Beechwood Edges West Carter in Instant Classic

Troy Howellby:Troy Howell•12/12/20

High drama. A season of planning. Wild momentum swings. A battle of wits. A gutsy call. A seven-second scramble. A slip in the mud. A missed tackle. A controversial no-call. A pin-point throw from a Mr. Football candidate to decide the game.

And that’s just one play.

More on that later.

A warm December night in Olive Hill produced one of the best high school football games I have ever seen. The Beechwood Tigers jumped out to a 20-0 lead, fell behind 27-20, and rallied late to defeat West Carter in the 2A state semifinals. Beechwood was playing for a right to reach their 20th state final, West Carter was playing their first semifinal game in school history.

Senior QB Cam Hergott led the Tigers to touchdowns on their first three possessions. The first came on a 26-yard strike to Parker Mason. Then, after a West Carter punt, Hergott capped off a long, grueling drive with a 1-yard TD leap over the top to make it 14-0. The drive included a 4th down conversion in Tiger territory and Hergott trucking a defender a few plays later.

A West Carter fumble after a first down catch set up the Tiger’s 3rd scoring drive. Smelling blood, Hergott dropped in a 42-yard pass to Liam McCormack, who was tackled on the 1-yard line. Hergott punched it in to go up 20-0.  The extra point was no good.

Beechwood nearly put the game out of reach on their next drive, but Gage Leadingham knocked down Hergott’s fourth down pass in the end zone. Leadingham stayed down several minutes before being loaded into an ambulance.  Prayers for a speedy recovery for him.

Losing Leadingham, the Comets interception leader and the player that caught the hail mary pass to beat Russell, was a big loss for the Comets.  But they did rally after the nearly 20-minute delay and scored a touchdown before halftime.  Leetavious Cline’s hard running set up an 18-yard Orry Perry to Blake McGlone touchdown that made it 20-7 Beechwood at half.

The Comets were just getting started with their comeback.  Perry found junior WR Jackson Bond for a 21-yard TD pass on the opening drive of the 2nd half.  Bond became the all-time single season receiving leader on the play.  Perry is the school’s career passing leader.  The extra point failed due to a problem with the snap/hold.

After a successful onside kick, West Carter scored a TD for the 3rd drive in a row.  Cline, already the career all-time school rushing leader, gained his 2,000th career rushing yard on the drive.  He scored a 3-yard TD to bring West Carter to within 1 at 20-19.

“I have to give it all to my line,” Cline said. “They block so well. It’s the best line I’ve ever been behind.”

The two point-conversion failed.

Remember that.

Cline scored a 14-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, followed by a Perry-to-Bond 2-point conversion.  From the moment after Leadingham’s big play that led to his injury, West Carter had scored 27 unanswered. The Comets led 27-20 with 8:32 left.

“We just kept fighting,” Cline said. “We wanted to do it for our teammate Gage Leadingham. He went put and we just kept fighting for him.”

Beechwood quickly answered with a 34-yard TD pass from Hergott to McCormack. The PAT tied it at 27.

West Carter responded with a 31-yard Perry-to-Bond scoring pass with 5:02 left.

That’s when a question started being asked in the pressbox, on the Beechwood sideline, by me on Twitter, and all throughout the crowd: “If Beechwood scores will they go for two and the win?”

They did.

Hergott’s 44-yard pass to Brady Moore made it 35-34 West Carter to set the stage for the game’s biggest play.  Hergott then scrambled around, eluded a defender and hit Moore again for a 2-point conversion.

Coach and quarterback were both on the same page about going for the win.

“When we got the ball with about five minutes left, I got on the headset with the offensive staff and said we are going for two. That play we ran, we run every Thursday,” Beechwood Coach Noel Rash said about the two-point play. “We run a couple of versions of it. Cameron told us that if it’s not there, we will make a play.”

“We had to get the win,” Hergott said.  “I told my coach. I said we’re going for two. I’m getting this right now.”

“We were trying originally get it in the flats,” Moore said.  “But they covered it well and Hergott was able to scramble around like he always does.”

Was there a block in the back? You be the judge.

Moore helped seal the game with a pass break up on West Carter’s last possession, which stalled out in Comet territory

How was Beechwood able to withstand 27-straight Comet points? By staying composed and never wavering.

“There is never a doubt with my team” Hergott said. “If I’m the leader of the team I’m not going to have any guys doubt throughout the whole game. It doesn’t matter if we’re down 30 points. We are still going to fight to the finish.”

West Carter’s historic season ended 1 point short in the school’s first ever state semifinal game. Coach Daniel Barker and the seniors have put West Carter on the map.

Cline, a senior, finished with 200 yards and two scores on 36 carries. He also made several big plays on defense.  Perry, a senior, was 9-of-19 for 134 yards and three scores. Bond and McGlone each had four catches. Logan Berry had a big fourth down catch to set up a late score and Gavin Gibson had 11 tackles, including 3 for loss, and a sack.  With Leadingham missing from the back of the West Carter defense, it leaves many thinking what might have been.

Beechwood relied on Hergott all night. He was 18-for-22 for 287 yards and three scores.  He ran 20 times for 88 yards and two TDs, handing the ball off only three times. He is one of the leading contenders for Mr. Football.  McCormack had three catches for 92 yards. Mason tallied four catches for 76 yards.

The Tigers move on to play LCA at 3 p.m. Friday in the state semifinals at Kroger Field. LCA, who blew out Murray last night, has been ranked at the top of 2A in the KSR Prep Rankings for most of the season.  Beechwood has held steady at #2 since October.  The Tigers will be seeking their fourth state title in five years and 15th overall.  Hergott helped lead them to a state title as a sophomore. Last year Mayfield easily rolled past them in the semifinals

“It never gets old,” Rash said about going to the state finals. “It’s awesome. You’ve got to remember every year is a new year. That senior class always wants to go. It’s all about this group right now.”

The Tigers will certainly need to shore up their defense if they are going to slow down Drew Nieves, Xavier Brown, Mason Moore and the rest of LCA’s dynamic offense.

“I expect a monumental battle (LCA) is going to be really good,” Rash said.

KSR’s Game of the Week between the Beechwood Tigers and the West Carter Comets was an instant classic

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Posted by Kentucky Sports Radio on Saturday, December 12, 2020

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