THE FIELD TO START THE FOURTH QUARTER.
JEAN AIME TWINS, PATTERSON BROTHERS DELIVER IN WARREN CENTRAL VICTORY
DRAFFENVILLE, Kentucky — Second-year Warren Central High School football coach Mark Nelson has a tough, resilient squad.
It numbers about 35, maybe 40 strong.
That’s the entire program, mind you, but numbers have been the big problem for Nelson and his predecessors at Warren Central. The Dragons have long excelled in boys basketball, in soccer. Football has been an uphill climb, but Nelson’s team has taken it on.
Warren Central conquered another mountain on Friday night, taking the 2.5-hour bus ride to Marshall County HIgh School and storming to a 36-21 victory over the Class 6A Mustangs.
45-YARD INTERCEPTION RETURN IN THE FINAL MINUTE.
Warren Central, a KHSAA Class 4A team, uses a couple dozen players or so in virtually every game to accomplish the task at hand. That’s commonplace for high school teams in small towns such as Morgantown, where Butler County rolled to a 61-0 victory over Clinton County on Friday night.
The Bears, a KHSAA Class 2A squad, take a 7-2 overall record into next week’s regular-season finale against Class 5A Ohio County High School in Hartford.
Likewise, at Franklin-Simpson, where veteran coach Max Chaney has built a solid 4A program. Or Glasgow, which reached the KHSAA Class 3A semifinals last season. Russellville was the KHSAA Class 1A runner-up last year. Brad Hood’s Allen County-Scottsville bunch played its way into the postseason on Friday night, winning 29-6 at Russell Springs to extend its season by at least another week.
It’s a different sort of experience at Warren Central.
The Dragons took a 61-game losing streak into the 2022 season, and they nearly erased that miserable mark last year in a 27-26 loss to Marshall County in Bowling Green.
Warren Central took care of that little obstacle on Opening Night, using a sturdy defensive effort to stop Bullitt Central 13-0 in Shepherdsville. The Dragons would then go on to win two more games, in back-to-back weeks, at Allen County-Scottsville (30-22) and home against Russell County, a 26-9 triumph on September 23.
Expectations are clearly on the rise at Warren Central.
These guys have found out what it’s like to expect to win. And they seem to be liking it.
“We wanted to take control of the game, early in the game,” senior WCHS quarterback Kayumba Jean Aime said when it was over. “That’s what we did, and we came out on top.”
AND HIS BROTHER KUYAMBA, AKA “A.J.,” AFTER THE GAME.
Jean Aime’s twin brother, Kangakole Jean Aime, is the Dragons’ big hitter in the secondary and the team’s leading tackler. He admits it’s been a gradual process.
Winning seldom happens overnight.
“Our mindset is to fight through anything that’s in front of us,” Kangakole ‘K.J.’ Jean Aime said. “We’re in a good frame of mind, right now. We’re looking forward to Senior Night next week.”
So, too, is second-year WCHS head coach Mark Nelson, who has made a strong case for the Commonwealth’s KHSAA Coach of the Year honors. Nelson is building a program at Warren Central, however, so individual honors will have to take a back seat to everything else.
“The kids are buying into what we are teaching,” Nelson said via text message after the Dragons arrived in Bowling Green sometime past midnight Saturday morning. “They’re starting to understand, how we want to run our offense and defense. It’s been a long time since these young men have won on Senior Night. At least six or seven years.
“A win next week (over Bardstown’s Thomas Nelson High School) would put us over that hump, and end our regular season at 5-5.”
With a collective eye toward the 4A playoffs, probably a first-round matchup on the road against Madisonville-North Hopkins.
SCORES ON A TWO-POINT CONVERSION.
The Dragons seem to thrive on the road, however, and that’s where they’ve been able to bond as a team. A scheduling quirk left Nelson and his WCHS team with just three home games, including next week’s tilt against Thomas Nelson.
You’ll see Warren Central players and coaches sporting “Road Warriors” T-shirts around the field house on the WCHS campus on Morgantown Road. They’ve embraced the challenge. They’re still in the formative stages of an unlikely metamorphosis, but they clearly like it.
ZAKARY McGREW (LEFT) AND GUILLERMO GONZALEZ.
“Every win is special,” WCHS center Zakary McGrew said afterward. “We’ve just had to learn to play physical, up front. We wanted to move the ball, get points on the board early, dictate the tempo if we could.”
They could.
Boy, could they ever.
WITH THE DRAGONS’ SENIORS AFTER THE GAME.
Before the stadium lights dimmed, one of the Marshall County assistant coaches and senior quarterback Connor Nix walked across the length of the field to congratulate the Dragons’ players individually. Nelson and his coaching staff were touched by the sportsmanship. Nix and some of the Warren Central players even posed for a couple photos.
Then it was time to get back to Bowling Green.
Mark Nelson took a congratulatory phone call from his elder brother, Rick Nelson, in Columbus, Ohio, the home of the powerful Ohio State Buckeyes.
A handful of Warren Central parents had made the journey to the Kentucky Lake area, and McGrew was one of the WCHS players who could visit with family after the hard-fought victory.
It’s a process, to borrow the vernacular from Alabama’s Nick Saban. The Dragons’ senior class is clearly establishing a legacy.
AND DEANGLO PATTERSON AFTER THE GAME.
Omari Glover, the Dragons’ football/basketball star, had four receptions for 98 yards and a first-quarter touchdown. Warren Central had good balance, offensively, with 108 yards rushing and another 197 yards passing, and the Dragons twice struck for the pick-six — Deanglo Patterson on a dazzling 83-yard return for a touchdown in the second quarter, and his younger brother, Devontre Patterson, for a 45-yard TD return in the game’s final minute.
“We’ve just got to stay healthy, and take care of our bodies this late in the season,” Glover said. “Defensively, we just wanted to stop the running game. Make them one-dimensional. Make the big plays.”
Deanglo Patterson’s pick-six put Warren Central in front 24-7 midway through the second quarter. (The Dragons scored three touchdowns, and added three 2-point conversions, in building their lead in the first half.)
Marshall County put together an 81-yard touchdown drive late in the third quarter, with junior bruiser Aiden Dunagin scoring on an 8-yard run to pull the Marshals within 24-21.
Warren Central’s Yzir Gray recovered a Marshall County fumble at the MCHS 35-yard line in the opening moments of the fourth quarter.
Warren Central quarterback Kayumba Jean Aime needed just three plays to get the Dragons into the end zone, scoring on a 1-yard run to make it 30-21.
(The 2-point conversion try failed.)
The Dragons’ Kangakole Jean Aime came up with a fourth-down stop to turn the ball over on downs with about eight minutes remaining, and teammate Devontre Patterson intercepted a pass from Nix and scored on a 45-yard return in the final moments of the game.
CALLS THE SIGNALS IN THE RED ZONE.
“Deanglo’s interception really changed the momentum of the game,” WCHS coach Mark Nelson said. “Offensively, we came out tonight and put some plays together. (Senior receiver) Omari Glover had another big game (four receptions, 98 yards, 1 TD) and A.J. (Kayumba Jean Aime) can make plays with his arm, and his legs. His twin brother (Kangakole Jean Aime) is really tough, defensively.
“We’re going to need everybody next week, for our game against Thomas Nelson at home. We’ll get to work on Monday and go from there.”
IS ESTABLISHING AN IMPRESSIVE LEGACY.
WHILE MARSHALL COUNTY FELL TO 3-6.
WILL BE HOME LATER TONIGHT …