Jim Mashek

PURPLES’ BAILEY, JAGUARS’ O’HARA IN THE SPOTLIGHT IN LEXINGTON

LEXINGTON — Bowling Green High School’s veteran outside linebacker, senior co-captain Wick Dotson, admits there’s a lot on the line for his team — and himself, personally — in the Purples’ pursuit of the KHSAA Class 5A state championship on Saturday night.

Dotson was a BGHS freshman football player and watched from the stands of the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field on December 19, 2020, when the Purples claimed the seventh state title in school history.

In a season turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, Bowling Green’s defense mauled the Owensboro High School running game, carrying BGHS to a 17-7 victory over the talented Red Devils.

Then, last year, the Purples ran into a dominant defense themselves with a championship on the line.

Bowling Green squared off with Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School, the No. 1-ranked Class 5A squad playing just a few miles from its campus. The game was tied at 7 at halftime, but Frederick Douglass’ hard-charging defensive line took control after that, limiting the Purples to seven yards total offense after halftime. The Broncos coasted to a 28-7 victory, leaving Dotson — a BGHS defensive back last season — and his teammates with a burning desire to get another KHSAA state championship trophy.

The Purples have given themselves the opportunity.

Bowling Green (11-3 overall) has overwhelmed its first four postseason opponents, but the Purples will be facing a different sort of challenge when they square off with Cooper High School *12-2) in the KHSAA Class 5A title game on Saturday night at Kroger Field.

Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. (EST).

“If you make it to the state championship game,” Dotson said, “you know you’re going to be playing a good team. When I was a freshman, there were three or four freshmen on the sideline, but I watched from the stands. Last year, we probably had eight or nine freshmen in uniform, some of them playing significant roles …

“This is my last (football) game. Ever. It’ll either be the kind of experience I’ll want to talk about, years from now. Or it’ll be something I won’t wanna talk about, at all.”

Dotson and BGHS offensive lineman DeMarcus “Hollywood” Elliott, the team’s senior captains, will be joined by the Purples’ duo of junior QB Deuce Bailey and junior defensive back Grayson Newman for the captains’ meeting at midfield before Saturday night’s game against Cooper. The Jaguars upset No. 1-seeded Highlands High School, 17-15, last week to punch their ticket to the KHSAA’s “Championship Weekend.”

The game will feature two outstanding quarterbacks, Bowling Green’s Bailey and Cooper sophomore Cam O’Hara, and the kind of defensive prowess that has been the Purples’ great equalizer over the second half of the season.

“I think the key matchup is our defense against their offense,” sixth-year BGHS head coach Mark Spader said earlier this week. “The usual things — ball security, turnovers — are critical, but if we can keep (the Cooper offense) off the field, it’ll give us some opportunities.”

That’s been a tall order for Cooper’s opponents, but it also holds true for Bailey and Co.

Bailey, the 6-foot, 185-pound junior, has completed 224 or 323 passes (69.3 percent) for 3,316 yards and 40 touchdowns. He’s been intercepted only four times. In postseason play, however, Bailey and several other BGHS starters were usually watching from the sidelines, with the KHSAA-mandated running clock in effect for a scoring differential of 36 points or more.

Cam O’Hara, Bailey’s counterpart from Cooper High School, has put up some pretty impressive numbers himself.

O’Hara, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound sophomore, is being heavily recruited by Power Five colleges. He’s completed 217 of 320 passes (67.8 percent) for 3,141 yards and 45 touchdowns. He’s been intercepted just six times.

Cooper coach Randy Borchers has been the school’s head football coach since the school’s inception in 2008, when Boone County created a fourth public high school. The Jaguars have made one appearance in the KHSAA Class 5A title game, and coincidentally, they were defeated by Kevin Wallace’s Bowling Green squad, 34-20, at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium on December 1, 2012.

“We’ve been battle tested this year,” Borchers said. “The last three weeks, we’ve been on the road (against Scott County, winning 49-21, before knocking off Southwestern, 24-14, and then Highlands) … Scott County put up 56 points on us last year. In the preseason, our expectations were high. We’re playing a really good team, in Bowling Green, and we’re going to have to tackle well, gang tackle, contain their receivers, that sort of thing.”

Bowling Green’s defense had a disastrous Opening Night just 3.5 months ago, when Lexington Christian Academy’s Brady Hensley carried the ball 30 times for 405 yards and five touchdowns, lifting his team to a 56-52 victory over the Purples, also at WKU in the annual Rafferty’s Bowl.h

“That’s a different sort of game, a big game at a college stadium,” BGHS linebacker Wick Dotson said. “You’ve got lot going on in your head. We’ve gotten a lot healthier since then, made some moves and worked hard in practice to become a better defense.”

BGHS offensive guard DeMarcus “Hollywood” Elliott, who will also take several snaps on defense, believes the Purples’ experience in last year’s KHSAA 5A championship game has given them an edge in postseason play. The Purples’ offensive line has given BGHS junior quarterback Deuce Bailey consistent protection and Bowling Green has won 10 of its last 11 games, all but one of the victories by 28 points or more.

That game was the Purples’ thrilling 36-29 victory over archrival South Warren, when Bowling Green used a “hook-and-lateral” play, with Trevy Barber catching a Bailey pass before pitching the ball to BGHS teammate Trey Graham, who found the end zone to complete the memorable scoring play with just 14 seconds remaining.

“I think we’ll be calm enough to handle the tough situations, overcome the challenges,” Elliott said. “Our offensive line has progressed very week, and we’ll be ready for anything and anyone who lines up in front of us.”

Cooper has other individual standouts in junior tight end/linebacker Austin Alexander, who leads the team with 18 sacks in 14 games, along with sophomore running back Keagan Maher (1,181 yards rushing, 18 TDs) and Alexander (59 receptions, 1,045 yards, 18 touchdowns and junior wideout Isaiah Johnson (71 catches, 1,341 yards, 20 touchdowns).

Cooper coach Randy Borchers said the Jaguars usually use four or five players, mostly linemen, on both sides of the line of scrimmage. BGHS coach Mark Spader likes his team’s intangibles and the leadership his senior class has shown during their run in the playoffs.

“This team really enjoys each other, enjoys playing together,” Spader said. “Early in the year, it was quite the grind, particularly on defense. I think it pulled the team together. Coach Boarders started that program, from scratch. They’re always a tough bunch.”

The Purples will leave Bowling Green via chartered bus around 1 p.m. Saturday, and get dressed and unwind at Lexington’s Dunbar High School before traveling across town to Kroger Field for the championship game.