The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
KCD unable to solve Raceland’s defense in Class A semifinal loss
Head coach Matthew Jones looked his Kentucky Country Day football players in their teary eyes after their quest for the Class A state championship came to an end Friday night and told them, “It’s supposed to hurt.”
This one hurt a lot.
The Bearcats (11-3) on their home turf fell to Raceland (11-3) in a running-clock blowout, 42-6.
The loss marked KCD’s lowest-scoring game since it reached the Class A title game for the first time in school history and fell to Paintsville, 38-7, on Dec. 18, 2020.
The Rams’ 42 points were the most surrendered by the Bearcats’ defense since a 46-18 loss to Eastern on Aug. 19, 2022.
“They’re just an outstanding team,” Jones said of Raceland, which will kick off against Pikeville at noon next Friday, Dec. 1, at Kroger Field in a rematch of last season’s Class A championship.
The Rams took control of this one at the 9:22 mark of the first quarter, when quarterback Logan Lundy went over the top to fellow senior Brody Austin for a 36-yard touchdown pass on fourthand-7.
Senior wideout Parker Fannin made it 14-0 with a 59-yard touchdown on a screen pass from Lundy with 10:18 to play in the second quarter. Raceland entered halftime leading 21-0 thanks to a 51-yard run by senior Noah Wallace, who fumbled the ball at the goal line only to have a teammate, freshman Jonah Arnett, recover the loose ball in the end zone.
KCD, meanwhile, couldn’t get much going offensively.
The Bearcats’ six drives before the break ended in five punts and one lost fumble. They had two first downs; and their biggest play of the half not aided by a penalty on the Rams was a 6-yard pass from Ethan Harris to Cam Edwards.
They did themselves no favors on the penalty front, either.
The only time KCD got the ball into Raceland territory, reaching the Rams’ 27 midway through the first quarter, it was flagged twice for false starts and ended up punting on fourth-and-13 from the 36.
The Bearcats finally got on the scoreboard with a 45-yard run by sophomore Maclean Cantley with 6:06 to play in the third quarter. But at that point, it was too little, too late.
Their only truly promising drives of the second half ended with a fumble in Raceland territory and a turnover on downs at the Rams’ 3-yard line.
“We needed to play a clean game,” Jones said, “and we didn’t.”
Raceland added three more touchdowns in the second half — a 9-yard run from Wallace, a 16-yard run by Isaac Browning and a 9-yard pass from Lundy to sophomore Bryson Rowsey — to initiate the KHSAA’s runningclock rule with 9:14 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Rams are hopeful the offense carries over to next week’s championship game.
Last year, they scored only one touchdown in a 41-9 loss to Pikeville. And when the teams met earlier this season, coach Michael Salmons’ team reached the end zone only once but walked away with a 7-6 victory.
“We all know how the last season ended,” Salmons said. “We don’t talk about it; it’s not, like, about revenge. It’s just about us trying to be the best version of ourselves.”
Lundy, however, said the loss has lingered.
Because, as Jones told his KCD team, it’s supposed to hurt.
“Last year, we had the expectation to get there. We didn’t win, so I feel like this year our expectation from the summer on was to get there and win,” he said. “We’ve got a rivalry brewing.
“I’m not celebrating too much right now,” he added. “I know the job’s not done.”
This season marked only the third time in KCD history the Bearcats have reached the Class A semifinals.
Jones credited his seniors with making it possible.
“Our kids do so much on the field, off the field, in the classroom. They worked their butts off in the weight room,” the coach said. “They do everything we ask them to do.”