Owensboro football is back on top. Friday’s 47-6 beatdown of Graves County was the latest in a string of five consecutive dominant wins, and it earned the Red Devils a Class 5A District 1 title after they bowled over each opponent with ease.
It’s been quite a turnaround for head coach Jay Fallin and his Red Devils (7-2, 4-0). At this point last year, the finished in fourth place on the way to a losing season. Fallin said nobody wanted that feeling again.
“Last year was frustrating for everybody,” he said. “There were so many games that could have gone the other way. It led us to a losing season, which is very unusual around here. It really motivated these guys through the offseason to work hard — coaches and players — to examine every aspect of what we were doing to make sure we didn’t find ourselves in the same situation.”
During the win streak, Owensboro has outscored opponents 221 to 47. They’ve scored at least 40 points in each game, and have allowed a touchdown or less in the last three contests. Fallin is proud of the team’s success, but they’ve still got higher expectations.
“We have not yet accomplished all that we want to accomplish,” Fallin said. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement. We have to continue to have that mentality.”
Fallin said the whole team is playing well, but it was running back Monte Owsley who had the hot hand on a cold, rainy night against Graves County (4-5, 3-1).
Owsley scored three touchdowns in a row to break the game wide open in the second quarter, and the Red Devils never looked back.
“He is as fast a player as I’ve had the good fortune to coach,” Fallin said of Owsley. “When we can block for him up front and give him a crease to get to the linebackers before he’s touched, he’s hard to bring down.”
Owsley scored on runs of 60, 63 and 18 yards, all with less than six minutes to play in the first half. His third score came after Jaiden Kendall recovered a fumble — for the second time in the game.
It was another impressive night for the defense, Fallin said, and the only Graves County scored came after Owensboro fumbled and set up a drive near midfield.
“That’s just a testament to maturity the way we handled that,” Fallin said. “Last year when we were a young squad, we probably would have hung our heads a little bit. We stiffened our spines and dug in and continued to play.”
The Red Devils offense got started early, as quarterback Will Warren found Tyren Hayden wide open in the middle of the field for a 61-yard touchdown less than two minutes in. They scored again when Tre Green took it 39 yards on the ground to double the lead.
Graves County got their only touchdown to start the second quarter, but the Devils matched the score with a quick drive that ended with Austin Gough trucking a defender on the goal line for a 3-yard touchdown.
Owensboro opened the second half with a scoring drive that featured Warren connecting with Treyvon Tinsley for a 22-yard touchdown. It started a running clock with 10:15 to go in the third, and neither team scored again.
As district champions, Owensboro is guaranteed to host at least two games in the postseason, though Fallin isn’t looking past a rivalry game to end the regular season.
The Red Devils hit the road to take on Henderson County (6-3, 3-1 Class 6A District 1) next week. Fallin said it will be one more opportunity for Owensboro to see how they stack up against good opposition as they prepare to make a deep playoff run.
“We love having Henderson where we do on the schedule. It’s one of the oldest rivalries in the state of Kentucky. It’s like a playoff environment when we play them.”
