Owensboro used a dominant second half to pull away for a 34-6 win over Henderson County, allowing the Red Devils to secure the top seed in their district heading into postseason play.
As the No. 1 seed for Class 5A District 1, the Red Devils (6-4) have a much more favorable outlook heading into the state tournament than they could have faced with a loss. It means they will stay home for a first-round matchup against Ohio County (1-9), which finished as the No. 4 seed in District 2. With a victory, OHS would also host the second-round game.
Graves County (7-3) finished as the No. 2 seed in District 1 and will host Greenwood (6-3), while No. 3 seed Madisonville-North Hopkins (8-2) whill travel to South Warren (8-2). Both teams out of Bowling Green would have been more challenging first-round matchups for OHS.
Red Devils head coach Jay Fallin said the win was about more than seeding after a disappointing loss to Madisonville a week ago.
“It was huge for a variety of reasons. Obviously the biggest one being giving ourselves the best possible chance to finish first in the district and to host a couple of home playoff games, hopefully. But also, we were feeling pretty low after last Friday,” Fallin said. “We should not have lost that game. We lost to a team that we were better than. We needed to get some momentum. … We needed not just a win, but we really needed to play well and win pretty convincingly.”
The first-half score didn’t reflect a convincing win because Henderson stuck to a game plan of keeping things slow, and OHS only had the ball three times.
The Colonels scored first with a 43-yard field goal by Carson Weiss, taking nearly half of the quarter on the opening drive.
OHS took only a few plays and less than 2 minutes to find the end zone. Trevor DeLacey found a wide-open Dereon Crowe for a 34-yard touchdown with 4:55 on the lock in the first quarter.
Henderson continued to eat away at the clock, extending their drive into the second quarter. They eventually punted, and a touchback gave the ball to OHS.
The Red Devils went backward on the first two plays, and a short punt of their own gave the ball back to the Colonels on the OHS 28-yard line. Henderson connected on a 40-yard field goal in what proved to be their final score of the night.
The last drive of the half for OHS started with big gains from DeLacey and Evan Hampton, but a couple of penalties moved them back before DeLacey threw an interception with a little over 5 minutes to go in the half.
Henderson drove but missed wide left on a 32-yard field goal attempt. They never threatened to score again until the final moments of the game.
OHS, meanwhile, opened up the second half with a bang.
Hampton scored on a 12-yard run on their first drive after halftime. The next drive, DeLacey hit a wide-open Blake Kimbrell for a 27-yard gain that set up a 12-yard touchdown toss to Chadyn Morris.
More long runs from Hampton and DeLacey set up another score early in the fourth quarter. Hampton bounced off a tackler in the backfield and broke out to the left for a 14-yard touchdown, but a blocked PAT left the lead at 27-6 with 10:02 to play.
Winstead finished things off with a 58-yard carry to paydirt on the first play of the final OHS drive.
“We made a couple little adjustments here and there,” Fallin said of the second-half success. “We felt we were the better team. We felt we would have the better game plan. We felt that we would have opportunities to be successful. They did a nice job in the first half because of their strategy to hold the ball as long as possible. We only got three positions in the first half. … We knew we were gonna get the ball first in the second half, and felt that if we could score fairly quickly that we would get some more possessions in the second half. And we did, and we took advantage of it.”
OHS is expected to host Ohio County at 7 p.m. this Friday in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.
