It's rivalry week for the Colonels and the Bluebirds. This Friday will be the 78th meeting of Covington Catholic and Highlands on the gridiron - and only the second time that meeting has ever taken place as part of non-district play. The game will also be one of Cov Cath's 100 Year Celebration events, with skydivers parachuting the game ball down onto Art's Rental Field before the coin toss.

The Birds and Colonels have traded punches the last two years, with each team handing the other a loss at home in the last two games between the two. In 2022 Highlands Coach Sphire earned his first W over the Colonels (as the Birds' head coach, anyway) when Highlands left Park Hills with a 32-21 road win over Cov Cath. Then last year Coach Eviston and the Colonels returned the favor, heading over to Fort Thomas and leaving with their own 35-21 win on the road. Cov Cath has won 9 of the last 10 games against Highlands, but prior to that the Birds had an impressive 15 game win-streak dating back to 2007. All in all, in the 77 previous games between these two, Highlands leads the rivalry in wins with 50 total wins, to Cov Cath's 27 wins.

Looking at Friday night's game, it Cov Cath will be looking to improve on their Week 1 outing, where the Colonels lost 30-14 to Ryle at Ryle. The Colonels featured two-way starter Cash Harney at QB in the first half, which ended with a 7-7 score. In the 3rd quarter Cov Cath shifted another two-way starter in behind center, moving Dylan Gaiser from running back to quarterback. The 3rd quarter ended with a 14-14 tie, but the wheels fell off in the 4th quarter, with penalties and miscues marching the Colonel offense backwards. Ryle's final 9 points in the game came on "unforced errors" by Cov Cath's offense resulting in a fumble recovered in the endzone and a safety.

On the flipside, despite an on-field heat index that pushed up towards the top of KHSAA's allowable range, Cov Cath's young defense was able to compete for three quarters with a Ryle team that boasted more than 3 times the returning starters, even with several abbreviated Colonel offensive drives turning quickly back into long defensive stands for the team. They also were able to hold Ryle's offense to only 75 yards passing, despite having one of the top wideouts in the state in senior Logan Landers.

Cov Cath definitely will be biting off all they can chew this week, though, when they host Highlands. The Birds opened their season at home on Friday with a 17-7 win over Lexington Catholic. Highlands' offense racked up 322 total yards against the Knights, with 8 ball carriers combining for just short of 200 yards rushing. The Colonels will have their hands full containing senior WR Adam Surrey, who was the go-to passing target for QB Rio Litmer, and Surrey also ran the ball 4 times for 28 yards and one of the team's two touchdowns of the night. The Birds defense also managed to pull down 2 interceptions on Friday night, making their opponents think twice before throwing into traffic.

So what are your predictions for the game on Friday? Looking forward to hearing what folks have to say.

There will be paid video for this game and it is about as high quality as you can get.  Audio of the game is free.

In partnership with BoxCast, live video streaming for Varsity home athletic events, as well as Junior Varsity and Freshman games is now available from the Colonel Athletic Network. Video Streaming is a great new benefit for the Colonel nation to see our games, plus a very critical help to the Athletic Department.

We also offer an audio only version of games free of charge via MIXLR.

https://www.covcath.org/athletics/can

Highlands 21-14.

The biggest matchup of the week. No question. 

If anyone cannot make it, I will be live broadcasting the game on bluebirdsradio.com . Come check us out on Friday! 

AS A REMINDER: The play button will be next to a song, click the play button anyway. It will not play the song. You can also ignore the calendar that says no stream scheduled. 

bluebirdsradio.com

Let's go Bird's - Beat Colonel's

Both teams still have questions remaining to be answered, but I think Highlands wins in what should be a good and close game.

Man, some of you people on here are so freaking good at the pre-game write ups.  Like, at a level that seems kind of crazy for a HS football forum.  Well done, @Colonels_Wear_Blue   I also see it as a low scoring game with both teams having more stuff to still work out that either are probably comfortable with.  I'll take Highlands 20-10.  

15 hours ago, Brennan_Bucher said:

The biggest matchup of the week. No question. 

In Northern Kentucky...

Give me CovCath. 

I like the Birds chances in this one, but I'd be even more confident if Lorenzen was being utilized to his fullest potential, playing on both sides of the ball.   He is a beast on defense.  Why is this young man not getting an opportunity to play linebacker? 

Is it me or having this game early in the season takes a lot out of this game. The chatter for this on day one usually generates atleast 2-3 pages. But man this one is gonna be an all out war since Cov Cath lost last week. 

14 minutes ago, Bac2369 said:

Is it me or having this game early in the season takes a lot out of this game. The chatter for this on day one usually generates atleast 2-3 pages. But man this one is gonna be an all or war since Cov Cath lost last week. 

Agree. Way too early for this game!  
 

22 minutes ago, Bac2369 said:

Is it me or having this game early in the season takes a lot out of this game. The chatter for this on day one usually generates atleast 2-3 pages. But man this one is gonna be an all out war since Cov Cath lost last week. 

This will fortunately be the last year for a few years playing this early.

I'll take Highlands 21-14.

Highlands 24

Cov Cath 21

Field goal game... Highlands OLine will look like we thought they would last week. Rio runs way more.