Webster County led for less than a minute before the Owensboro Catholic football team controlled the rest of the game for a 61-15 home win Friday night.
It marked the fourth year in a row the Aces (8-3) have crushed the Trojans (1-10) in the first round of the 2A state playoffs, but head coach Jason Morris credited a hard-working Webster County team that he said put up a great fighting effort.
“Webster County is a very much improved football team,” Morris said. “Coach (Zach) LaGrange is doing a great job. It’s good for western Kentucky football for teams like Webster to start being more competitive, and they are in good hands.”
The highlight for Webster County came when Ayden Winn returned the opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown for a quick 7-0 advantage. That lead held for all of 54 seconds, erased by a 10-yard touchdown run and a successful two-point conversion attempt by Catholic star running back Von Williams.
Williams went off for 105 yards and three touchdowns on just five carries. He added a 73-yard interception return for a fourth score. Add to that a second successful two-point conversion run, and the Aces’ running back was responsible for 32 of the 61 points scored by his team.
In a game that was essentially over by the end of the first quarter, Morris was pleased with several performances from his guys, especially the underclassmen who had a chance to play the majority of the second half. Still, it was Williams that drew the biggest praise.
“Williams was playing on a different level than everybody else tonight,” Morris said. “His stats don’t really show it tonight, since he only played one quarter, but he is a good player with big things ahead of him in the next few weeks.”
Other scoring performances for the Aces came from Hagan Edge (18-yard catch from Drew Hartz), Braden Mundy (55-yard run), Robert Leesman (75-yard interception return) and Carter McCain (36-yard run), who each scored one touchdown.
The Trojans added a touchdown late, and also recorded a safety when intentional grounding was called against Hartz in the end zone earlier in the game.
Owensboro Catholic now moves their focus to the second round of the playoffs, where they will host Murray (7-4) next Friday. The Tigers beat Webster County 57-7 earlier this year and advanced to the second round after a 50-14 win over Todd County Central, who lost to the Aces 50-7 a few weeks ago.
Morris laid out what he felt could be the difference in this week’s game.
“Moving ahead, we have to get focused in practice this week,” Morris said. “We need to focus on playing four quarters of clean, penalty-free football if we want to win our next game.”
