Since 2010, the Owensboro Catholic Aces and Murray Tigers have met nine times in the Class 2A State Playoff with last season being the lone exception as both teams have been battling it out on the gridiron for the last decade to see who advances to fight another week.
Catholic and Murray will meet Friday in the third round of the KHSAA Class 2A State playoffs, the deepest the two teams have met in the postseason since 2011 when the Tigers downed the Aces 17-14 in overtime.
OC coach Jason Morris said it’s all about focus this week.
“That is the main thing, getting our mindset right to go down there for a four-quarter battle,” he said. “We know Murray is a senior-driven team with some big offensive and defensive linemen that are going to try to come out and play some smashmouth football.
“The adversity we have to deal with, our kids are the best in the nation at that. We’ll deal with whatever adversity comes our way, we’ll find a way.”
Catholic edged Hancock County last week 27-26 after a goal-line stand on a Hornet two-point conversion propelled the Aces to victory.
“The main thing was momentum swung back in their direction,” he said. “I was really proud of how our guys came out. You could tell we were well prepared, hats off to our coaches. Got all our kids prepared and came out to a big lead, which you’ve got to do on the road. We wanted to make them play from behind, which we did. In the end, the momentum swung back in their favor. They’re a really good football team. They rode that through the fourth quarter but we ended up making enough plays in the end to win it.”
While some coaches could be more critical during the postseason of their team, Morris said they’re just focused on getting better with every practice.
“We try to get things fixed every day,” he said. “That’s our job as coaches to get everything fixed. Everyday we’re trying to get better. We’re going to watch film. We don’t just watch film of games, we watch daily film. Try to fix problems before Friday night hits. There’s always something to work on. We take it on a day-by-day basis trying to get better.”
In his second game at quarterback, junior Braden Mundy was 7-of-12 for 86 yards with a touchdown to Reid Clark and an interception in the passing game.
Where Mundy really made his mark was running the football. He finished with 228 yards and 2 scores on the ground for the Aces in the win.
“Everything he’s doing is what I expected out of him when we made the decision to put him back there,” Morris said. “He’s a really good athlete. We want the ball in his hands and that’s the one position we can guarantee the balls in his hands.
“Really proud of Braden, he’s getting better every day and as our offense continues to develop with him at quarterback, we’ll just continue to get better.”
When the Aces take the field Friday in Murray, it’ll be another battle in their history but Morris said he doesn’t think about it that way.
“It’s not really different than any other game,” he said. “That’s for the fans and maybe even the kids to think about more. We’re treating every game the same and we’re treating Murray just as must as we treated Hancock. Obviously, the more you win at this point, the games are even more important every week. You got to win it first. We’re taking every day the same and I’m hoping our preparation this week isn’t any different than Mt. Vernon in Week 1. That way when we get there, we’re not shocked.”
Since 1998, the Aces have only won back-to-back road games once but they didn’t have to go too far for that second win in 2005 as they beat DeSales at Owensboro High.
Morris said the surroundings don’t matter when they take the field.
“Our thing is no excuses at this point,” he said. “At this point, no matter where you’re playing, who you’re playing, it’s all the same mindset and it’s just win. Find a way to win. That’s all our mindset is on – getting healthy so we can have as many of our guys there as possible.
“We’ve played without two starting offensive and two starting defensive linemen in our first two playoff games against teams who like to run the football. Really proud of the way we’ve held up.”
With now 46 teams still playing high school football in Kentucky, the city of Owensboro has two of those teams.
Morris said he knew this season could be special for the city.
“We said that going into this year that we felt like this year, especially, the city of Owensboro itself, was so solid,” he said. “All four teams are really quality football teams and all of them are quality-level teams that can make playoff runs. It’s unfortunate Apollo and Daviess County got beat but they proved how good they are playing 6A football within one-touchdown scores of some really good competition.
“That schedule that we had to play, playing those teams here in the city, does nothing but get us better for 2A football. I’m really proud of Jay and what he’s done over there at Owensboro. I’m Hancock County guy as well, same as Jay (Fallin), I’m happy for his success.”
Owensboro Catholic and Murray hit the field at 7 p.m. Friday.
Here’s a look at the last nine meetings between the two teams where Murray holds a 5-4 lead in the series heading into Friday night.
| Year | Winner | Score | Round |
| 2010 | Catholic | 29-22 | 3rd Round |
| 2011 | Murray | 17-14 (OT) | 3rd Round |
| 2012 | Murray | 29-22 | 2nd Round |
| 2013 | Murray | 37-20 | 2nd Round |
| 2014 | Murray | 20-9 | 2nd Round |
| 2015 | Catholic | 34-15 | 2nd Round |
| 2016 | Catholic | 47-13 | 2nd Round |
| 2017 | Catholic | 40-14 | 2nd Round |
| 2018 | Murray | 42-31 | 2nd Round |
