LIBERTY — Bell County proved a point Friday night at Casey County.

The Bobcats went on the road and controlled the line of scrimmage in a convincing 44-13 victory over the Rebels.

It’s the first loss of the season for Casey County (5-1, 1-1), and head coach Steve Stonebraker said that it was a dominant display from the visitors on the line of scrimmage.

“They did a better job blocking and tackling than we did, that’s what it came down to,” he said. “That will do you in almost every time.  You’ve got to give Bell County credit for dominating the line of scrimmage and tackling so well on defense.”

Bell County entered Friday’s game with the least points allowed in Class 3A. That defense would be tough for the Rebels to crack. Offensively, the Bobcats took care of business early in the game.

Bell had three rushing touchdowns and one through the air in the first half and converted every two-point conversion, taking a 32-6 lead into halftime. The Bobcats’ first possession was entirely running plays until quarterback Logan Stephney found Jason Jones in the back of the end zone for an 11-yard score.

Casey would get on the board in the second quarter with a pass from wide receiver Reece Brown to Zach Todd from six yards away. Brown took a handoff and Todd made a grab at the one yard line before barrelling into the end zone.

At halftime, Stonebraker said he and his coaches challenged their team.

“We just told them that they had to man up a little bit,” he said. “We weren’t playing football to the best of our ability, but we also had some guys that weren’t giving their best effort. We had guys that were, but we had guys who needed to suck it up a little bit more. The guys that were in there at the end of the game, I’m very, very proud of them. We had a lot of guys that played quite a bit both ways tonight, had some guys who had some good performances despite what was on the scoreboard.”

Casey’s defense stepped up, allowing 12 points in the final 24 minutes, but the Rebels’ offense couldn’t generate points. Bell enacted a running clock with 11:17 left in the fourth quarter. After the score, the Bobcats recovered an onside kick and worked more time off the clock.

Brown would again throw a touchdown pass on another trick play — this time to Micah Pendleton — for the final score of the game.

“Reece Brown would be the guy who stands out at free safety,” Stonebraker said. “He made a ton of tackles tonight and I thought he got his feet in position to make a lot of plays for us.”

Brown finished with nine tackles, had two catches for 39 yards and threw for two scores.

Star running back Preston Tucker, who missed last week with a hip injury, was back but not at 100 percent against Bell. He finished with nine runs for 47 yards and had one catch for five yards.

It’s the first loss of the year for Casey but Stonebraker said there’s plenty of time for his team to rebound.

“Sometimes when you play in a tough district this is going to happen,” he said. “We definitely didn’t play our best game tonight and Bell County played awfully well.  They were able to control the game by controlling the line of scrimmage.

“There’s a lot of season left. One game can’t define your season. We’ve got to put this game behind us and move forward, the good thing now is these guys realize that there’s room for improvement. We’ve got to get better. We’ll have some specific things that everybody can get better with and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

 

Casey       0 6    0 7 -13

Bell          8 24  6 6 -44

 

1st Quarter:

BC – Jason Jones 11 pass from Logan Stephney (Trevor Kidd run)

 

2nd Quarter:

BC – Colby Frazier 44 run (Kidd run)

CC – Zach Todd 6 pass from Reece Brown (run failed)

BC – Frazier 46 run (Tanner Asher run)

BC – Kidd 46 run (Logan Stephney run)

 

3rd Quarter:

BC – Frazier 8 run (run failed)

 

4th Quarter:

BC – Kidd 13 pass from Stephney (run failed)

CC – Micah Pendleton 15 Reece Brown (Nick Wilkerson kick)

 

                                         BC CC

First Downs                     23            12

Rushes – Yards             42-307            14-125

Fumbles-Lost                  2-1             0-0

Att/Comp/INT              9/5/0             21/14/1

Passing Yards                   47           115

 

Casey County Rushing:

Preston Tucker (9-47); Austin Campbell (11-19); Brown (2-8)

 

Casey County Passing:

Campbell (19/12/94/1); Brown (2/2/21/0)

 

Casey County Receiving:

Todd (5-47); Brown (2-39); Pendleton (3-33); Tucker (1-5);  Haden Bastin (3-1)

 

Casey County Defensive Stats:

A.J. Glenn – 10 total tackles

Reece Brown – 9 total tackles

Austin Campbell – 5 total tackles; 1 pass breakup

Logan Stephens – 5 total tackles

Charlie Grider – 5 total tackles

Haden Bastin – 4 total tackles

Ethan Ammons – 4 total tackles

Gabe Singleton – 4 total tackles

Collin Iski – 3 total tackles

Zach Todd – 2 total tackles

Adam Price – 2 total tackles

Andrew Mercer – 2 total tackles

Keegan Hansford – 2 total tackles

Cody Publow – 1 total tackle; 1 onside kick recovery

Logan Combs – 1 total tackle