The Colonels will head down to their original home field on Thursday night to take on Holmes at Tom Ellis Stadium in the first round of competition in 4A District 5 for both teams.

For a second straight year, Holmes comes into the game sitting on an 0-5 record, with their latest loss coming last week at the hands of 2A Walton-Verona. The Bearcats came to Covington with an 0-3 record and left with a 37-0 win, holding Holmes to a total 25 yards of offense in the game. Holmes has a run-heavy offense. Without leading RB Ezaiah Tillman last week, they struggled to move the ball forward. Junior RB Jamari Lockett is the team's #2 rusher, and he had 44 yards on 17 carries, and senior Dshun Mathes added in 5 more yards rushing, but negative yardage by their remaining ball carriers negated 24 yards of the forward progress made by Lockett and Mathes.

Looking at the stats on the KHSAA Scoreboard, freshman starting QB Michael Chames appears to have not played last week for Holmes, as also evidenced by the Bulldogs' zero passing attempts. Their team has a total of 4 pass completions on 15 attempts, good for 8 yards total passing this season. Holmes currently shows a 24 player roster on the KHSAA Scoreboard, with 7 freshman, 7 sophomores, 2 juniors and 8 seniors.

Cov Cath is now 3-2 after their third-straight win of the season on Friday with a big 49-28 over 2A Beechwood. Cov Cath rolled up 490 rushing yards on the Tigers with 241 rushing yards and 1 TD by junior RB Dylan Gaiser and 155 rushing yards by junior QB Cash Harney. Senior halfback Andrew Bessler also had 6 carries for 70 yards and 2 TDs while sophomore fullback Owen Pitzer had 4 carries for 24 yards and 2 TDs. The Colonels, who are averaging 101 yards passing per game this season, had 62 yards through the air last week.

On defense Cov Cath was led by linebacker Tate Kruer with 8 solo tackles, bringing his season total to 36 solo and 46 total tackles. Nick Krallman, who leads the defense with 4 sacks this season, had 4 solo tackles and 1 sack on Friday, while defensive back Gabe Weis pulled in an interception, bringing the Colonel defense's total to 9 interceptions in the first half of the regular season. The Cov Cath D has also forced 2 fumbles, and recovered a total of 4 fumbles. Tough to complain about a defense averaging 3 turnovers per game.

The game this week, which is being held on Thursday night due to a shortage in officials, is likely to go in the direction we all expect to see. Here's hoping Cov Cath takes the opportunity to iron out some more wrinkles and work on getting good reps in for some players who haven't been used to contribute on the varsity field so much thus far this season. And here's hoping the Bulldogs stay healthy.

In my Clubber Lang voice... I predict pain!

Hearing Holmes roster numbers are lower than what they show on the KHSAA scoreboard. Some due to academic eligibility, others just not showing up at practice.

Will the game actually happen?

 

10 hours ago, The Oracle said:

Hearing Holmes roster numbers are lower than what they show on the KHSAA scoreboard. Some due to academic eligibility, others just not showing up at practice.

Will the game actually happen?

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a cancelation.   Hope not.  

Pretty sure the game will be played, last week starting qb and running back in street cloths, injury, not grades...there is 11 freshman playing, very young team, give credit to the young men and coaches who come out every week and know they are out manned, but give 100 per cent. The 8th grade team is very very good.

Sure hope CovCath tries hard not to destroy this fledging Holmes program.  Hard not to let 3rd and 4th stringers shine, but I hope they do just that.  I know multiple instances where Noel Rash requested officials to throw flags if they broke one on a completely outmanned team.

2 hours ago, Oldercoach said:

Sure hope CovCath tries hard not to destroy this fledging Holmes program.  Hard not to let 3rd and 4th stringers shine, but I hope they do just that.  I know multiple instances where Noel Rash requested officials to throw flags if they broke one on a completely outmanned team.

Last year Cov Cath played their starters for one quarter and then played backups from the second quarter on. Coach Eviston and Coach Nevels are on good terms with one another (Nevels has helped with Coach Eviston's youth camps at Cov Cath in the past), and there's no intent for anyone to destroy anyone else here.

Series Record:
1973 Cov Cath (Bernier) beat Holmes (Cynkar) 13-0
1974 Cov Cath (Bernier) beat Holmes (Cynkar) 14-6
1975 Holmes (Cynkar) beat Cov Cath (Ray) 35-3
1976 Holmes (Cynkar) beat Cov Cath (Ray) 45-6
1977 Holmes (Jackson) beat Cov Cath (Ray) 42-14
1978 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Jackson) 27-6
1979 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Jackson) 14-8
1980 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Adams) 39-6
1981 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Adams) 30-22
1982 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Hina) 35-14
1983 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Hina) 7-0
1984 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Hina) 21-6
1991 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (McCarthy) 31-19
1992 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (McCarthy) 41-6
1992* Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (McCarthy) 35-6
1993 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Turner) 37-13
1994 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Turner) 26-14
1995 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Turner) 21-0
1996 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Vandermeer) 37-7
1997 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Vandermeer) 35-15
1997* Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Vandermeer) 32-20
1998 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Vandermeer) 37-21
1999 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Vandermeer) 34-31
2000 Holmes (Vandermeer) beat Cov Cath (Ray) 27-24
2001 Holmes (Farley) beat Cov Cath (Ray) 26-20
2002 Cov Cath (Ray) beat Holmes (Farley) 37-7
2007 Cov Cath (Brossart) beat Holmes (Lickert) 24-0
2008 Cov Cath (Brossart) beat Holmes (Lickert) 42-0
2011 Cov Cath (Wirth) beat Holmes (Liggin) 63-0
2012 Cov Cath (Wirth) beat Holmes (Liggin) 49-28
2013 Cov Cath (Wirth) beat Holmes (Nevels) 55-20
2014 Cov Cath (Wirth) beat Holmes (Nevels) 38-0
2023 Cov Cath (Eviston) beat Holmes (Nevels) 61-0

* Playoffs

Bump.

Cov Cath receives the opening kickoff.

1st and 10 Cov Cath on the Holmes 40.

Pitch to Gaiser.

2nd and 6 Colonels on the 36.

Pass to Zach Brooks.

1st and 10 Colonels on the Holmes 19 yard line.

Harney runs it off his left guard 19 yards for a Cov Cath touchdown. 

Just now, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Harney runs it off his left guard 19 yards for a Cov Cath touchdown. 

Ryan Urti's PAT is good.

Covington Catholic leads Holmes 7-0 with 10:14 left in 1Q.

1st and 10 Holmes on their own 17 yard line.