Jim Mashek

SOUTH MOVES ON TO SHOWDOWN AT TRADITION-RICH OWENSBORO HIGH SCHOOL

On paper, it looked like a competitive game, two squads ranked among the Top 10 in statewide KHSAA Class 5A rankings.

Two 8-2 teams.

Two teams with skins on the wall, South Warren most recently with the 2021 KHSAA 5A state championship.

The Spartans threw away the script and took the fight to Madisonville-North Hopkins on Friday night. South Warren’s Jimmy Sales pounced on a fumble by the Maroons on the opening kickoff, needing three running plays from junior fullback Ethan Reynolds to get in the end zone.

Madisonville-North Hopkins never recovered.

Junior quarterback Bryce Button played just one half, like many of the Spartans’ starters, and South Warren dismantled Madisonville-North Hopkins, 50-12, in first-round play of the KHSAA Class 5A playoffs.

South Warren improved to 9-2 overall and will travel next week to square off with Owensboro High School (7-4) at Rash Stadium, on the OHS campus.

“I liked our guys’ intensity, and approach to the game,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said. “They had that ‘not-going-to-be-denied’ look. That’s what you want, this time of year.”

Reynolds, returning to the lineup after a lower-leg injury sidelined him for three weeks, and the Spartans’ offense was equal parts efficient and opportunistic, also a winning formula when the sun sets before five and every team in the Commonwealth is gunning for a trip to Lexington’s Kroger Field for KHSAA Championship Weekend in December.

“I just put my head down and tried to move the pile,” Reynolds said with a smile.

Button passed sparingly, completing eight of 11 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior found DeShawn Bridges on a crossing pattern for a 6-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter, and he lofted a deep pass for SWHS teammate Bailey Shoemaker, the Spartans’ leading receiver, for a 44-yard touchdown pass in the final two minutes of the first half.

That made it 36-0, which meant a running clock for the second half, and an opportunity for Brandon Smith to empty his bench against the outmanned Maroons.

“We came out confident, I think we executed really well,” Button said. “You can’t mess around when you get to this point of the season.”

Madisonville-North Hopkins got in the end zone a couple times before it was over, once on M-NH quarterback Kanyon Johnson’s 2-yard touchdown run in the final minute. Johnson also unleashed a 32-yard TD pass to the Maroons’ Markezz Hightower, after a 35-yard scramble on the left sideline, but Madisonville-North Hopkins struggled against the Spartans’ steady pass rush.

“Tonight, we played a team that is a title contender,” M-NH coach Chris Price told The Messenger’s Matt Hughes after the game. “We came into the game banged up at multiple positions, and when you play a top ranked team in the state, you need all of your guys healthy.”

The Maroons used a steady ground game to average 44 points per game in the regular season, and they took a four-game winning streak into the contest.

Jace Catrona, Colton Veltkamp and the rest of South Warren’s defense were clearly equal to the task.

“I think our defense is playing its best football right now,” South coach Brandon Smith said.

South Warren’s Jimmy Sales and DeShawn Bridges made plays on both sides of the ball, and senior defensive end Ayden Page came up with the Spartans’ final score, recovering a Johnson fumble in the Madisonville-North Hopkins end zone with 8:12 left in the game.

Smith was thrilled that the Spartans’ second-team offense, led by sophomore QB Griffin Reynolds, put together a 75-yard scoring drive to open the second half. Griffin Reynolds found the end zone from two yards out on a keeper with 6:20 left in the third quarter.

“That’s my cousin Griffin right there,” a beaming Ethan Reynolds said afterward.

“I think that might be the first time we got a score from the second-team offense this season,” Smith added.

Bryce Button and Ethan Reynolds had short touchdown runs in the second quarter, before Button unloaded his scoring pass for Bailey Shoemaker, and the Spartans completed the task at hand before turning their attention to next week’s road trip to Owensboro.

“We’ll be ready to go to work,” South Warren linebacker/tight end Colton Veltkamp said. “We’ll be ready to play, too.”