Jim Mashek

PURPLES MAKE HOME DEBUT AGAINST LIGHTNING-QUICK OWENSBORO HIGH SCHOOL ON FRIDAY NIGHT

There was a festive atmosphere when Bowling Green High School’s talented and tradition-rich football squad took the field at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium for the Rafferty’s Bowl on Saturday night.

The Purples were testing themselves against Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School, immediately after another Bluegrass powerhouse, the Boyle County Rebels, trounced Lexington Christian Academy, and Boyle took the fight to the Eagles, cruising to a 35-13 victory as the sun was setting behind the stadium.

That’s when Frederick Douglass, a team with a huge offensive line, and the blazing speed to put that impressive size to good use, took the field against the Purples in the twilight.

Bowling Green started fast, with senior quarterback Deuce Bailey, the school’s career passing leader, taking his team downfield for a touchdown on the Purples’ first possession. After a big play by BGHS linebacker Montrez Trussell, giving the Purples good field position, Bailey again had the BGHS offense on the move, completing a pass to star receiver Trevy Barber on the left sideline, and the Purples reached the red zone when disaster hit.

There would be more.

Douglass cornerback C.P. Dacolous punched the ball from Barber’s grasp, and the Broncos’ Kaden Clay, a senior linebacker, picked up the fumble on the run inside the right sideline. Clay had a wall of blockers as he sprinted down the sideline, getting knocked out of bounds at the BGHS 2-yard line.

FDHS running back Pharo Watts slammed into the right side of his line on the next play, and the game was tied. The Purples would hang tight with the visitors from Lexington for the rest of the first half, but Douglass managed to squeeze out one last possession before halftime, and Aveion Chenault made it count.

Chenault came up with a soaring 26-yard touchdown catch in the end zone with 13.5 seconds left in the half.

That gave the Broncos a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, and the fourth quarter was little more than a formality as Frederick Douglass rolled to a 35-13 victory over the defending KHSAA Class 5A state champion Purples.

{That’s right. Both games of the Rafferty’s Bowl were decided by the final count of 35-13.)

Seventh-year BGHS head coach Mark Spader had a fiery address for his squad before the Purples could pack their bags and return to campus. The Purples will tangle with a familiar opponent, the quick, resourceful Owensboro Red Devils, on Friday night in Bowling Green.

“We don’t take losing well in our house,” Spader said. “I know there are a lot of hurt feelings right now, but we’ve got to turn it around quickly, and go to work on Monday, because we have Owensboro coming to our place.”

Frederick Douglass took the second-half kickoff and needed about five minutes to drive the length of the field for its third touchdown of the game, a 3-yard scoring run from Kenoxie Allen. The Purples answered quickly, with senior QB Deuce Bailey finding Ethan Kirkwood on the left sideline, with Kirkwood breaking away for a 64-yard reception that put his team back at the FDHS doorstep.

Bowling Green’s Jaxen Smith scored on a 1-yard run, but the Broncos blocked the extra-point attempt, and they got another break when BGHS senior place-kicker Braden Widener pushed a 33-yard field-goal attempt wide left with 1:03 left in the third quarter.

The Purples’ defense gave up big chunks of yards on Douglass’ next possession, and the Broncos’ Aveion Chenault made a tough catch in the end zone look easy, hauling in junior QB Jaxon Strautman’s pass for a 9-yard score. Frederick Douglass is going to make some serious noise again in KHSAA’s Class 6A ranks, and the Broncos defeated Bowling Green, 28-7, in the Class 5A title game on December 3, 2022, in Lexington.

The Purples definitely knew what they were up against.

“I’m definitely disappointed,” BGHS senior quarterback Deuce Bailey said. “We scored on that first drive, but after that, we couldn’t find a rhythm. We’ve got to do a better job of staying consistent.”

Spader, who was Kevin Wallace’s BGHS defensive coordinator during the Purples’ run on state championships in the previous decade, will be looking for quick improvement on that side of the ball.

It was the second consecutive disappointment on Opening Night for the Bowling Green defense, as Lexington Christian Academy’s Cutter Boley guided his squad to an amazing 54-52 victory over the Purples in the 2023 Rafferty’s Bowl at WKU.

Bowling Green’s defense surrendered 800 yards total offense in that defeat, a mark that found a prominent spot in the KHSAA record book. This time, it was FDHS sophomore Dakari Talbert, who carried the ball 18 times for 157 yards and the Broncos’ final touchdown, a 3-yard run with 7:02 left in the game.

Those were a l-o-n-g seven minutes and change for the Purples, with a thinning crowd on the WKU side of the stadium.

“You have the first ‘live’ game of the year,” BGHS coach Mark Spader said, “and we didn’t tackle well. There were multiple plays where we (had defenders) right there. Finish the tackle, and who knows what happens … because we didn’t tackle well, and those (FDHS) backs are really good.”

Be that as it may, the game seemed to turn on a dime in the first quarter.

Deuce Bailey was playing with his usual poise and keeping his team on the attack, and the Purples were in position to extend their lead into double digits midway through the first quarter. But FDHS linebacker Kaden Clay brought that momentum to a halt, returning Trevy Barber’s fumble 64 yards to put the Broncos at the BGHS 2-yard line.

The Purples seemed to lose a mental edge, and they would soon find themselves in a scramble mode, against a hard-charging Frederick Douglass defense. Clay told Lexington Herald-Leader sportswriter Jared Peck that the Broncos needed some time to settle down, themselves, while playing their first game against a high-profile opponent on a college campus.

Like Spader, at BGHS, Frederick Douglass coach Nathan McPeek tries to schedule as tough a non-district slate as possible, to prepare his team for postseason play.

“Honestly, it’s all mental,” Clay said. “We had to get the nervous out … I saw the ball (on the BGHS fumble), on the ground, and I grabbed it and just took off …”

Mark Spader said Bowling Green expected a dogfight, but Frederick Douglass took the fight to the Purples when it mattered most.

“The early part of the game, it looked smooth,” Spader said. “I think our kids thought, this was gonna be kinda easy.’ That’s what we talked about all week in practice … ‘This ain’t gonna be easy’ … The early turnover, that can’t be our excuse. There was a lot of time to turn it around.

“(Frederick Douglass is) a bear of a team, and we played right into their hands.”

Senior BGHS defensive back Grayson Newman, who along with Bailey serves as the team’s permanent co-captains, was already talking about Owensboro’s explosive running game before he left the field at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium.

“I’d say we’re pretty disappointed,” Newman said. “We’ve got to get back to work, next week, for another really good opponent. We don’t play for ‘bowl games,’ we play for state championships.”

The Owensboro matchup will give the Purples that very opportunity.