QueenCityHigh.com - NewCath Wins One For Coach

October 31, 2009

Rick Broering
QueenCityHigh.com Analyst

Beechwood versus NewCath might not mean what it used to as far as playoff implications, but that hasn't taken away from the rivalry. These two teams squared off in another hard-fought battle that went down to the wire Friday night.

Beechwood drew first blood with 4:31 left in the first quarter when Joe Nussbaum connected on a 24-yard field goal.

The Tigers seemed to keep that momentum rolling through the rest of the first quarter, but in the second quarter it was all NewCath. The Thoroughbreds sophomore quarterback, Brady Hightchew, got them going when he capped off a long drive by scoring on a four-yard keeper.

He wasn't done yet though. The signal caller was back in the endzone just four minutes later, this time on an eight-yard run.

"He's just a very good athlete, a smart kid and he's very coachable," NewCath offensive coordinator Dave Schneider who was filling in for his hospitalized father as the head coach said about his young quarterback. "He's a playmaker. He gives us a playmaker out there."

The momentum gained by the early field goal and defensive stops by Beechwood had completely flipped sides and was now in a blue and gold uniform.

That is, until Beechwood's Cory Schuler took the ensuing kickoff back 99-yards for a touchdown cutting the Thoroughbreds lead to 13-10.

The play was big from a score perspective, but it did little to slow down the Thoroughbreds' offense. NewCath came right back in just over two minutes and scored again on a 14-yard touchdown run by running back Chris Kelly. Finally with just 7.6 seconds left to play, Hightchew found the endzone for the third time in the quarter to extend the NewCath lead to 26-10 heading into the locker rooms.

"We mainly ran one play that got us all those yards in the second quarter," Hightchew said. "(lineman) Jake Smith did a nice job of picking up the open man on that counter."

As explosive as the Thoroughbreds looked in the second quarter, they had to rely on their defense in the second half. Neither team could find any rhythm offensively in the third quarter as both defenses did a nice job of making adjustments at halftime.

Beechwood started the fourth quarter off with a score when quarterback Matt Rigdon went airborn, reaching the ball across the goalline after an eight-yard run to cut the score to 26-16 with 11:49 left to play.

After forcing NewCath to punt the ball back to them, Beechwood found some success through the air. Rigdon passed the Tiger offense down to the NewCath 32-yard line and then found sophomore Cameron Vocke on a catch and run for a 32-yard score making it 26-22 with 6:22 left.

The Tigers didn't get the defensive stop that they wanted, but they did finally force the Thoroughbreds to punt. Beechwood started their final drive from their own 15 with just 2:37 to play. Rigdon and wide receiver Cody Klug made things interesting when they connected on a 31-yard pass on the first play of the drive. The Tigers got all the way down to the 19, but with 14 seconds left Matt Rigdon's pass was picked off in the endzone by NewCath's Brian Doyle sealing the game.

"I used to always come to the games when I was little, watching the NewCath, Beechwood game," Hightchew said. "It's more of a playoff game to us. It's not really a regular season game."

Hightchew finished the game with 158 yards rushing and three scores. Kelly ran for 105 yards and one touchdown.

NewCath, now 5-5, will take on Carrol County in the first round of the playoffs in Newport.

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