'He's been incredible.' Jake Conrad's kick lifts Beechwood to KHSAA Class 2A state title
LEXINGTON – After Beechwood senior Jake Conrad kicked a 36-yard field goal during last week’s playoff win over Mayfield, head coach Noel Rash made a point of saying that could boost his confidence if the Tigers needed him to do it again with all to play for in a state championship game.
That prophecy came true, as Beechwood’s first-year starting kicker connected on a field goal of identical yardage with 1:45 to go in the Class 2A championship game of the 2021 UK Orthopaedics State Football Finals.
That gave Beechwood a 23-21 win over Lexington Christian Academy Friday night at the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field. Beechwood won its second-straight state championship. Beechwood finished a perfect 15-0 and won the title for the second-straight year over LCA (14-1).
MORE: Beechwood football a lasting tradition in Fort Mitchell
MORE: Beechwood advances to 2A state finals by routing Mayfield, 38-7
MORE: What to look for as Beechwood football faces Lexington Christian in KHSAA 2A state final
More: Here's the Cincinnati Enquirer's 2021 OHSAA state high school football coverage
Beechwood finished undefeated for the fourth time in team history and defeated an Eagles team with at least four Division I college commitments.
“I think (the close game) was exactly what everybody expected,” Beechwood head coach Noel Rash said. “They’re a great football team. For us to come out on top, it tells us how great our kids played today, how much they worked in the offseason to get to this point and gut it out for four quarters. That’s what this thing came down to: A testament of wills.”
Here's how the game went
Conrad had made a field goal at the end of halftime last week against Mayfield, giving the Tigers a 24-0 at the break. The three points were set up by a forced fumble by senior Cameron Hergott in the final minute.
“We had put him into this situation twice this year and he’s come through both times, and both crucial situations,” Rash said. “He made that field goal against Mayfield to absolutely leave that half in a dominant performance. If he misses it, you don’t know. Momentum switches. With high school kids, momentum means the world. He’s been incredible.”
With the title on the line, the Tigers set up the winning play in a similar fashion to the Mayfield game.
Leading 21-20, LCA took over at its own 24 after Evan Brown intercepted a long pass that Hergott threw under pressure with 8:20 to go in the game. It was only his fourth interception of the year.
Beechwood forced a three-and-out. Keaton Durrett partially blocked the punt, and Beechwood took over at the LCA 45.
On third down and 7 from the LCA 42, Hergott scrambled up the middle for a 21-yard gain to the LCA 21. LCA committed a pass-interference penalty to set up the Tigers at the 11, but then LCA pressured Hergott into an 11-yard loss on a sack to force fourth down and 18.
Rash called on Conrad, and his kick cleared the crossbar by a couple of yards, though he had doubts as the ball was in the air.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Conrad said. “Just being a part of it is just incredible. All the credit goes to my holder, Parker Mason, the snapper Keaton (Durrett) and the offensive line. They do everything. I just kick it.”
LCA had one more chance and was in business after Virginia commit Xavier Brown returned the kickoff to midfield. LCA drove to the 31, then on third down, Beechwood’s Bryce Shepherd pressured LCA quarterback Drew Nieves into a hurried throw in front of him with no Eagle receiver on that side of the field. Nieves was called for intentional grounding, pushing the ball back to the Beechwood 37 with 28 seconds left in the game.
LCA initially lined up for a 54-yard field goal from Andrew Dobbs, who is arguably the top kicker in the state. In last year’s state final, Dobbs had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation but hit the upright on a 44-yard field goal that had plenty of distance.
After Dobbs lined up, Rash called timeout. LCA head coach Doug Charles changed his mind and called a pass play. Nieves lofted a long pass to Miami University commit Mason Moore in the endzone. The pass was about a yard too long and fell incomplete, and the Tigers ran out the clock.
Rash said he was caught off guard by LCA lining up for the field goal, and Charles said that Beechwood’s time out gave him time to reconsider.
“They had come close to blocking a couple of our extra points,” Charles said. “We were in range and then I had a second chance to look at it. A 54-yarder is a lot to ask with narrow goalposts. We felt we had something that would work, but the ball just didn’t bounce our way.”
Beechwood won its 16th state championship all-time and is now 3-0 against LCA in state finals. That included last year’s overtime thriller, which was decided on a blocked extra point, and the 2007 1A state final, which Beechwood won 38-35 after a late interception.
Ten of Beechwood’s 16 championship wins have been decided by seven points or less, and the Tigers have lost two finals by that close a margin.
This one didn’t appear to be headed for a close finish early on after Beechwood took a 20-0 lead in the first half.
Beechwood took the opening kickoff and drove 78 yards, 51 of them on the ground from Hergott, who threw an 18-yard pass to Parker Mason.
Hergott scored the first touchdown of the game from 28 yards out, weaving through traffic and slipping away from three tacklers with 5:03 to go in the first. LCA blocked the PAT, which would prove to be large later, and it was 6-0.
LCA then got the ball, and had an inauspicious start, fumbling the ball to Beechwood on two of its first six plays from scrimmage.
Beechwood couldn’t cash in the first time, forcing Hergott to punt the ball to the LCA 4.
The second time, the Tigers scored on a 30-yard drive, finished by a 1-yard sneak by Hergott. Conrad’s PAT gave Beechwood a 13-0 lead with 8:32 to go in the half.
LCA then drove to the Beechwood 11 and had fourth-and-2 from the 11 with five minutes to go. LCA ran Moore off right tackle and he was stopped a yard short by Durrett and Liam McCormack.
Beechwood got the ball back, and Hergott provided the signature highlight of the final game of his Tigers career.
Starting from the Beechwood 15, Hergott dodged in and out of traffic for a 77-yard run to the LCA 8. He changed directions on a dime at least four different times.
Junior Mitchell Berger finished the drive by scoring on an 8-yard run with 3:12 to go in the half, and Beechwood led 20-0.
That’s when the Eagles began to seize momentum.
Nieves threw a 13-yard TD pass to a wide-open Parker Chaney with 33 seconds left in the half, and Beechwood led 20-7 at the break.
The Eagles got the second-half kickoff and stormed out of the locker room. On the first play of the third quarter, Nieves threw a short pass to Jeffrey Selby which he turned into a 57-yard gain to the Beechwood 5. Xavier Brown scored later, and Dobbs’ PAT cut Beechwood’s lead to six at 20-14, with 10:42 to go in the third.
On Beechwood’s next drive, Hergott was forced out of the pocket and fumbled as he was hit. The ball bounced back toward the Beechwood endzone, where Navy commit Tyler Morris picked it up and ran it in for an 11-yard touchdown. Dobbs’ PAT gave LCA a 21-20 lead with 7:55 to go in the third.
Hergott had two turnovers in the game, which was rare for him.
“It hasn’t happened that much this year, but when it did happen, my guys had my back,” Hergott said. “I can play as free as I can and make plays because I know they’re going to help me out.”
The game became a defensive battle after that. Beechwood had 212 yards at halftime but only 65 in the second half, and LCA had 162 in the first and 96 in the second.
LCA had a big chance to extend the lead late in the third quarter. From the Beechwood 25, Nieves found Moore wide open in the endzone, but he dropped the pass after a Beechwood defender got in his line of vision. The next play was fourth down, and Beechwood sophomore Xavier Campbell pressured Nieves into an incompletion.
“We played great defense all year,” Rash said. “You’re not going to play great for four quarters against them, but we bowed our backs and made plays.”
Beechwood limited Brown, who had nearly 1,500 yards this season and is committed to ACC school Virginia, to just 66 yards rushing. Moore, the future Miami RedHawk, had two catches for 43 yards.
Hergott's last line
Unofficially, based on the final KHSAA stats, Hergott ends his Beechwood career with 8,537 passing yards and 97 touchdowns against 24 interceptions. His final rushing totals are 4,187 yards with 29 TDs.
Hergott finishes as a four-year starter after reclassifying to the Class of 2022 due to Kentucky’s “do-over” bill brought about by the pandemic.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I’m just blessed to have the opportunity to come back. I just wanted to make the most of it for the seniors again, because those are my guys. It’s really special because we worked so hard the whole season, and to have an ending like this two years in a row, it’s incredible.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: KHSAA football: Beechwood beats Lexington Christian for 2A state title
