Covington Catholic Colonels turn back Pikeville Panthers 27-19

Tagged under: Beyond The Keystone, Game Photos-Videos, Gameday Hub, News

contributor | August 28, 2022

Big 5-A Cov Catholic escaped the Mountains with a tough hard-earned win over 1-A Pikeville last night by the count of 27-19. Both teams put on a nice show for the large crowd with the winners getting the edge not only on the scoreboard but in total yards also, 259-257. Other than the advantage in Colonels had in-depth they had a nice advantage in line play and in they had a diverse offense, while the Panthers were all ground and pound. The Colonels (1-1) rushed for 120 yards and passed for 139 showing a nice balance that kept the Panthers defense a half step behind most of the night. The Panthers (0-2) have lost to two much bigger schools (Corbin and Cov Catholic) both should make deep playoff runs if not play in the state title.

Colonels Junior quarterback Evan Pitzer had a solid game with 13 of 18 passing performance along with 47 rushing yards and a touchdown. Junior running back Owen Leen had 70-yards rushing and caught four passes good for 46-yards. Senior linebacker Aiden Jones had eight total tackles, with seven of them being solo. Junior lineman Josh Flood chipped in with seven total tackles.

For the Panthers, Blake Birchfield had 129 hard-earned yards on fourteen carries. Tayvian Boykins, who is a very good athlete completed just 3-8 passes but did run for 81-yards on nineteen carries. With the lack of the passing game, the Colonels basically played to stop the run. All in all, this shows just how tough those rushing yards were for the Panthers rushers.

Pitzerscored the first Cov Catholic touchdown in large part due to the work of senior offensive lineman Thomas Schramm who with an assist from another lineman got a nice block on Mason Sayers to create a big hole. Andrew Weitzel hit the point after kick his first of three to make the score 7-0.

Boykins would go twenty-seven yards to close the gap to 7-6 game with the point after being blocked. Boykins will cause havoc to all the schools Pikeville goes against and against some of the other 1-A scores he could and should put up some eye-popping rushing yards.

Pitzer would connect with Leen for a big gain of thirty-three-yards, Leen would also pick up fifteen yards on a nice run before Louie Hodge ran a slant over the middle of the field to score from twenty-four-yards making this a 13-6 game, with a little over one minute left in the opening quarter.

After catching the Panthers punt Braylon Miller electrified the crowd with a Deon Sanders-like sixty-seven-yard return for the score to put the Colonels up 20-6 in the second quarter. That would be the final score of the nicely played half. The Panthers had a chance at a score but missed a field goal.

Birchfield would break free and score on a very sweet 77-yard touchdown run down the right sideline midway through the third quarter to give us a 20-12 game. Cov Catholic would show some nice grit by eating up a lot of the clock and ended with a two-yard score from Leen.

The point after would increase the lead to 27-12, with 1:48 showing on the clock. The drive was able to keep breathing thanks to a nice catch from sophomore wide receiver Oliver Link on third and five. All game long the visitors were able to convert on third and fourth down to keep drives alive and that was another huge factor in this contest.

On a sweep, Boykins would score the games last touchdown from three yards out giving us our final score. Pikeville had a couple of chances to lock this one up but the Colonels defense found ways to prevent and secure the victory.

Click the link for all of the pics
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=DavidLewisBurnworth&set=a.10225520536154711

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews