Owensboro football has a date with area rival Bowling Green in the Class 5A semifinals next week. The Red Devils are in the semis for the 5th time in as many years after a dominant 43-7 road win over Atherton on Friday.
Evan Hampton extended his stretch of strong performances, finishing with 2 rushing touchdowns and 103 yards to help OHS (9-4) with their latest impressive victory. Owensboro’s defense also showed out yet again, allowing Atherton (11-2) only four 1st downs and just 5 passing yards.
Owensboro’s opening drive ended with an interception off a tipped pass, and it took them a few attempts before picking up steam. OHS head coach Jay Fallin said that Atherton deserved the credit for his team’s relatively rocky start.
“I thought we had a slow start, but that’s credit to them because they’re a good team,” he said. “You don’t make it this far in the third round of the playoffs and win 11 straight games without being a great football team. We screwed around and turned the ball over in the first half when the offense had the opportunity to.”
The Ravens nearly scored first but had a 35-yard touchdown called back due to holding. Owensboro’s defense then forced and recovered a fumble. From there, the Red Devil defense commanded the game and allowed Atherton very little in terms of scoring opportunities. Fallin said the defense was particularly prepared for the Ravens’ running back Michael Curry.
“We knew [Curry] was really good,” he said. “He was at St. Xavier last year, and Kevin Wallace is a friend of mine, so I talked to him and he was very complimentary about him as a player. He was very good on film. We knew they were really good everywhere, but especially there.”
The Red Devils then kicked it into high gear on offense. Hampton broke free for a 25-yard rushing touchdown to open the scoring at 7-0.
OHS scored again on the next drive. This time it was quarterback Trevor DeLacey who took matters into his own hands by rushing for a 10-yard touchdown. Owensboro forced another fumble on defense to end the quarter with possession of the ball.
Both teams turned the ball over on downs on the first two drives of the second quarter. Finally, a Red Devils sack set up another touchdown from Hampton, this time a 13-yard carry to push the lead to 21-0.
Atherton scored their only touchdown with 4 minutes left in the half. A 60-yard run put them into scoring range, and they capitalized with a 5-yard rushing touchdown. Atherton made two more big plays on defense with an interception and a fumble recovery to stop Owensboro from scoring again before halftime.
The second half was all OHS.
“I was really proud of how we came out of the locker room and put it away quickly,” he said. “You hear this term ‘halftime adjustments’ all the time, but we didn’t need to adjust anything. We just needed to continue to apply pressure. We knew that eventually if we did things would go our way.”
OHS started the second half with back-to-back touchdowns. First, DeLacey found Javion Robinson for a 26-yard touchdown. After a successful onside kick, the next play was DeLacey perfectly placing a deep pass to Blake Kimbrell, who scampered to the end zone for the 44-yard touchdown.
Owensboro’s final score came from a 7-yard carry by Deion Winstead to put the final score at 43-7.
Overall, Fallin said he was proud of how Owensboro performed, but he won’t be happy until they win two more.
The Red Devils will be travel to Bowling Green (10-3) on November 24. The victor will advance to play the winner of Highlands (12-1) vs. Cooper (11-2) in the 5A championship.
