The Bobcats took on the persona of head coach Dudley Hilton, and proved to be a hard working team as they outlasted the Chargers.
Bullitt East was battle tested. Their schedule included teams like Louisville Male, St. Xavier, and Highlands. Their record was scarred by five losses on the season, but those losses don’t matter anymore once the playoffs begin.
Bell County seemed to have an easy route to the State Championship game. No team came within 2 touchdowns of the Bobcats in the regular season. In fact, until the Regional Championship against Knox Central, no one in the playoffs had either. Bell County’s record was unblemished, and many wondered if they had faced tough enough competition to really prepare for this game.
Bullitt East brought Zach McCarthy with them. He’s a very talented running back that had to feel slighted that he isn’t a high profile award winning running back. McCarthy had rushed for almost 1200 yards on the season and 17 touchdowns. His partner in the backfield, Curtis Logsdon had rushed for just shy of 1200 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Bell County rode on the back of 1350 yard rusher, Spencer Greer and his 20 touchdowns. Along with Greer, a trio of Matt Simpson, Justin Goodin, and Dominic Carton brought another 1300 yards and 23 touchdowns with them.
Bullitt East wasn’t as one dimensional as many thought coming in. Over 14 games, quarterback Matthew Bowles had thrown for 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Bell County’s Shawnta Zachery had thrown for 1500 and 22 touchdowns.
These two teams were just about as evenly matched as you can get, sans the records of the respective schools. Both teams had appeared in one previous State Championship game, with Bullitt East losing to Danville in the 1994 2A finals, and Bell defeating Meade County in the 1991 3A finals.
This game wouldn’t be about who had more experience, talent, or any of that stuff. This game would be about who wanted it more. Who had the most will to win? Who could take advantage of the other team’s mistakes with the most efficiency?
It was Bullitt East stepping up first. Bell County drove the field on the first drive of the game with a mixture of runs between Goodin, Greer, Simpson, and Zachery. Bullitt East forced Bell County’s drive to stall at their 12 yard line. The highly acclaimed and award winning kicker for the Bobcats, Monte Merrick was called upon for the first score of the game. Kicking into the wind from 29 yards out proved to be too much as the kick sailed wide right, turning the ball over to Bullitt East at the 20 yard line.
Bobcat fans looked surprised when Zach McCarthy seemed to run through their defense like a knife through hot butter, gashing them 40 yards rushing on his first six carries. It’s hard enough to stop a premier back like McCarthy, but when you have to stop two premier backs and guess which one is getting the ball out of the Charger’s wishbone formation, it’s nearly impossible. Curtis Logsdon came in to give McCarthy a bit of a break and helped continue the Charger drive. After eating up eight and a half minutes, running 18 plays, McCarthy took the ball in from 1 yard out on the first play of the second quarter to give Bullitt East a 7-0 lead.
Enter Dominic Carton. The young man came into the game and instantly gave Bell County a shot of adrenaline with a big 37 yard run to the Charger 1 yard line. Had it not been for a Bullitt East defender getting just the tip of Carton’s shoe string, he would have scored. The Bobcats wished he had. After being stopped oon four tries from the one, they faced real adversity for maybe the first time this season, walking away with no points.
Enter Bell County’s defense. In the first quarter they had been pushed around by the Chargers offensive line. Still not dominating, they were starting to get penetration and force McCarthy and Logsdon to work harder for their yards. The Bobcats turned the Chargers away, forcing them to punt for the first time.
Bell County’s offense really could not find any rhythm in the first half. The usually sure handed Matt Raines and Matt Simpson dropped passes that would have been sure first downs, and Bell County was forced to punt. Coach Hilton pulled one out of the magic trick box and called for a fake punt. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, it went no where, setting up Bullitt East with unbelievably good field position at midfield.
After 2 or 3 running plays by McCarthy and Logsdon, quarterback Matthew Bowles went for it all, throwing a 40 yard pass toward the corner of the end zone. Matt Raines was there to break up the pass with his fingertips and keep the score at 7-0.
With a minute left in the half, Bell County got the ball back at around its own 20 yard line. A fake reverse allowed Spencer Greer to scamper for about 15 yards down the field. Zachery followed that by completing a pass to Matt Raines and then another to Cody Davenport, both of which got out of bounds to stop the clock. With ten seconds remaining, Bell County had time for one more play to set up Merrick for another field goal attempt, this time with the wind at his back. Zachery was chased out of the pocket and forced to run around. He finally found Davenport down field, but he couldn’t get out of bounds after the catch and time expired without the Bobcats getting to attempt the field goal.
Bullitt East led 7-0 at halftime and would get the ball back to start the second half.
The second half was a completely different story all together. Bell County’s defense came out fired up and ready to play typical Bobcat football. Shawnta Zachery intercepted a Bowles pass at the Bullitt East 32 yard line and Bell County was in business. Coach Hilton gave the Chargers a heavy dose of the Bobcat running attack with Justin Goodin getting the brunt of the carries, including a 9 yard run from the 17 down to the 8. Two plays later, Spencer Greer took the ball in from 4 yards out, and after a Merrick extra point, the score was tied at 7-7.
Bell County’s defensive line was finally getting penetration and putting pressure on the Charger running backs. Unfortunately, so was the Charger defensive line. The teams traded interceptions and punts for the rest of the quarter.
Merrick’s punt pinned Bullitt East deep in their own territory and Bell’s defensive line made a statement on the drive, pushing the Chargers further and further back toward their own end zone. Coach Doug Preston made a very risky call on third down and long, throwing a wide receiver screen in the end zone. Bell’s Keith Lowe blew the play up for a safety, giving Bell County a 9-7 lead; one that they would not relinquish.
Bell County’s defense was still dominating and it looked to be a typical fourth quarter for coach Hilton as he called on his stable of running backs to keep the ball moving and close out the game.
Starting at the Charger 46 yard line, Carton, Greer, and Goodin took turns running the ball. Greer got it inside the 10 yard line with six minutes left to play and nursing a 9-7 lead. In typical Shawnta Zachery form, he hit tight end John Dudley Hilton in the middle of the end zone for a Bobcat touchdown on 4th & goal from the nine. A missed extra point, gave Bell County a 15-7 lead with almost four minutes left to play.
Bullitt East had 120 yards of rushing in the first half of the ball game. Up to this point in the second half, Bell County’s defense had given up exactly 5 yards of offense to the Chargers. When you hear the word dominating, take it at face value, the Bobcats defense was dominating… up until that point.
With less than two minutes to go, Coach Preston unleashed quarterback Matthew Bowles and the Charger passing game. He completed a long pass to McCarthy at the 50 yard line, and followed that up with another to the Bell County 34 yard line with one minute and ten seconds to go. After 3 straight incomplete passes, the Chargers were forced to go for it on fourth down and under a minute on the clock.
The pass was long, and Bobcat defenders were there to tip the pass. Once again, McCarthy showed his worth to the offense, catching the tipped ball and diving toward the end zone. Luckily he was pushed out of bounds at the 1 yard line.
Bowles spiked the ball for some odd reason on first down, and then Adam Hearth and Logsdon were stuffed on consecutive plays to bring up fourth down and 1 from the 1 yard line. Not a person in Papa John’s Stadium had any doubt that would get the ball on fourth down with the outcome of the ball game swinging in the balance. It didn’t matter. McCarthy took the ball in from 1 yard out with 10 seconds left on the clock, Bell County leading 15-13.
Bullitt East went for two to tie the game but Zachery was there to break up the pass in the end zone.
They played Bell County football against every opponent they took on, never straying away from their game plan.
The result is an undefeated season, a second state championship, another notch in Coach Hilton’s belt, and a senior class that will forever be remembered on Log Mountain because they did it in usual Bobcat style; they did it their way.
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