Friday night will mark the 23rd edition of the Covington Catholic vs. Ryle series, with the Colonels holding a 13-9 in the all-time series.

Ryle won last year’s matchup 26-20, giving Coach Engler his 5th win over Covington Catholic and improving his record against the Colonels to 5-6. Coach Eviston’s record against Ryle falls to 6-4.

This year’s matchup will be the first game of the 2026 season, with the Colonels making the trip to Union. It’s always a great way to open the season, and there should be plenty of excitement as both teams get their seasons underway.

I predict a running clock. CovCath by a lot.

Covington Catholic wins 48-0.

I am definitely taking CovCath but I want to hear more about the Colonels preseason before I speculate on margin of victory.

Looks like 859insider is going to have a stream:

https://www.859insidertv.com/?B=3902256

It appears that sophomore Brody Smith will be stepping into the role of QB1 this year for the Raiders. Assuming he stays healthy and remains the man behind center all season, this will be the second time in the span of three starting quarterbacks that Coach Engler has put control of his offense in the hands of a sophomore QB, with Logan Verax taking over as QB1 in 2021 and Logan's younger brother Nathan stepping into the role as a junior in 2024 after the elder Verax graduated. With Covington Catholic, Christian Academy of Louisville, and Highlands all appearing in the first half of their 2026 slate, the Ryle offense will have to develop skills players quickly after graduating their top three rushers (Jacob Savage, Dameyn Anness, and Nathan Verax) along with three of their top four receivers (Dylan Lee, Gavin Lyons, and Jacob Savage) - those players represent 75% of Ryle's offensive yards gained from last season, and scored 85% of their offensive touchdowns in 2025. Jacob Savage and Kai Workman were the top two tacklers for Ryle last season, and after their graduation in May the Raiders will be looking for senior Andrew Smith and junior Grant Foley to step really take charge of the defense from their positions as defensive backs.

Cov Cath is breaking in a new starting quarterback this season, as well, with junior Dylan Courtney stepping into the role for the Colonels. Cov Cath's offense relied on dual bell-cows Cash Harney and Dylan Courtney for much of their offensive production in the past two seasons, with the two players rushing for over 1000 yards each in both of the last two seasons. Courtney, whose arm offers more passing potential than Harney's, is likely to expand the Colonels' passing game further than we saw for the last two years. The Colonels receiving corps was also hit hard by graduation, but senior tight end Owen Pitzer, a Ball State commit, returns after ranking second in receiving yards last season. He will be joined by fellow tight ends Spencer Clukey, also a senior, as well as Cash Myers a junior. Mac Cogswell (son of Kevin Cogswell, Cov Cath's QB from their 1994 state championship team) will be one of the top wideouts for the Colonels, and we can likely expect to see sophomore Brandon Smith appearing more at wideout after starting in the defensive backfield and on special teams last year as a freshman, as well as senior Grant Reardon and sophomore Jamir Kirtley. Toting the ball out of the backfield, expect to see a lot out of Kiyan Miller and Jace Thornton. The Cov Cath defensive unit will be led by junior linebacker Cash Myers, who led the team in tackles last year, along with senior defensive lineman Jonny Lind, an Army West Point commit, and linebacker Owen Pitzer. Behind Myers, Lind and Pitzer, Brandon Smith and Luke Rensing are the top returning tacklers for the Colonels.

The overall series record is 13 wins to 9 in favor of the Colonels. Ryle's Coach Mike Engler has a 5-6 record against Covington Catholic, while Cov Cath's Coach Eddie Eviston has a 6-4 record against Ryle.

Complete Series Results:
1995: Cov Cath (Ray) 27 Ryle (Eckstein) 7
1996: Cov Cath (Ray) 31 Ryle (Eckstein) 31 (Overtime)
1997: Cov Cath (Ray) 22 Ryle (Eckstein) 0
1998: Cov Cath (Ray) 14 Ryle (Eckstein) 13
1998: Cov Cath (Ray) 28 Ryle (Eckstein) 14 *
1999: Ryle (Hockman) 25 Cov Cath (Ray) 25
2000: Cov Cath (Ray) 18 Ryle (Hockman) 15
2002: Ryle (Hockman) 27 Cov Cath (Ray) 22
2009: Ryle (Warner) 34 Cov Cath (Wirth) 14
2010: Ryle (Warner) 61 Cov Cath (Wirth) 7
2013: Cov Cath (Wirth) 26 Ryle (Warner) 17
2014: Ryle (Engler) 21 Cov Cath (Wirth) 14
2015: Ryle (Engler) 35 Cov Cath (Eviston) 28
2016: Ryle (Engler) 31 Cov Cath (Eviston) 13
2017: Cov Cath (Eviston) 49 Ryle (Engler) 14
2018: Cov Cath (Eviston) 40 Ryle (Engler) 7
2019: Cov Cath (Eviston) 37 Ryle (Engler) 0
2021: Cov Cath (Eviston) 10 Ryle (Engler) 3
2022: Cov Cath (Eviston) 47 Ryle (Engler) 21
2023: Cov Cath (Eviston) 37 Ryle (Engler) 22
2024: Ryle (Engler) 30 Cov Cath (Eviston) 14
2025: Ryle (Engler) 26 Cov Cath (Eviston) 20

* Playoffs

14 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

It appears that sophomore Brody Smith will be stepping into the role of QB1 this year for the Raiders. Assuming he stays healthy and remains the man behind center all season, this will be the second time in the span of three starting quarterbacks that Coach Engler has put control of his offens in the hands of a sophomore QB, with Logan Verax taking over as QB1 in 2021 and Logan's younger brother Nathan stepping into the role as a junior in 2024 after the elder Verax graduated. With Covington Catholic, Christian Academy of Louisville, and Highlands all appearing in the first half of their 2026 slate, the Ryle offense will have to develop skills players quickly after graduating their top three rushers (Jacob Savage, Dameyn Anness, and Nathan Verax) along with three of their top four receivers (Dylan Lee, Gavin Lyons, and Jacob Savage) - those players represent 75% of Ryle's offensive yards gained from last season, and scored 85% of their offensive touchdowns in 2025. Jacob Savage and Kai Workman were the top two tacklers for Ryle last season, and after their graduation in May the Raiders will be looking for senior Andrew Smith and junior Grant Foley to step really take charge of the defense from their positions as defensive backs.

Cov Cath is breaking in a new starting quarterback this season, as well, with junior Dylan Courtney stepping into the role for the Colonels. Cov Cath's offense relied on dual bell-cows Cash Harney and Dylan Courtney for much of their offensive production in the past two seasons, with the two players rushing for over 1000 yards each in both of the last two seasons. Courtney, whose arm offers more passing potential than Harney's, is likely to expand the Colonels' passing game further than we saw for the last two years. The Colonels receiving corps was also hit hard by graduation, but senior tight end Owen Pitzer, a Ball State commit, returns after ranking second in receiving yards last season. He will be joined by fellow tight ends Spencer Clukey, also a senior, as well as Cash Myers a junior. Mac Cogswell (son of Kevin Cogswell, Cov Cath's QB from their 1993 state championship team) will be one of the top wideouts for the Colonels, and we can likely expect to see sophomore Brandon Smith appearing more at wideout after starting in the defensive backfield and on special teams last year as a freshman, as well as senior Grant Reardon and sophomore Jamir Kirtley. Toting the ball out of the backfield, expect to see a lot out of Kiyan Miller and Jace Thornton. The Cov Cath defensive unit will be led by junior linebacker Cash Myers, who led the team in tackles last year, along with senior defensive lineman Jonny Lind, an Army West Point commit, and linebacker Owen Pitzer. Behind Myers, Lind and Pitzer, Brandon Smith and Luke Rensing are the top returning tacklers for the Colonels.

Didn't Dustin Hicks QB the 93 team? Asking for a friend.

1 hour ago, DoubleDuce said:

Didn't Dustin Hicks QB the 93 team? Asking for a friend.

Ah, you're totally right...haha, I knew that 😂

CovCath gets the win, but I don't expect it will be as large as some others have mentioned. I am thinking something like 28-7, somewhere around there. Good luck to both teams!

I went to the NewCath scrimmage and IMO the Colonels looked like a work in progress. Not sure what the deal was with the bad snaps. Also, not sure if this was our first string kicker, but it’s going to be hard to beat good teams if we can’t do a better job on kickoffs and PATs.

What happened to last year's kicker?

5 hours ago, blue-five-two said:

I went to the NewCath scrimmage and IMO the Colonels looked like a work in progress. Not sure what the deal was with the bad snaps. Also, not sure if this was our first string kicker, but it’s going to be hard to beat good teams if we can’t do a better job on kickoffs and PATs.

2 hours ago, BlueBloodedColonel said:

What happened to last year's kicker?

I don't believe Logan Zembrodt is playing football this year - which is a shame, because he was 4-4 on field goals and 59-59 on PAT's last year as a sophomore. We had Tucker Evans handling long-snapping duties on special teams for at least the last two seasons, and I believe he may have been doing it for the last three seasons, even. He graduated in May, so we're working on breaking in a new long-snapper. Growing pains. Things should progress through the season.

It's too bad he didn't want to play this year. Who is the new kicker?

1 hour ago, BlueBloodedColonel said:

It's too bad he didn't want to play this year. Who is the new kicker?

Eli Robertson handled kicking duties for the freshman team last year. Cov Cath's roster hasn't been updated on Arbiter as of yet, so I'm not sure whether or not he's playing football again this year - entirely an assumption on my part, but I'd guess soccer is his primary sport, the same as it was for his older brother Tanner.

I was up in Chi-town on Friday so I missed the scrimmage, but the Colonel Athletic Network crew didn't have names to go with jersey numbers yet since the players were all apparently playing in old game jerseys that had just been passed out at random. That being the case, I didn't get a name for whomever it was doing the kicking.