After managing to salvage their season from a 1-3 start, the Owensboro football team’s playoff run came to an end after being defeated 38-6 by Bowling Green in the 5A state semifinal game. This game marked the fifth year in a row the Red Devils have made it to the semifinal round of the tournament, but they fell short in clinching their second state finals appearance in five years.
Bowling Green’s aggressive defense made gaining momentum on offense difficult for OHS by holding them to 59 passing yards.
The Red Devils defense started the game out strong by getting a sack and shutting down Bowling Green’s first drive to force them to punt. However, after a holding call prevented Owensboro’s first down and cut their first drive short, the Purples struck first by progressing into scoring range and finishing with a 4-yard rushing touchdown to put the score at 7-0. It was at this point that OHS head coach Jay Fallin said the game began to snowball out of control for the team.
“First of all I want to give all credit to them,” he said. “They were ready to go and were firing on all cylinders. They executed from the jump. We came out and got a stop. Looks like we had first down, but had a hold. I don’t know. Not much went right from that point forward for the remainder of the night, especially in the first half. It just kind of snowballed quickly. We probably felt tonight like South Warren felt at our place two weeks ago. We just could not find a way to get it under control once the snowball started rolling.”
Bowling Green scored on their next drive with a 10-yard rushing touchdown to extend their lead to 14-0 by the end of the first quarter.
After failing to convert on fourth down in their first drive of the second quarter, Owensboro pushed the Purples to fourth down within field goal range. Bowling Green made the 39-yard field goal to take their lead to 17-0. Late in the quarter, Bowling Green’s defense stopped Owensboro’s progression up the field with an interception. The interception along with a few sacks were the results of aggressive defensive play of which Fallin has not seen from Bowling Green before, he said.
“I really can’t say enough to their credit on their defense,” he said. “They’ve been kind of a maligned unit this year. They’ve been all offense, and it’s been rightfully lauded. Mark Spader is a great coach, and he’s a defense first kind of guy. They had a great gameplan, and they did some things they haven’t done all year. In terms of an aggression standpoint, they did things that they haven’t shown all year. That kind of put us on our heels offensively. Then when you get in a hole, you’ve got to become who you aren’t. Then all of a sudden you find it snowballing.”
Bowling Green marched up the field and went on to finish that drive with a 10-yard rush into the endzone to take the score to 24-0 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, OHS were hurt by another flag when a false start call made them punt on 4th and seven. Bowling Green blocked the punt to mount even more pressure on the Red Devils to start the half.
Owensboro’s defense quickly shut down the resulting drive, but they were cut short after a sack stopped their fourth down conversion. Bowling Green then struck again in the next drive with a 13-yard rushing touchdown to extend their lead to 31-0 in the middle of the third quarter.
Bowling Green scored their final touchdown from a fourth and two that was converted into a 21-yard rushing touchdown. In the next drive, Evan Hampton had a big gain of yards from a 54-yard run to put OHS in scoring range halfway through the fourth quarter. The drive came to an end when the Red Devils went for it on fourth and 1. Trevor DeLacey made a pass to Dereon Crowe into the endzone that was jostled by him and another defender before it was called incomplete.
Hampton closed out the game in style by speeding away to a 68-yard touchdown for Owensboro’s only touchdown. Hampton finished the night with 201 total rushing yards. The final score was 38-6 with Bowling Green (11-3) moving on to face Cooper (12-2) in the 5A championship.
The Red Devils season comes to an end, but it is not for a lack of effort. OHS started the season off 1-3 and turned it around to make an appearance in the semifinal round for the fifth straight year. This accomplishment was all the more meaningful for the senior players because of how they started their high school careers. Fallin said most of them did not play their freshman year due to COVID. They didn’t allow that stunt their growth however, as Fallin said they have plenty to be proud of.
“They didn’t even get to have a freshman season because of COVID,” he said. “We’ve had some really heralded freshman classes coming in, but they weren’t really one of them. They didn’t allow that to dictate who they were. In four seasons they played in four straight semifinals and a state final when they were freshman. There’s a lot to be proud of in the locker room.”
“When we started 1-3, a lot of experts had probably written our obituary at that point,” he continued. “They thought we were due for a second-round exit for sure, and I’d say after we lost to Madisonville that many probably thought we were headed for a second-round exit. We knew coming in this year that we were going to be a young team and there was going to be some rebuilding to be done this year, but if you can finish in the semifinals in a rebuilding year I think that’s okay.”
The team will be graduating some key players such as Jak Lindsey, Courtland Howard, Jerrick Williams and Javion Robinson, but Fallin said the future is bright as they will keep a large number of their squad including most of their offense.
