With Owensboro Catholic down by one point and on their final drive, Brady Atwell did it all. He completed a pass to covert on a 4th-and-10, scrambled for a few yards on a 4th-and-1, and he twisted his way through a pile of defenders to cross the goal line with 11 seconds to play. It was an electric finish to a game that lived up the the billing as the Aces outlasted Owensboro in a 33-28 thriller at Rash Stadium on Friday.
Catholic (4-0) drew first blood with a quick drive up the field that ended with Atwell throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Blair. The extra point attempt clanged off the right upright and left the score at 6-0, and that miss came into play in the final minutes.
Owensboro (1-3) took their first lead of the night when Deion Winstead broke through a tight defense to find paydirt on a 14-yard run. OHS took a 7-6 lead with 8:02 left in the second quarter.
That lead lasted 50 seconds. The Aces made a couple of small gains to get their ensuing drive started. Then Atwell lifted a pass just high enough to allow Tutt Carrico to reel it in behind a defender. Carrico stiff-armed one man and side-stepped another before outracing the rest of the defense for a 62-yard touchdown.
Carrico then came up big on the other side of the ball, intercepting a pass that OHS quarterback Trevor DeLacey threw as he was being chased out of the pocket. The Aces extended their lead to 20-7 on the ensuing drive after a 40-yard run by Atwell, who found a big hole on the left side and went untouched to the end zone. That lead lasted through halftime.
“It was just sticking to our game plan,” he said. “I mean we’ve been rolling. Owensboro did a great job switching up some stuff and it threw us off balance a little bit, but I think overall it was just sticking to the gameplan. I got guys all over the field that can make the play, and my offensive line really stepped up tonight.”
The OHS offense stepped up in the second half. After a few short plays to get their drive started, Winstead broke free on the outside and sprinted up the sideline for a 45-yard score that cut the deficit to 20-14.
The Aces again had an answer, and it again came from Atwell, who ran 6 yards up the middle to push their lead to 27-14 with 5:16 to play in the third quarter.
From there, nearly all of the momentum shifted in favor of OHS. Catholic’s drives began to stall, while the Red Devils were using methodical drives to march down the field.
With 9:30 to play, DeLacey threaded a pass to Blake Kimbrell, who barely held on to the ball during a diving catch to record a 23-yard touchdown. They trailed 28-21, and the early missed extra point was suddenly a factor.
After forcing another Catholic punt, OHS was in a position to regain the lead, and they seized the opportunity.
Facing 4th-and-1 from at the Catholic 10-yard-line, DeLacey faked a handoff and rolled right. He had just enough to dive into the end zone. The extra point put the Red Devils in front 28-27 with 2:44 to play.
The Aces started on their own 35-year-line on the final drive, and Atwell put the team on his back. After completing a couple of passes to get them in the red zone, it was largely Atwell’s runs to the right that kept the drive alive, picking up a few yards at a time.
He got to the 1-yard-line on a 4th-and-1 inside the 5 with about 30 seconds to go. OHS stuffed the run on the next play, but Atwell powered through on the next play — with an extra push from Carrico — for the winning score.
Catholic Head Coach Jason Morris never doubted his team’s grit, saying faith is what motivated and carried the Aces to their clutch finish.
“Our word of the week was faith,” he said. “We definitely showed lots of faith and strong belief. It starts with spiritual faith and it trickles down, so our kids never stopped believing, and this is what it led to.”
OHS Head Coach Jay Fallin said his team tried everything they could to get the win but just didn’t have quite enough to keep the Aces out of the end zone at the end.
“We did everything we had to do in the second half to find a way to claw back and retake the lead,” he said. “Then we just could not get a stop at the end. We didn’t leave any bullets in the chamber. We called three timeouts, tried every combination of people we could find, we blitzed, we dropped, we did everything could. You just have to give credit to Owensboro Catholic.”
OHS quarterback Trevor Delacey echoed those thoughts.
“The straw just fell short,” he said. “At the end of the day, we can’t hang our heads because we gave everything we had. We gave everything we had, and they made good plays. I’m pleased with our guys because they never quit, and we continued to go hard for the entire game.”
Atwell said the last drive was fueled by the rivalry and electricity in the stadium, but said this game is inconsequential in the grand scheme of the season.
“It’s just the fire and the grit,” he said. “This game means everything to everybody in the city, but the job’s not done yet. We’ve got a state championship to look forward to. It meant something but it also didn’t mean anything in a way, honestly. We’re ready to get back to work.”
The Aces will return home next week to face Henderson County (1-3), while Owensboro will kick off their district play with a road game at Graves County (2-2).
