St. Xavier depth wears down Red Devils 51-38

Aug. 21—One of the biggest worries Owensboro High School had going into its major season-opening game was how St. Xavier's depth might affect the Red Devils in the second half.

That depth, bigger players and more of them, made a significant difference in the fourth quarter of a 51-38 win at a packed Rash Stadium on a steamy Friday night.

"Something that I was concerned about all week, I think we were just overwhelmed by their depth in the second half," OHS coach Jay Fallin said. "I felt like we could compete with their ones, that would not be a problem. I thought that our ones were every bit as good as theirs. I was concerned that in the second half when it came time that we were going to have to ask some guys to play both ways, and we were going to have to ask some guys to play quite a bit, that their depth would overwhelm us. I think that was a big part of it.

"We got fatigued, we really are still trying to get our conditioning back from being on a 10-day quarantine less than a full week ago. That reared its head tonight."

Gavin Wimsatt was strong throwing the ball after he got settled in with the offense. The OHS senior hit 23-of-37 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns.

Wimsatt also ran for 58 yards on seven carries, including a 27-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Tramel Barksdale finished with 107 yards on 13 carries for OHS. Jeremiah Goodwin caught six passes for 125 yards and a touchdown.

OHS finished with 491 yards in total offense compared to 476 for St. X. The Tigers had 373 yards on the ground.

"For the offense to score 38 points against a team that averaged giving up barely in the double digits last year, I'm pretty pleased with this early in the season," Fallin said.

OHS spotted St. X a 17-0 lead but then started getting its own offense going in the second quarter.

Wimsatt found Goodwin with a 35-yard touchdown strike on fourth down with 5:48 to go before halftime to make it 17-7.

Barksdale went for a 22-yard power run touchdown with 1:11 left that was set up by a Kenyata Carbon interception.

St. X quarterback Jack Sivori answered right back with a 51-yard strike to Michael Duddy to push the Tigers back on top 24-14 wth 55.4 seconds left before halftime.

Wimsatt scored some style points on a 27-yard TD run, where the ball bounced away from him as he started upfield, then he caught it in stride, and zoomed around the corner to cut lead to 24-21 with 22.3 seconds left in the second quarter.

St. X fumbled the kickoff, OHS recovered and got an Andrew Lanz field goal to tie the score 24-24 going to intermission.

That score ended a flurry of three touchdowns and a field goal in 71 seconds of game time.

"Just keep fighting and find a way," Fallin said was the message to the Red Devils when they got in the early hole. "At that point we had sort of settled in on offense and had figured out what we could do to execute the ball down the field.

"Our guys bowed their necks and didn't give up, found a way to fight back."

St. X went to its power game in the third quarter, and it turned into a contest of matching touchdowns.

Duddy caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Sivori with 7:56 left in the third quarter to go up 31-24.

Wimsatt hit Khalil Rogers in the back corner of the end zone against double coverage to tie things up 31-31 two minutes later.

Duddy caught his third touchdown pass from Sivori, from 10 yards out, to go up 38-31 with 4:03 to go in the third quarter.

OHS had a 9-play drive stall out at the St. X 38. The Tigers put together a 9-play drive of its own and Sivori finished it with a 9-yard touchdown run for a 44-31 lead.

OHS got pinned back deep in its own territory on its next possession. St. X took advantage with a short drive and a 9-yard touchdown run from Austin Uhrhan for a 51-31 lead.

Barksdale caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Wimsatt to finish the scoring.

Sivori was a major force for St. X on the ground. The senior quarterback finished with 18 carries for 165 yards unofficially. He ran for touchdowns of 40 yards, nine yards and three yards.

Justin Walsh had 13 rushes for 91 yards. Mekhi Smith had 58 yards on the ground.

ST. XAVIER 14 10 14 13 — 51

OWENSBORO 0 24 7 7 — 38

St. X-Sivori 3 run (Wolford kick)

St. X-Sivori 40 run (Wolford kick)

St. X-Wolford 15 FG

O-Goodwin 35 pass from Wimsatt (Lanz kick)

O-Barksdale 22 run (Lanz kick)

St. X-Duddy 51 pass from Sivori (Wolford kick)

O-Wimsatt 27 run (Lanz kick)

O-Lanz 20 FG

St. X-Duddy 7 pass from Sivori (Wolford kick)

O-Rogers 20 pass from Wimsatt (Lanz kick)

St. X-Duddy 10 pass from Sivori (Wolford kick)

St. X-Sivori 9 run (kick failed)

St. X-Uhrhan 9 run (Wolford kick)

O-Barksdale 6 pass from Wimsatt (Lanz kick)