How did the Highlands-CovCath game turn out?

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

The hopes
of it being ‘the year that’ things turn around in this series rise like crazy
just before the season begins up until the game in Park Hills.

But the
Highlands Bluebirds football team turned those annual hopes into the same
adjective they’ve used to handle the Covington Catholic Colonels in all 12
meetings since 2006 on Friday.

Crushed.

Things were
not perfect. But undefeated Highlands (5-0) pulled away from CovCath (3-2) in
the second half for a 42-7 victory and its third straight game enforcing the
running clock. The score came one off last year’s 42-6 win over the injury-riddled
Colonels in Park Hills about a year ago.

“You know the old cliché. It starts up front. Our
offensive line played great,” said
Brian Weinrich, Highlands Head Coach. “They’re
getting better every week at what they’re doing and the backs are getting it. The
wide receivers were unselfish. After what we throw for last week (352 yards in
a 49-17 win over Paducah Tilghman) they came out and blocked hard. We left some
points out on the field and we’ll fix that.”

Highlands
outgained CovCath, 540-362 in total offense. The Bluebird offensive line
blocked so well that the Bluebirds rushed for 319 yards on 56 carries.

Highlands
graduated 12 offensive linemen from last year and recently saw senior Kyler
Dalton return from a foot injury. Senior Lou Bunning has helped out there playing
football for the first time since his freshman year.

“Coach Weinrich had been talking all week about making
the other team quit,” Bunning said. “We got up 7-0 and we said to ourselves, ‘We
need to step on the gas petal and just keep running it down their throats and
keep pouring it on.’ That’s what we did. Every week, we’ve been making small
improvements and (Friday), it really showed. It was a real good game.”

Senior Josh
Watson led Highlands with 18 carries for 107 yards and Griffin Urlage had 73 on
14 carries with Nick Kendall following with seven carries for 56 yards.
Highlands quarterback Beau Hoge rushed for 47 yards on eight runs and two
touchdowns. Hoge gave the Bluebirds the lead for good with a 1-yard run over
right tackle with 8:08 left in the first half.

Hoge also
hurt CovCath with his arm. He completed 16-of-23 passes for 221 yards and two
touchdowns. Cashel Coughlin led Highlands with six catches for 51 yards and
Mitch Cain had four for 76 and a score as CovCath focused on senior Alex
Veneman.

“We put in a whole new offense this year and had a
whole new offensive line,” Hoge said.
“We’re just getting better each game.
Like Coach Weinrich always tell us, we’re putting another brick in the wall so
we’re building every day.”

Veneman had
just one catch, but he made the most of it. He hauled in a 39-yard reception on
the left side of the end zone with 4:16 left in the quarter as CovCath blew
coverage. Jared Dougherty’s second of six made extra-point kicks put Highlands
up 14-0.

Defensively,
Highlands allowed a few big plays. CovCath quarterback Adam Wagner had a
61-yard run in the first half. That made up the majority of his 106 net yards.
But he only passed for 90 yards completing 10-of-22 passes to go with two
interceptions.

The
Bluebirds took away the Colonels’ bread and butter of the read-option. Brady
Murray and James Hinkle had interceptions and Andrew Abner recovered a CovCath
fumble. Hoge threw one interception so the Bluebirds finished plus-two in the
turnover battle.

“I enjoyed sitting back and watching the guys play,” said Shelby Jones, Highlands Defensive Coordinator. “They’re really the ones that came out and
did what they were supposed to do. They were flying around and making plays.
That’s what we asked of them.”

Highlands
recorded five tackles for a loss and a sack. Highlands junior defensive lineman
Tyler Robinson had a sack and combined with linebacker Patrick Schoepf for a
tackle for a loss. Schoepf also had a tackle for a loss. Teammates Daniel
Kremer, Luke Lindeman and Rocco Pangallo had the other three.

“We’ve been hoping for a shutout for a while. I believe
the varsity got the shutout,”
Robinson said. “If they don’t want to
say it was a shutout, so be it. I just hope we get more games like that this
season and we prove everyone wrong.”

The
Bluebirds would have led by more. But they did not score any points on three
trips into the red zone.

But they
did put the game away in the second half scoring 14 points in each quarter.
Hoge broke free for a 20-yard touchdown with 6:32 left in the third and Watson
had an 11-yard run with 53 seconds left.

Hoge threw
a 29-yard touchdown pass to Cain with 11:41 left in the fourth quarter. The
final Highlands touchdown came with 4:52 left when sophomore Grant Murray
scored on a 6-yard run.

Highlands
travels to Harrison County on Friday. Game time is 7 p.m.