‘Physically dominant’ Frederick Douglass overcomes early missteps to beat Bowling Green

As the opening moments of a high school football season can go, Frederick Douglass could not have gotten off to much worse of a start against defending Class 5A champion Bowling Green on Saturday night at Western Kentucky University’s Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.

The Purples, No. 1 in their division in the Herald-Leader’s preseason poll, drove straight down the field in nine plays to score a touchdown on the game’s first drive. Five plays later Bowling Green sacked Douglass quarterback Jaxon Strautman for a huge loss on a fourth down to set up another offensive series on the Broncos’ own 33-yard line.

One would never guess Douglass would turn that mess into a convincing 35-13 Rafferty’s Bowl win in front of a partisan Bowling Green crowd.

“Honestly, it was all mental,” Douglass senior linebacker Kaden Clay explained. “We had to get the nerves out.”

It took one more play for the Douglass defense to strip the ball and all of Bowling Green’s momentum away. Douglass cornerback Dacoldus Fields tore a reception loose from Bowling Green’s Trevy Barber and Clay scooped it up at the Broncos’ 24-yard line and sprinted 74 yards the other way.

Clay sheepishly admitted he overran the play on Barber’s catch. That worked out, though.

“I saw the ball on the ground, I grabbed it and I just took off,” the Southern Illinois commit said.

“That’s what players that are committed to college should do,” Douglass coach Nathan McPeek said. “But I gave him a hard time because he got caught at the 2-yard line.”

Senior running back Pharo Watts took care of the final 2 yards, rumbling into the end zone to help Douglass tie the game at 7-7 with four seconds left in the first quarter.

From there, Class 6A No. 3 Douglass showed its defense might be as good as ever and its offense has plenty of playmakers despite two of its best sitting out due to injury.

“I thought our offensive line and our backs did a great job, and I thought we were physically dominant,” McPeek said.

Sophomore Dakari Talbert led the Broncos’ talented running back corps with 157 yards rushing and a touchdown on 18 carries. Junior Kenoxie “TayTay” Allen rushed for 42 yards and another score. Watts had six carries for 49 yards.

“We’re very, very good, but I think the best thing to do is just keep humble,” Talbert said. “We’re a reflection of the O-line. When the O-line does good, we do even better.”

It’s scary to think how much better Douglass could be with Dakari Talbert’s older brother Derion and Taylor County transfer Peyton Smith in the lineup. Minor knee injuries could keep both out for a few games, McPeek said. Derion Talbert, a Ball State commit, led Douglass in scoring last year. Smith, an Eastern Kentucky commit, has 4,621 career rushing yards on his résumé.

Strautman, beginning his second season as Douglass’ starting quarterback, settled into the game as well. He connected with senior wideout Aveion Chenault on a 26-yard TD pass to help give the Broncos a 14-7 lead with 13.6 seconds left in the first half. He then led two long second-half drives to help Douglass seal the win — an 11-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 3-yard TD run by Allen to give Douglass a 21-7 lead to start the third quarter and an eight-play, 80-yard drive finished by another TD pass to Chenault to put Douglass up 28-13 early in the fourth.

Bowling Green had cut the Broncos’ lead to 21-13 midway through the third quarter on a 1-yard Jaxen Smith touchdown run and had a prime opportunity to get closer after penalties backed Douglass up on its next possession.

But the Purples could not take advantage of the short field provided by Douglass’ short punt to their own 41-yard line. The Broncos defense forced Bowling Green to settle for a 26-yard field goal that missed wide left.

“The early part of the game, it looked really smooth. I think our kids thought, ‘Hey, this is going to be easy.’ And we said all week:This is not going to be easy,” said Bowling Green coach Mark Spader, whose Purples last faced Douglass in the 2022 Class 5A state championship game, a 28-7 loss. “They’re a bear of a team, and we played right into them.”

Bowling Green quarterback Deuce Bailey led the Purples with 187 yards passing and 48 yards rushing and a touchdown. He was sacked twice.

Douglass next faces Class 6A No. 1 Trinity at The Farm on Friday. The Rocks defeated Douglass 14-7 in overtime of last year’s state semifinals in Louisville. Douglass has lined up one of the toughest schedules in the state to prepare itself for another title run this year. That includes No. 4 Male, No. 5 Bryan Station, No. 6 Manual, as well as Class 4A favorites Boyle County and Corbin.

“We’ve got great opponents every week, so it’s going to be a tough one every time. It’s going to be a dogfight,” Clay said. “We’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to succeed. We’re going to fight through adversity whenever we got to and I think this team’s going to be special.”

Boyle County takes down Lexington Christian

Boyle County began its quest for a fifth straight Class 4A championship and 13th overall with a 35-13 win against Lexington Christian in the opening game of the Rafferty’s Bowl at WKU on Saturday.

Demauriah Brown led the Rebels with 116 yards rushing, including TD runs of 8 and 19 yards and caught a 9-yard TD pass from Baylor Murphy as Boyle County gradually pulled to a 35-6 fourth-quarter lead over the Class 2A No. 2 Eagles.

Boyle County’s Baylor Murphy, a 6-1 junior quarterback getting his first start, connected with senior wideout Geordon Brown on an 80-yard touchdown pass on a third-and-10 play to help the Rebels take a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Murphy also threw a 14-yard TD to sophomore tight end Seneca Driver late in the third quarter and finished with 251 yards passing.

“We looked good at times and looked sloppy at times,” Boyle County coach Justin Haddix said. “We’ve got to be more consistent. You’re not going to be playing your best right now, but we’ve just got to keep getting better from here on.”

LCA’s offense struggled against Boyle much of the day, but senior quarterback Saxton Howard gashed the Rebels for a TD run of 38 yards just seconds into the third quarter and had a 75-yard scoring scamper late in the fourth quarter.

Both teams next play in Boyle County’s bowl event Saturday with the Rebels hosting Bryan Station and LCA taking on Franklin County at Rebel Stadium.

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