Slick grass at Cynthiana per the CAN causing trouble for both teams.

CCH turns it over on downs.

Gaunce picks up bungled snap and runs it in for a 35 yard TD. 2 point conversion run stopped.

CCH up 35-12

1:32 Q4

🇫🇮 🐎 Final at Cynthiana ~

Covington Catholic 35

Harrison County 12

Covington Catholic	28	7	0	0	35
Harrison County	0	0	6	6	12

First Half:
Harrison County had the opening possession of the game and the Thorobred offense ended up going 3-and-out on each of their first six possessions of the game. Covington Catholic scored on each of their first 5 offensive drives, totaling 191 yards and 35 points on 12 offensive plays in those drives. Cov Cath's sixth drive was stalled by an ineligible man down field penalty followed by two-straight plays that were stopped short by players slipping on the wet grass (this was Cov Cath's first varsity game played on a grass field since playing at Grant County on September 29, 2023), and the drive ended with the Colonels turning over on downs. Harrison County had a bad snap on the opening play of their 7th possession resulting in a sizable loss of yardage and that ended the first half 35-0. Sophomore backup quarterback Charlie Hull was starting for Cov Cath in a second-straight game, and freshman kicker Matteo Terzo handled all kicking duties in the game on Friday, going 5-5 on PATs in the process.

Second Half:
Cov Cath brought in backups at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, with sophomore quarterback Charlie Petzelt in behind center. The Colonels drove down. Drive made it down to the 21 yard line of Harrison County but then a tipped pass resulting in an interception gave the ball back to Harrison County. A big run by Karsyn Sumpter took the ball down into the red-zone and four plays later Harrison County scored on a 2-yard run by Sumpter. PAT kick was off the mark, making it 35-6 with 0:10 left in the 3Q. With the subsequent kick bouncing on the wet ground, Cov Cath's returners fumbled the ball on their own 19 yard line and Harrison County recovered. Harrison County is backed up by a holding penalty followed up by a botched snap (as mentioned by @Runcible Owl the wet field conditions gave both teams a lot of trouble on Friday), then Carter Curry was hit as he dropped to pass and fumbled the ball, with Cov Cath recovering. Cov Cath's offense started off on their own 38 yard line with 7:48 left in the game. The Colonels had another negative yardage play caused by a ball carrier slipping in the wet conditions, but on a 4th and 6 play for Cov Cath they failed to convert for a first down and turned over on downs. Harrison County took over on the Cov Cath 40 yard line with 4:55 left in the game and after picking up 5 yards on two plays, QB Ashton Gaunce picks up the ball after it was accidently snapped into the hip of their RB in motion and Gaunce scrambled 35 yards in for a touchdown. Harrison County went for 2 but the conversion failed and Covington Catholic remained in the lead with a 35-12 score with 1:51 left in the game. A hopping squib kick was recovered by Cov Cath on their own their own 30 yard line. The Colonels ran a quick play for 2 yards and that wrapped it up for the game.

Charlie Hull was 6-9 for 128 yards and 1 TD, and Charlie Petzelt was 2-4 for 17 yards. Kiyan Miller with 4 carries in the game for 55 yards and 2 touchdowns, bringing his season total on touchdowns for the season up to 24. On defense, the Colonels tallied 8 sacks in the game: Carson Grainger (2), Parker Payne (1), Owen Pitzer (1), Mason Boone (1), Jonny Lind (1), Antonio Rodriguez (1), and William Van Auken (1). Carson Grainger also logged a forced fumble with the fumble recovery made by William Van Auken.

6 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Kiyan Miller with 4 carries in the game for 55 yards and 2 touchdowns, bringing his season total on touchdowns for the season up to 24.

@CCHFC you mentioned Miller having the potential to surpass Casey McGinness' career touchdown record...that's certainly possible. Casey currently holds the majority of the rushing and scoring records at Cov Cath, and is also the all-time scoring leader in program history with 85 total touchdowns and 4 two-point conversions for a total 518 points scored (kicker Trey Gronotte is in a distant second with 19 field goals and 264 PATs for 321 points scored). Kiyan currently has a career total 24 touchdowns, all scored this season. He had 4 games played last year after being brought up from the freshman squad, and tallied 104 rushing yards on 6 carries, but didn't score any touchdowns as a freshman. These running clock games typically end up being lower-yardage performances for most of the players since the time on the field is limited for starters, plus Coach Eviston typically tends to try to spread around who gets the ball in those games, so with the exception of the Elder game, Kiyan's sub-100 yard games have all been running clock games for the Colonels this season.

Cov Cath's Rushing Records:

Single Game
Longest Run from Scrimmage: Greg Lukey, 92 yards (vs. Simon Kenton 1984)
Longest Run for Touchdown: Greg Lukey, 92 yards (vs. Simon Kenton 1984)
Most Yards Rushing: Will Deters, 331 yards (vs. Holmes 2008)
Most Touchdowns Rushing: Rick Hornsby, 5 touchdowns (vs. Ashland 1969), Cole Chadwick, 5 touchdowns (vs. Western Hills 2000), Caleb Jacob, 5 touchdowns (vs. Highlands 2020)

Single Season
Most 100-yard Rushing Games: Cole Chadwick, 11 games (2000), Casey McGinness, 11 games (2018)
Most Points Scored: Casey McGinness, 242 points (2018)
Most Rushing Attempts: Cole Chadwick, 319 attempts (1998)
Most Touchdowns, Rushing: Casey McGinness, 35 touchdowns (2018)
Most Touchdowns, Total: Casey McGinness, 40 touchdowns (2018)
Most Yards, Rushing: Casey McGinness, 2,140 yards (2018)

Career
Most 100-yard Rushing Games: Casey McGinness, 21 games (2015-2018)
Most Points Scored: Casey McGinness, 518 points (2015-2018)
Most Rushing Attempts: Cole Chadwick, 715 attempts (1998-2000)
Most Touchdowns, Rushing: Casey McGinness, 74 touchdowns (2015-2018)
Most Yards, Rushing: Casey McGinness, 5,121 yards (2015-2018)

Kiyan currently has 1,026 rushing yards on 142 carries this season (7.23 YPC), and a career total of 1,130 yards on 148 carries (7.64 YPC). He's had 5 hundred-yard games rushing this season, so touching the single season record of 11 hundred-yard games is pretty unlikely this year, at least. Omitting his freshman playing time and only looking at this year when he's been getting yardage as starting running back, Miller is averaging 114 yards rushing and 2.66 touchdowns per game. The career rushing yardage record is definitely going to be a major challenge to reach, with Kiyan's current career total just under 4,000 yards behind McGinness's record, but he does have a decent shot at getting near the scoring record. He's currently 374 points behind McGinness' career total for points scored, which means he needs 63 more touchdowns to exceed McGinness. At a rate of 2-2/3 touchdowns scored per game, that means Kiyan needs to stay healthy and play 24 more games while maintaining the same rate of scoring in order to get to Casey's record.