Jim Mashek

BGHS COACH MARK SPADER: ‘WE DIDN’T HANDLE OUR BUSINESS TONIGHT’

LOUISVILLE — Atherton High School’s football team had something to prove on a cool, wet Friday night at Waggener High School.

Bowling Green, the two-time KHSAA Class 5A defending state champion, rolled into the Derby City with an eye on another trip to Championship Weekend that begins eight days after next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.

Then the Purples got rolled.

Atherton, reaching the state semifinals for the first time in school history, left nothing to chance against Bowling Green in a rematch of last year’s KHSAA Class 5A quarterfinals at the BGHS stadium.

Bowling Green won that game, handily, with senior QB Deuce Bailey at the controls.

Bailey passed for 259 yards and six touchdowns as the Purples zapped Atherton, 44-20, on their way to the promised land.

And while BGHS quarterback Anthony Davis has plenty of promise, the 15-year-old left-hander is a freshman. He’ll be on the court before long, competing for the Purples’ boys basketball team in the expansive BGHS Arena.

Atherton zapped a bewildered Bowling Green squad, 49-21, on its way to a KHSAA Class 5A state semifinal game against Pulaski County in Somerset. BGHS coach Mark Spader and the Bowling Green players were quick to give credit, to where it was due, but this game was nothing short of a nightmare for the Purples.

“We didn’t handle our business tonight,” Spader said.

Atherton improved to 12-1 overall, while the Purples finished a challenging season with a 6-7 record. Bowling Green started the season with senior QB Jaxon Trautman under center. Trautman, a transfer from Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School, struggled in Week Two of regular-season play, back in August. And Anthony Davis stepped in, made some plays, and provided a glimpse into the Purples’ future.

Much like Deuce Bailey did in 2021.

Bailey replaced BGHS teammate Spencer Newman, in his freshman year on Rockingham Avenue. There were some rocky moments, to be sure, but Bailey and the Purples managed to break even for the year. Crosstown rival South Warren High School eliminated Bowling Green, with a resounding 28-3 victory on the Spartans’ home turf. But optimism was in ample supply in the BGHS Field House.

And Spader and his squad could celebrate back-to-back state championships with last year’s 37-20 thumping of Cooper High School at the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field. It was the ninth KHSAA state title in school history.

Atherton High School coach Anthony White has the same thing in mind. The Ravens toppled one of the premier programs in the Commonwealth, a Bowling Green squad that had ambitions of winning a 10th state championship in school history.

Not this time.

“This place has been in the dump for so long,” White told the Courier-Journal’s Jason Frakes after the Ravens’ impressive victory. “We can’t win the big one? Well, there you go … We are here.

“We have arrived.”

That was clear, from the outset.

Bowling Green won the coin toss beforehand and elected to defer, which would give the Purples the ball to open the second half. Bowling Green even forced an Atherton turnover on the Ravens’ first offensive possession, creating a sense of momentum on the Purples’ sideline.

It wouldn’t last.

Freshman QB Anthony Davis and the Purples’ offense went three-and-out to open the game, and then Atherton quarterback Lamar Sistrunk, Jr., and the Ravens went to work.

Sistrunk got the ball to Atherton teammate Jason Briscoe on a sideline pass, and Briscoe broke a tackle on his way to a dazzling 55-yard reception. The Ravens wasted no time getting in the end zone, as Atherton’s Du Zaye Grundy stormed into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown run with 5:48 left in the first quarter. Atherton added a two-point conversion, and it was 8-0.

But not for long.

Atherton’s offense moved the length of the field before Sistrunk found Ravens running back James Allen Briscoe in the flat, and Briscoe beat the pursuit to the corner to score on a 16-yard TD reception. And before the end of the first quarter, the Purples’ Anthony Davis was intercepted for just the third time this season. Atherton’s Jason Briscoe made the play on a deep ball, and the Ravens’ offense was back in business.

And then some.

Sistrunk and the Ravens gashed the BGHS defense with chunk plays on their way to a third touchdown, Grundy’s 11-yard scoring run midway through the second quarter. It was 21-0, and the Purples almost seemed to be shell shocked.

“You didn’t plan for any of it,” BGHS coach Mark Spader said. “These guys, this Atherton team, once they get rolling … it hits you hard, when it happens. We didn’t create enough adversity, against their offense … They’ve got a fine team.”

Bowling Green showed some signs of life, after Atherton’s third touchdown. Purples QB Anthony Davis lofted a ball toward the middle of the field, and all-state BGHS wide receiver Trevy Barber made a sensational touchdown catch covering 25 yards.

Only problem for the Purples is Atherton got in the end zone before halftime.

The Ravens moved downfield before sophomore quarterback Lamar Sistrunk, Jr., found tight end Davin Jones over the middle for a 10-yard touchdown pass, with 33 seconds left in the half.

It was 28-7 and the Purples never recovered.

Tray Graham, the Purples’ senior running back, got into the end zone on a diving 3-yard touchdown run with 5:05 left in the third quarter. But Atherton weathered that storm with little trouble.

Bowling Green got in the end zone one last time, on Anthony Davis’ pretty deep ball for BGHS teammate Hudson Nottmeier made an over-the-shoulder catch for a 37-yard TD reception. But the Ravens offense got in the end zone three more times in the second half, and Atherton forced a KHSAA-mandated running clock on Sistrunk’s shovel pass to Jason Briscoe for a successful two-point conversion.

There was plenty of raw emotion on the Bowling Green sideline. Frustration, some anger. The public-address announcer at Waggener’s Stadium didn’t do the Purples any favors, either, providing aimless commentary over the stadium speakers when Anthony Davis was calling signals and after the play was in progress.

There was no such obstacle for the Atherton offense, and while the BGHS sideline pleaded with the officials to bring the clattering noise to a halt, there was a sense of indifference from the KHSAA officials working the game.

In the fourth quarter, the PA guy actually bellowed, “They can’t fire me, this ain’t even my job …”

It was that kind of night for the Purples. And a long bus ride back to Bowling Green.

“We just didn’t execute,” BGHS linebacker Montrez Trussell said.

Zach Jordan, the three-year starter on the Purples’ offensive line, was quick to give Atherton credit.

“They’ve just got a lot of good athletes,” Jordan said. “We’ve had a lot of good memories, as a team, over the last few years … We have to look ahead, to the future.”