Dixie Heights Dominates Woodford County in Kroger KSR Game of the Week
Woodford County football ended the 2022 season in the third round of the Class 5A playoffs. A heartbreaking 21-7 loss to eventual state champion Frederick Douglass left a burning feeling in the hearts of Woodford County’s players. Dixie Heights ended their 2022 season with an absolute mauling at the hands of Ballard in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs.
Now, Dixie Heights is in 5A, and Woodford County looked to defend their class on Friday night against the Colonels in the opening round of the 2023 postseason. With everything pointing to the Yellow Jackets and their revenge tour, it was the team in red and white that played spoiler and moves on to the second round.
Dixie Heights faces early test
Dixie Heights and junior quarterback Armani Gregg came into Falling Springs Park and punched Woodford County in the mouth.
Gregg and stud senior linebacker/running back Brach Rice shined all throughout the night. When Rice and Gregg ran the ball in the sub-50-degree weather, it looked harsh. Every offensive play for Dixie Heights involved a red helmet powering through multiple Yellow Jackets. Gregg spent the entire first half flashing his beautiful spiral and powerful arm behind center. He flashed the most with a game-tying touchdown throw to senior Hudson Blank early in the first quarter.
Gregg followed up that throw with another dime in the first quarter for six more, this time to senior speedster Kabanza Mwamba. After the touchdown, Woodford County seemingly felt the pressure as they bobbled the kickoff back to Dixie Heights. However, Gregg made his lone mistake of the game, throwing an interception to Woodford County junior Justus Wertzler, who doubles as the team’s quarterback.
Woodford’s dynamic signal-caller followed his beautiful defensive play with a huge touchdown toss to tie the game. Freshman Omani Jointer beat the press coverage of Dixie Heights as he took a 15-yard reception from Wertzler into the end zone. Tie ballgame at 14-14, seemingly aiming towards a dogfight for the ages.
Dixie Heights begins to dominate
Dixie responded to the Woodford fight with a fumble, giving the ball right back to the surging Yellow Jackets. However, the Colonels’ defense held strong, getting the ball back to their explosive offense. Brach Rice did what he does best, running for his second touchdown of the game to grab the lead from Woodford County. Then, Woodford County fumbled the ball right back to Dixie Heights, the second of many more turnovers to come for the Yellow Jackets.
With just 18 seconds remaining before halftime, Woodford County decided to call a timeout in an attempt to regain possession of the ball. Dixie, on the other hand, employed a Wildcat formation with Rice, resulting in a spectacular 60-yard touchdown run. With this run, Dixie took a 34-14 lead into halftime on the back of a 20-0 scoring run in the second quarter.
Dixie Heights head coach Pat Burke said postgame, “We felt like if we could put two solid units of football together (offense and defense), then we could be a very good football team.” He continued, “We’ve been close to that this year. It clicked tonight, it clicked tonight.”
The second half was more of the same for Dixie Heights as a combination of three more forced turnovers and domination on offense led to the 60-14 final score. This one was over from halftime on. An absolute statement to the rest of Kentucky from the Colonels.
Injuries and future matchups
With Dixie Heights’ big win, they will take on Highlands next week in round two of the 5A playoffs. Highlands defeated South Oldham 43-0 on Friday, continuing their great season.
Highlands is 9-1 on the year including a 51-21 road statement win over Dixie Heights in September. That loss still burns in the hearts of Dixie, as they seemingly hunger for revenge. Even in KSR’s postgame interview with Coach Burke, he mentioned the matchup with Highlands multiple times. It’s clear that the Bluebirds have the attention of Dixie, and the state should be eager for the 5A rematch.
For Woodford County, it was a story of injuries. By the time Friday night’s game reached halftime, it seemed every experienced player on Woodford was dealing with something.
Star cornerback Makhi Smith missed the action as he was out for the year with an ACL injury. Star linebacker Darrian Tomlin exited the game in the first half with an injury. By the time the second half rolled around most of Woodford’s players were freshmen.
“Overall, a lot of injuries hurt us, and we didn’t perform when we needed to,” Woodford County head coach Dennis Johnson said. “At some point we had to put in younger kids in a position to help now rather than the future. You can’t make excuses you gotta go play, it seemed to just be our fate this year.”
Dixie Heights will look to continue its domination in hopes of making it to Kroger Field, while it’s back to the drawing board for the Yellow Jackets as they prepare for 2024.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard