Jim Mashek

SPARTANS CLOSE FIRST SEASON IN CLASS 6A WITH 14-1 RECORD; SHAMROCKS CLAIM THIRD STRAIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

LEXINGTON — Things got a little chippy at the end, after three hours of trading blows at the line of scrimmage and Louisville’s Trinity High School landing a series of haymakers before halftime at UK’s Kroger Field on Saturday night.

South Warren High School, in its first season as a KHSAA Class 6A football squad, made it a memorable one over the last four months. The Spartans conquered one challenge after another, and rolled through the Class 6A playoffs by playing complementary football and striking when the iron was hot.

It was pretty cold during the KHSAA’s Championship Weekend at the University of Kentucky, but the Spartans found a spark by receiving the kickoff to open the second half.

South Warren senior Isaiah Bridges, a starting cornerback for the last three seasons, fielded the kick at the 2-yard line and quickly found a seam on the left sideline, next to the Spartans’ bench. He returned the ball 98 yards for South Warren’s first points, and with Alen Alic’s extra point, South had cut its deficit to two touchdowns.

The Spartans would manage just one more TD, however, and Trinity’s big, physical defense kept South Warren at arm’s length in the KHSAA Class 6A championship game.

The Shamrocks completed a 28-14 victory over Brandon Smith’s rugged South Warren squad, claiming their 30th KHSAA state championship in school history.

South Warren, however, will live to fight another day.

Smith, the Spartans’ 12th-year head coach, fell short in pursuit of South Warren’s fourth state championship, an impressive feat even before you consider the school didn’t open its doors until 2010, while waiting one year before fielding a varsity football team.

South Warren will say good-bye to 16 seniors, young men who kept the Spartans’ profile on the rise over the last few seasons. South Warren reached the KHSAA Class 5A semifinals last year, and finished 12-2 overall. In 2023, they were a quarterfinalist, only to drop a 53-22 decision to Owensboro High School at Rash Stadium, the Red Devils’ band box of a home field.

Owensboro played right after South Warren and Trinity left the field on Saturday night, and the Red Devils trampled Pulaski County, 35-7, in the Class 5A state championship game.

South’s Brandon Smith had reason to look ahead, with several starters returning on both sides of the line of scrimmage, including his quarterbacks, 6-foot-4 junior Camden Page and 6-foot-3 sophomore Chase Bell. The Spartans used Kayden York’s 228 yards rushing to plow through Ryle High School in the Class 6A semifinals, on the South Warren campus, but things changed in a hurry against Trinity.

“Our front line, that’s the strength of our defense,” Trinity coach Jay Cobb said when it was over.

The Spartans made quite an impression in their opening season as a KHSAA Class 6A contender, and you have to believe they’ll be ready to continue that trend down the road.

“I’m really proud, of what these seniors accomplished,” Smith said in the postgame press conference. “I think this senior class has laid the foundation. We were very excited, to get to 6A. That’s the best football, the biggest football … You’ve got the ‘big dogs’ up here, at the top.

“If you’re a competitor, you like that. These guys laid the foundation, for (future South Warren teams) to have success in 6A.”

Trinity started fast, getting on the scoreboard in the game’s first minute.

Star quarterback Zane Johnson, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior, needed just two plays from scrimmage to take the Shamrocks 85 yards for the game’s opening touchdown. After the Spartans were penalized 15 yards for pass interference, putting Trinity at the Shamrocks’ 30-yard line, Johnson rolled to his right and found Cross Watson for a 19-yard completion.

On the next play, the Shamrocks went with Ashton Taylor, on a sweep to the right side, and the Spartans’ defense found itself out of position, as Taylor scored on a 51-yard run just 49 seconds into the game.

South Warren’s defense settled in, after that opening score, but Taylor’s 20-yard punt return left Zane Johnson and the Shamrocks with a short field. It was even shorter when 5-foot-10, 220-pound bruiser Jamaurion Taylor found a hole on the sweep to the left side, before making a decisive cut on his way to the end zone for a 40-yard score.

It was 21-0, at the half, after Johnson used good protection in the pocket to find Cross Watson for a 20-yard touchdown pass with just 33 seconds before halftime.

“To start the game, the difference was they had been here before,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said. “And it’s been a minute for us … “

South Warren last played in the KHSAA’s Championship Weekend in 2021, when former WKU quarterback Caden Veltkamp guided the Spartans past Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School, 36-28, in the KHSAA Class 5A state title game.

“We were a little too pumped up (on Saturday), too excited and let some easy things go,” Smith said. “Once we settled in, we were moving he ball. We were getting stops. At halftime, it was like, ‘Just calm down and play football …’ and give ourselves an opportunity.”

That’s exactly what happened, after Isaiah Bridges’ kickoff return for a touchdown, and then later on Camden Page’s 49-yard TD pass to senior wideout Jake Carter. Carter went out with a command performance, finishing the game with eight receptions for 155 yards and the Spartans’ only offensive touchdown.

“We’ve loved the ‘underdog mentality.’ We just kept taking it week by week, and we played in the last game of the season,” Carter said.

Page was blunt in his assessment of the outcome.

“We just didn’t capitalize, when we needed to,” he said. “Against a team like (Trinity), you need every bit you can get …”

The Spartans had a chance to cut their deficit to a single score midway through the fourth quarter. Quarterback Chase Bell punched out some key yardage on the ground and looked for junior wideout Justin Capps on a post pattern on a fourth-and-19 play after the Spartans reached the red zone.

Trinity’s Elijah Burns-Crump made a leaping interception at the goal line, which pretty much sealed the Shamrocks’ championship season.

Brandon Smith has now compiled an impressive record over his 12 seasons as the South Warren head coach. The Spartans have won 134 games, against just 24 defeats. They figure to be loaded for bear in 2026.