Owensboro football is looking to make its way back to the state championship and another step towards that goal would be defeating Bullitt Central on Friday.
The Red Devils are coming off of an assertive win over Graves County, shutting them out 43-0 for their fourth straight district championship.
Juniors Kasey Boone and Kenyatta Carbon led the charge for Owensboro offensively against the Eagles. Boone had a strong day despite an interception and fumble, throwing for 225 yards and four touchdowns on 15-27 passing.
Carbon did a great job rushing and receiving on the night, earning 98 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, while earning 51 yards and two touchdowns on two catches.
The Red Devils’ defense was also clicking on all cylinders, holding senior Clint McKee below 100 yards while four different players had an interception.
They’ll be tasked with a Cougars team riding a seven-game winning streak, recently defeating Fairdale 48-7.
Bullitt Central has a potent offense, scoring at least 30 points in every game except for when they took on Christian Academy-Louisville and lost 49-8.
They are led by senior Zachary Shofner out of the backfield, as he averages 186 rushing yards and three touchdowns per game. Meanwhile senior Eli Burkhead is the man under center for the Cougars, averaging 104 passing yards per game while rushing for 28 yards per game as well.
Head Coach Jay Fallin knows that they have their work cut out for them on Friday, saying that they need to focus on every snap on both sides of the ball.
“Bullitt Central is a tough, hard-nosed team,” Fallin said. “They are big up front and they have a very tough senior running back who runs hard and is the heart of their offense. However, their quarterback is very capable and they’ve done a good job of lulling secondaries to sleep and taking advantage of play action shots, so we will need to focus every play on defense. Defensively, they are led by their front and linebackers who play hard and smart.”
To counter their potent offense, Fallin said that the Red Devils had some things to their strategic schemes to halt any of the Cougars’ momentum throughout the night.
“We’ve installed a few wrinkles in our defensive scheme,” Fallin said. “However, most of defense is knowing your opponent through scouting, then playing with tremendous effort and enthusiasm. We had that last week and will need it again this week.”
With Owesnboro’s season and hopes of returning to the state championship on the line, Fallin said they’ve emphasized execution of their gameplan all week and hopes that it will carry over into Friday’s matchup.
“As we head into the 3rd round of the playoffs, we must bring our best every play,” Fallin said. “Great concentration, focus, and effort on every snap in all three phases of the game. At this point, the competition takes another step up, and we have to be at our best if we want to keep playing next week.”
Owensboro will host the highly touted Bullitt Central when the two hit the gridiron at Rash Stadium at 7 p.m. on Friday.
