Credit Apollo’s win to a gritty defensive performance. It had been 1,162 days since Owensboro Catholic was held scoreless in a football game, but the Eagles picked up a 10-0 home victory over the Aces Friday night.
“I’m proud of the team, especially our defensive guys,” said John Edge, who took over as Apollo head coach in the offseason. “Our offense made plays when they needed to, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Catholic was averaging nearly 35 points per game before Friday night, and had scored at least 14 points in every matchup this season.
“Our defense shut out a very good offense,” Edge said. “They’re a very high-powered offense.”
The Aces had their chances, especially in the first half. With a few untimely penalties and missed opportunities, though, their red zone drives stalled out.
“We had the ball two or three times in the red zone there,” said head coach Jason Morris. “You’ve got to push the ball in. We had some penalties that really killed some of our drives. We didn’t play a clean game. … Apollo was well-prepared. Coach Edge has done a great job improving that defense all year long to this point. That’s a solid 6A team.”
The only touchdown of the night came midway through the first quarter. A long drive fueled by Apollo’s ground-and-pound approach ended with a 3-yard touchdown toss from Damian Lovinsky to Ashton Weaver on 4th-and-goal.
From there, it was a battle in the middle of the field. Each team made pushes but couldn’t find paydirt the rest of the way.
Catholic missed a field goal early in the second quarter, then threw an interception late in the first half.
Apollo nearly capitalized, getting all the way to the 1-yard line before running out of time in the second quarter.
Halfway through the fourth quarter, a fake punt went wrong from the start for the Aces, setting up the drive that all but put the game away for Apollo.
Facing 3rd-and-long, Lovisky floated a long pass to a streaking Evan Miller, who was able to haul it in for a 50-yard gain and set the Eagles up with 1st-and-goal from the 10-yard line.
They couldn’t punch it in, but Harrison Bowman nailed a field goal for some breathing room.
“The catch was a huge play in this game because it set up the field goal,” Edge said. “That definitely gave us a little cushion defensively and helped us out a whole lot.”
Both teams turned the ball over on downs on their next possessions. Catholic took over with about a minute to play, but Apollo’s Thomas Ferguson officially put the game on ice with an interception.
“Credit to Catholic’s defense. They did a very good job containing our run game,” Edge said. “But at the end, we made enough plays and we stopped them.
Edge said it was good to grind out a win as the Eagles continue to develop their identity.
“This is good. I thought we did a good job of just maintaining what we can do,” he said. “That’s us right now. That’s Apollo football right now. We’re going to try to sustain long drives. We’ve got two good backs. We’ve got a great quarterback that can run the football. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
Morris said his team will press on, working to clean up mistakes as they prepare for one last battle before playoffs.
“I’m excited about my team,” he said. “My team is focused. We’re ready for a playoff push. That’s what these last two games of the season, playing 6A (Apollo and Daviess County), are going to get us read for.
“Our main thing is about sticking together and fixing the little thing that we’re doing wrong that’s killing drives offensively. I’m super proud of our defense. It could have been easy to get run out of here tonight but we didn’t.”
Apollo’s regular season finale against Central Hardin has been cancelled due to COVID-19 policy, and as of now there has not been a replacement game announced.
Owensboro Catholic finishes off the regular season at home against Daviess County, who trounced Warren East 56-14 Friday night.
