 remained in the fourth quarter. Plessinger scored from a yard out and added the two-point conversion run. He added another 1-yard score and conversion run with 2:06 left in the game.

“We just have to stuff them up front and stay contained,” said Brady Murray, Highlands senior linebacker. “That’s about it. They ran the ball just about every play.”

Campbell County tried an onside kick. But Highlands senior Grayson Heck called for a fair kick on the bounce and the Bluebirds ran out the clock.

Highlands travels to Lexington Bryan Station on Friday. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

 

FORT THOMAS MATTERS: Highlands escapes Campbell County, 23-16

It sounds like Highlands had their chances and came away empty 3x. Another 3 tds and Highlands fans would be feeling better today. 44-16 could've, would've, should've. You have to execute.

Not to get way from the game thread, but has the parking situation at the new field always been this bad? I know for CC fans this was a very big game playing Highlands and then the Greg Rose tribute. I figured they were expecting a rather large crowd. I reached Sharky's at 6:10 and finally got to my parking spot at 6:45. I don't know. Maybe it was just for this game. It looked like they have a lot of land to build some more parking spaces though. Still....it's a BEAUTIFUL campus!

It sounds like Highlands had their chances and came away empty 3x. Another 3 tds and Highlands fans would be feeling better today. 44-16 could've, would've, should've. You have to execute.

 

Well Boss, had you been there you too would have witnessed CCHS defense, they made some very nice adjustments and stopped what could have turned into a blowout,

 

I hope this score doesn't send the wrong message to some, you know one could get a real bad read on not only a very good Highlands team but also a really good Campbell team,:thumb:

Not to get way from the game thread, but has the parking situation at the new field always been this bad? I know for CC fans this was a very big game playing Highlands and then the Greg Rose tribute. I figured they were expecting a rather large crowd. I reached Sharky's at 6:10 and finally got to my parking spot at 6:45. I don't know. Maybe it was just for this game. It looked like they have a lot of land to build some more parking spaces though. Still....it's a BEAUTIFUL campus!

 

Yes, it has been that bad. The best way is take 536, take a left at the flashing lights and come in the back way.

Gotcha! Thanks for the info.

They kept falling off anyway--you could see them laying on the field all the time.

 

Now I'm even more intrigued. What kept fallng off? Is the Bird highlighted with yellow?

Now I'm even more intrigued. What kept fallng off? Is the Bird highlighted with yellow?

 

I was joking about all the flipping flags. The mind wanders late at night.

Well Boss, had you been there you too would have witnessed CCHS defense, they made some very nice adjustments and stopped what could have turned into a blowout,

 

I hope this score doesn't send the wrong message to some, you know one could get a real bad read on not only a very good Highlands team but also a really good Campbell team,:thumb:

 

Made a bad decision on which game to attend. It won't happen again! Although it was enjoyable watching the Ncc fans get upset.