Special teams help fuel Owensboro

Sep. 6—In a tight game where every score mattered, a special teams touchdown was vital for Owensboro High School in its 24-14 win over Daviess County last Friday.

OHS was up 3-0 and had blocked one punt already by Jeremiah Goodwin, but it was having trouble getting in the end zone on offense.

On another punting situation from midfield, Zach Clark got a second block that went high in the air, and Dereon Crowe snagged the football out of the air and went speeding to the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown return that made it 10-0 with 8:58 left in the second quarter.

The timing of that was excellent for OHS, because there were two touchdowns in a row by DC to push it in front 14-10 four minutes later.

The Red Devils got control of the game with two more scores of their own before halftime, putting them in front to stay by the final score of 24-14.

The game settled into a defensive matchup in the second half and there were no more points scored over the last two quarters.

Getting the blocked punt for a touchdown, and two blocked punts early, were big for momentum for the Red Devils.

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"A lot of that is the effort thing. We trust each other to do that," Clark said. "I knew Dereon was going to do it. I came through and supposed to collide with one of the linemen protecting, he blocked into one of our guys who broke through, I had an open way. I took a dive out for it, got it up in the air, I turned around and saw the ball about 20 feet in the air, Dereon was looking at it, and there was only one guy who could get him, the kicker, so I started blocking him and Dereon took it to the house."

The Goodwin block was picked up by Xander Early for a short return.

"Chemistry is a big thing, we've been playing together since Pop Warner, we're on that same level of thinking," Goodwin said of teamwork in making big plays in special teams and defense. "We can look at each other and know what each other is doing right off the bat. If we want to make some on the fly adjustments that we think will give us a better chance to block it, we're going to do it. If we don't do it, then we just got to make sure we go 100% so we don't get yelled at. If we have a chance to make a defensive touchdown, a scoop and score, a pick six, of course we want to take it. Special teams, we rep that as much as anything, offense, defense.

Goodwin was also effective punting to flip field position a couple of times in the game.

Hidden yardage and hidden points from special teams have been important for OHS for a long time.

"It was the difference tonight," OHS coach Jay Fallin said of special teams points against DC. "That goes back to Joe (Prince), he taught me that. It's a huge part of who we are as a program, our guys get that. Blake Roberts has taken that over special teams, him and Marcus Kimbrell, they do a great job with that. It matters."