Atwell, Aces run past Panthers

Oct. 29—Owensboro Catholic quarterback Brady Atwell rushed for 141 yards and a trio of touchdowns, and the Aces raced past visiting Elizabethtown on the way to a 43-9 victory Friday night at Steele Stadium.

Atwell, who completed 5-of-13 pass attempts for 72 yards, carried the ball 18 times as Catholic finished with 339 yards on the ground.

"We got some dogs," OCHS coach Jason Morris said afterward. "We've seen on film that we thought we could run the football effectively, and we ran the football tonight. In my opinion, to win a state championship, you have to run the football when you want to run the football, and you have to be able to run the football when the other team knows you're running the football. We did that tonight."

The Aces (7-3) wasted little time out of the gate, marching 55 yards in seven plays as Vince Carrico scored on a 30-yard run to cap off Catholic's opening possession.

Elizabethtown (7-3) answered back with a long drive of its own, but the Panthers were limited to a 20-yard field goal from Aaron Silva with 4:16 left in the opening quarter.

After that, however, Catholic reeled off 20 unanswered points.

Atwell scored on a 2-yard run with 14.1 seconds left in the first quarter, Elijah Blair ran in a 10-yard scoring scamper midway through the second quarter, and Atwell broke loose for an 88-yard rushing score with 3:09 until halftime to give the Aces a 27-3 lead — an advantage that stood until intermission.

The Panthers opened the second half on a tear of their own, as quarterback Ryder Gregory orchestrated a seven-play, 73-yard scoring drive capped off by his 14-yard TD toss to Evan Shelton. The extra-point try was blocked, however, leaving Elizabethtown trailing 27-9.

The Aces went on a 16-0 scoring run to close the contest.

Atwell punched in a 1-yard QB keeper with 3:42 left in the third frame and, after Catholic recovered a loose ball on the kickoff, Dominic Ranallo booted a 27-yard field goal. A Vince Carrico interception set up his own 6-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter, providing the final margin.

Vince Carrico ran for 82 yards and a pair of scores on nine carries, Tutt Carrico posted 83 yards on 15 rushing attempts, and Blair tallied 32 yards with a TD on six rushes.

Elizabethtown finished with 233 yards of total offense, as Gregory completed 8-of-14 passes for 149 yards with a touchdown and a pair of interceptions. Shelton hauled in four passes for 89 yards and a TD.

"We started off kind of slow," EHS coach Ross Brown said. "A couple things didn't go our way, we felt, with the calls early, and it shouldn't have. After that, it seemed like we deflated a little bit. We didn't play with a lot of fire."

Morris credited his defensive unit for limiting the Panthers throughout the night.

"Defense was 'bend but don't break' and stepped up great there," he said.

"We did a great job of stopping their run and making them one-dimensional. We've seen on film that if you make them drive it, sometimes they get turnover-prone. We tried to make sure that we didn't give up a big play, which we did a couple of times — they made some great plays, too, you have to give them credit there — but great job by our defense on two or three different goal-line stands where we didn't give up touchdowns."

Carson Lewis also snagged an interception in the end zone for the Aces.

Catholic returns to action next week as the Aces open the KHSAA Class 2-A playoffs against Fort Campbell at home, and Morris wants to see the same type of mental focus and approach from his players.

"We're trying to stay humble right now and take it one game at a time," he said. "I just talked to the guys, now we get the real first round of the playoffs. This Monday has got to be exactly the same as it's been the last two weeks — we got to stay focused and continue to be us and do what we do."

ELIZABETHTOWN 3 0 6 0 — 9

OWENSBORO CATHOLIC 14 13 10 6 — 43

OC-V. Carrico 30 run (Ranallo kick)

E-Silva 20 field goal

OC-Atwell 2 run (Ranallo kick)

OC-Blair 10 run (run failed)

OC-Atwell 88 run (Ranallo kick)

E-Shelton 14 pass from Gregory (kick failed)

OC-Atwell 1 run (Ranallo kick)

OC-Ranallo 27 field goal

OC-V. Carrico 6 run (run failed)