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| Indians lose heartbreaker to Collins |
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8/28/2015
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
One big play.
That was all it took Saturday night for the Collins High Titans to knock off Montgomery County, 7-0, to win the second half of the 68th annual Recreation Bowl doubleheader.
Paris had to overcome a game-opening kickoff return for a touchdown by Frankfort to beat the Panthers 21-12 in the opening game played before a large crowd at Cunningham Field.
“It wasn’t like we drove the ball down the field to score,” said winning coach Jerry Lucas. “We just made a play, one big play. I thought it was a great football game.”
Certainly a bit of a throwback game as the defenses for both teams were the focal point instead of the offenses.
The defense for Montgomery County coach Dan Gooch was especially pleasing after the Tribe gave up an average of 40 points per game last season.
“We did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball,” Gooch said. “And we had our chances on offense, we just didn’t finish. We’re disappointed but we’re ready to move on to the next challenge.
That comes up Friday night when the Indians play host to a Lawrence County team that thumped Boyd County 42-22 in their season opener last Friday night.
Coach Joey Cecil’s Bulldogs are coming off a 9-4 season where two of their four losses were to Class AAA state champion Belfry.
“They’re a really talented football team with an outstanding quarterback and they’ll really test our defense, probably more than Collins test us,” Gooch added.
An early miss
Montgomery County was its own worst enemy Saturday night as they missed a couple of early scoring opportunities and then didn’t have the football much in the second half.
The Indians took the opening kickoff and moved the football from their own 24 to a first down at the Collins 27 in eight plays, aided by a 15-yard penalty on Collins and a 19-yard scamper for a first down by punter Dalton Stevens when he got a low snap and Collins was in a position to block the first punt of his career.
The senior took off and turned it into a big play but then the Indians were stopped on downs after senior quarterback Art Walker was sacked for the first of six times in the game.
The Indians ran the football with success early in the contest as junior Jake Harvey, who finished with 100 yards on 21 carries, used his strength and quickness behind a very effective offensive line.
However, on their second possession the Indians were hit with a 15-yard penalty and the third possession resulted in Montgomery County’s best drive of the night that came up just short.
The Tribe started at their own 29 following a Collins’ punt and with Harvey ripping off runs of eight and 28 yards and Walker rambling 10 on another carry followed by a 10-yard pass completion to Cody Parsley the Indians had a fourth and inches at the Collins nine.
But the Indians mishandled the snap on that fourth down play and suffered a one yard loss as Collins took over.
“When you have an opening game and you don’t fumble the football and you don’t throw an interception and you don’t have a lot of silly penalties then you feel really good,” Gooch said. “But then we made some other mistakes that we’ve got to correct.”
After the Indians gave the football up at the 10 yard line Collins had its best drive of the night as they used a dozen plays to drive inside the Montgomery County five yard line.
The Titans had a third and goal at the four yard line when J.P. Johnson made a spectacular diving hit on Roseberry to nail him at the four and then on fourth down Mason Gooch raced down Collins quarterback J.R. Lucas back at the 11 to give the Indians the football.
Collins had a 60-yard drive to begin the third quarter that established field position for the Titans and the Indians fought that battle for most of the second half.
Collins tried a 41-yard field goal with 10:57 to play that went wide left and then the Indians had their last best scoring chance when they moved to the Collins’ 24-yard line. The Indians had it third and just a yard to go but Collins stopped first a rushing attempt and then a pass for no gain and the ball went over on downs.
Two plays later Lucas was able to avoid a rush and the diminutive quarterback found junior wide receiver Dalton Maggard all alone behind the Indian secondary for a 68-yard scoring play that gave the Titans the victory.
The score came with 5:01 left to play. Montgomery County picked up one first down on the ensuing possession but then had to punt and the Indians never got the football back.
Nasean Roseberry, the sophomore running back who had been the Titans leading running back last year as a freshman, was named the game’s outstanding player after rushing 18 times for 128 yards. Lucas had 29 yards on the ground and eluded Montgomery County’s pass rush all night. He was sacked twice and completed 8 of 12 passes for 102 yards.
Paris 21,
Frankfort 12
Paris looked like they might be in trouble in the opener when Frankfort’s Matthew Smith took the opening kickoff back 94 yards for a touchdown.
But Paris dominated things from that point on and the Panthers lost a key player to an injury as the Greyhounds won their third Recreation Bowl game in four outings and third in a row dating back to 1970.
Senior quarterback Kobe Garrard was outstanding throughout the contest in directing the Paris offense. He scored on a one-yard run early and then threw a pair of touchdown passes to senior running back James Clark to provide the winning points as the only other score by Frankfort came when backup quarterback DeShawn Newton completed a 74-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Malik Frank.
Frankfort started the game with senior Anthony Robinson at quarterback. The 6-2, 225 pound Robinson is rated as one of the state’s top players and has already committed to Western Kentucky.
But in an effort to get their best team on the field the Panthers moved Robinson to running b
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