Final

NCC clearly on another level than Shelby Valley. Nice year for Shelby Valley.

Way to go Breds! Congratulations on making it back to Bowling Green.

#3 for NCC was the difference in this game. In the first half I believe he had 10 carries for almost 300 yards rushing, 3 TDs and also a Punt Return for a TD. Overall team speed killed Valley tonight. Just when #3 seemed to be bottled up he either kicked it into another gear and left everyone in the dust or made several cuts, jukes and spins to find an open path to the endzone. Very nice looking player.

Great game Ncc. It gets real next week.

Sorry folks, cell reception was :poop:

 

Congrats to Head Coach Dan Wagner and staff on getting this team back to the state championship game.

Congrats to the players for working hard all season long and surviving and progressing through the brutal "suicide" portion of the schedule, it has certainly paid off again.

 

This game was over rather quickly. Jake Smith put on an absolute clinic. Nate Enslen with a awesome punt return for a TD. The offensive and defensive lines with a great job.

 

Congratulations to Shelby Valley on a great season. Also, thumbs up on a fantastic facility.

 

4 down 1 to go. GO BREDS. :dancingpa

The moves by Smith were just "sick"!

Congrats to Lawnboy and his Breds...good luck next week!

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The combination of the visitors’ running game and special teams spelled doom for the hosts on Friday near Pikeville.

The Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds had two punt returns and saw junior running back Jacob Smith run wild in a 43-16 Class 2A semifinal win over the Shelby Valley Wildcats (11-3).

NewCath (8-5) won its 13th straight semifinal contest using its experience. Teams have to generally win three playoff contest to make it to the state semifinals. The Thoroughbreds have only lost in the state semifinals once to Somerset back in 1983.

“We jumped on them early,” said Dan Wagner, NewCath Head Coach. “With the offense they run, we knew they’d be in trouble. It worked out the way we wanted it.”

Shelby Valley had only won two playoff games between 1998 and last year. The last one came in 2009.

The Wildcats outgained the Thoroughbreds, 257-250 in total offense and gained nine first downs to three for NewCath. But most of those yards came in the second half.

Smith rushed for 218 yards on nine carries and three touchdowns. He also returned a punt for a touchdown and John Harris rushed for another.

The Thoroughbreds returned two punts for a touchdown. Nate Enslen had the other.

NewCath focused on Shelby Valley running backs Chandler Rowe and Kasey Tackett. Rowe rushed for 173 yards on 22 carries and Tackett finished with 56 on 14 carries in the Double-Slot Wing-T offense.

“They’re more athletic than you think,” Wagner said. “They have some nice players. We had to take (Rowe) and (Tackett) out of the ballgame and we did a good job of that. They had just one big drive in the first half of 60 yards.”

The teams combined for four yards passing. Shelby Valley quarterback Donavon Layne completed one of his two passes for those four yards.

NewCath forced the running clock in the second quarter. They led 28-0 after the first quarter. Smith recorded a 53-yard touchdown run just 22 seconds into the game before Enslen returned a punt 65 yards with 9:19 left in the quarter.

The Thoroughbreds had two more rushing touchdowns in the quarter. The first came with 5:25 remaining when Harris scored from five yards out and the other came with 3:28 left in the game when Smith recorded a 48-yard run.

NewCath put the game away in the second quarter. Smith had a 78-yard touchdown run and quarterback Patrick Henschen completed the two-point pass to Brandon Gray to give the Thoroughbreds a 36-0 advantage.

The final Thoroughbred score came with 1:46 left in the half. Smith had a 71-yard punt return to put NewCath up 43-0 at halftime.

Shelby Valley scored its two touchdowns in the third quarter. Tackett had a 20-yard run with 7:41 left in that stanza and Rowe ran it in from 31 yards out.

The Thoroughbreds take on Louisville DeSales (13-1) for the Class 2A state championship at Western Kentucky University on Friday at 3:30 p.m. DeSales beat NewCath, 34-26 in the title game last year.

 

Fort Thomas Matters Sports: NewCath handles mountain state semifinal opponent

Hopefully this season will be the start of a very good thing for Shelby Valley.

One game does not a season make, but in this case one might say it did show how much work Valley needs to do to be able to compete with this type of team.

Very impressed with the Shelby Valley facilities. Fans were classy in defeat. At the end of the game both teams and parents went to mid field to pray. You honestly could have heard a pin drop. Very impressive! Proud of the Thoroughbreds football team, alot of people wrote this team off and complained about one thing or another the whole year. WELL HERE THEY ARE AGAIN!! Congratulations to Coach Wagner, his staff and the whole "team" on accomplishing part of their goal in getting to Bowling Green. This team has really come together. It has been fun to watch them develop through the year. Next Friday will be a great but sad day for alot of us. I hate that it is my sons last high school football game but like I told him "no better place to play your final high school game than at WKU" GO BREDS!!!

Nice write Mike...

 

Congrats to the Catholics from Newport, good luck next week as the Highlands camp is pulling for ya...:thumb:

What the hey ?!! No coverage in the Enquirer this morning , Isn't Pikeville closer than Mayfield in miles ?