Aces turn back Devils in thriller

Sep. 10—Vince Carrico refused to be denied Friday night.

The Owensboro Catholic sophomore scored the game-winning touchdown on an 8-yard pass from Brady Atwell with 25.7 seconds left, lifting the Aces to a 21-17 victory over rival Owensboro in an instant classic in front of a packed house at Steele Stadium.

It didn't take long for the celebration to kick into full gear.

"I knew there was a play to be made, and I knew I was the one to make it," said Carrico, who caught a swing pass out of the backfield and bruised his way through the defense on the Aces' final offensive play of the night.

For the Aces (2-2), the victory snapped a three-game losing skid to the Red Devils and put Catholic back into the winning column for the first time since the opening week of the season.

OCHS coach Jason Morris credited his players for continuing to work hard over the last week, despite two consecutive losses.

"It was all about fidelity, which means being loyal," Morris said. "We could've easily just been the opposite of loyal and laid down after the last two weeks' losses. We had our best week of practice, we stayed loyal to each other and to the program, and when you do that and when you do things right, the virtue becomes your strength.

"That was our message all week: Just stay loyal to each other, stay loyal to the process, be tough and get us to the fourth quarter with a chance to win. If we get to the fourth quarter with a chance to win, we really like our chances."

Carrico's late score followed a 3-yard TD run by Owensboro star running back Kenyata Carbon, who put the Red Devils (2-2) ahead 17-14 with 6:41 left to play.

Following a pair of turnovers on downs by both teams, the Aces embarked on what turned out to be their most important drive of the night — aided, in large part, by a 35-yard completion from Atwell to Deuce Sims that put Catholic on the 10-yard-line within the final minute.

"We knew we had two minutes, quite a bit of time, and our offense is able to play at multiple tempos, so we obviously had to start going no-huddle," Morris said. "We didn't want to immediately start taking shots down the field, so we went ahead and ran it a couple of times and then took a shot.

"Deuce Sims made a great catch there. He missed a couple plays in the first half, but like we talked about — stay working, stay to the cause — and he bounces back and makes that play when it matters most."

After that, Morris said, his team ran the same play three times in a row before Carrico punched it in on the final attempt.

"Vince Carrico is the epitome of Owensboro Catholic football," Morris said. "He's tough, hard-nosed, a 4.0 student. If it's Vince Carrico against somebody else for a chance to win, Vince Carrico's going to win."

The late-game fireworks came after a defensive battle in the early portions of the contest.

Carbon opened the game's scoring with a 11-yard TD run with 4:38 left in the first quarter, and OHS kicker Andrew Lanz added a 30-yard field goal to put his team ahead 10-0 early in the second frame.

On the very next drive, Atwell orchestrated a nine-play, 65-yard drive capped off by a 23-yard touchdown pass to Kaiser Frick in the corner of the endzone — trimming OHS's lead to a 10-7 margin that stood until intermission.

Following a scoreless third quarter, Catholic took its first lead of the game when Carrico rumbled in for a 9-yard rushing score to put the Aces up 14-10 with 10:44 to play and setting the stage for the final flurry.

Carbon finished with a game-best 116 yards and two TDs on 24 attempts for OHS, which was limited to only 138 yards with an interception through the air.

"When you put yourself out there and play games and play games against rivals, sometimes things are going to go poorly," Red Devils coach Jay Fallin said. "We've won 11 City-County games in a row and that streak comes to an end tonight. It's always a war when we come over here, we knew it would be.

"Just didn't get it done tonight, didn't make the plays that we needed to make throughout the game to win the game. Got to give a lot of credit to Coach Morris and his staff, they did a great job and had their kids ready to play."

According to Fallin, his team hasn't played up to standards since the opening week of the 2022 campaign.

"Since that time, I don't think we've played well at all," he said. "Even in two victories, I don't think we've played well. Now that it's a trend, it's on me to figure out what's going on and why we're not playing well. But we're going to get back to work. I told the guys we can take this one of two ways: We can fall apart or we can learn from it and choose to move forward and get back to work."

For Catholic, Atwell completed 16-of-27 passes for 209 yards and a pair of TDs with one interception. The Aces finished with 334 yards of total offense with a steady group of runners that included Atwell, Vince Carrico, Tutt Carrico and Elijah Blair.

Now, Catholic wants to carry the momentum into next week's road clash at Christian Academy-Louisville as it wraps up a trio of stiff out-of-district matchups.

"We're getting that three weeks back to back — just like you're going to get in the playoffs — before district play starts," Morris said. "So, we're going to treat next week like it's a state championship before the state championship ever hits."

OHS will return to action next week when the Red Devils host Breckinridge County at Rash Stadium.

OWENSBORO 7 3 0 7 — 17

OWENSBORO CATHOLIC 0 7 0 14 — 21

O-Carbon 11 run (Lanz kick)

O-Lanz 30 field goal

OC-Frick 23 pass from Atwell (Ranallo kick)

OC-V. Carrico 9 run (Ranallo kick)

O-Carbon 3 run (Lanz kick)

OC-V. Carrico 8 pass from Atwell (Ranallo kick)