With an absolute dominant performance from start to finish, Owensboro rolled over Graves County 43-0 Friday night at Rash Stadium to advance to the football Class 5A state quarterfinals.
Already up 15-0 after the first quarter, the Red Devils (11-1) scored 28 points in the second period and started a running clock with 4:20 still to play before halftime.
“We had a really great week of practice and our guys were really dialed in so I expected us to play really well,” said Owensboro head coach Jay Fallin. “I don’t know if I expected it to be a running clock in the first half, but we just executed really well. In all three phases of the game, we executed tonight.”
The Red Devils will play at home next week against Fairdale (10-1) in the state quarterfinals. Fairdale beat Bullitt Central 33-27 on a last-minute touchdown in their game Friday.
Though scoring came from all over the field for Owensboro, sophomore quarterback Gavin Wimsatt led the charge with three touchdown passes in addition to a 70-yard run to the end zone on a fake punt.
“We just made sure we came out hot and stayed hot the whole game,” Wimsatt said. “I thought the offense played well. We caught the ball and the offensive line gave me time to get the ball out.”
The Red Devils first got on the board with a 12-yard run by Ethan Avery late in the first quarter. Despite a bad snap on the extra point attempt, Wimsatt was able to save the play and find Julius Eberhart for the 2-point conversion and 8-0 lead.
With just 11.6 seconds left in the first, Wimsatt had nothing but open field ahead on a fake punt.
“We had the fake drawn up, and we told Gavin if it’s there take it and if it’s not go for it,” Fallin said. “I expected him to get a 1st down, I didn’t expect him to score.”
Back-to-back stops on 4th down by the OHS defense in the second quarter led to another pair of touchdowns. The first was a 46-yard pass to Tyren Hayden on the first play of the drive, while the second was a 22-yard toss to Cam Thompson for a 29-0 lead with 5:34 left in the half.
Julius Eberhart then intercepted a pass, setting up a 29-yard Wimsatt-to-Hayden connection that started a running clock at 36-0 with 4:20 to play in the second quarter.
On the next drive by Graves County (7-5), Javius Taylor returned an interception 55 yards up the sideline for a touchdown to finish off the scoring.
The highlight play of the second half was an interception by Owensboro’s Steven Stevenson on the final play of the third quarter.
“(Graves County) threatened a couple times in the first half, but we made the plays we had to make to keep them out of the end zone,” Fallin said. “Offensively we were clicking on all cylinders. I’m also proud of how the young guys came out and executed in the second half. When you get in that situation, you want your guys to come out here and be able to function, and they did that.”
Wimsatt finished 7-for-11 with 184 yards through the air. Avery had 11 carries for 72 yards, and Hayden caught four passes for 98 yards.
The defense allowed only 129 yards (95 passing, 34 rushing). Taylor and Austin Gough each had five total tackles, and Kobe Skortz had four.
It was a far cry from the first meeting between the teams — a 27-8 victory for Owensboro at Graves County. Fallin said a few adjustments, some players returning from injury and home field advantage all helped the Red Devils run away with a win this time around.
“We were really able to take advantage of what we wanted to do to them defensively and offensively,” he said. “We felt that we had added some wrinkles since the last time we played them that would be to our advantage. It can’t be overstated how important it is to earn home field advantage by beating them down there in the regular season because that’s a tough trip.”
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2019 football coverage is presented in part by Owensboro Health Orthopedics & Sports Medicine.
