When the St. Xavier defense delivered another red zone stop late in the fourth quarter Friday night at Male High School, the Tigers’ student section went on the offensive.
“Like last time!the students yelled in unison, their cheers echoing through an otherwise silent Veterans Memorial Stadium.
In a rematch of the 2021 Class 6A State Championship, St. X once again prevailed over the Bulldogs, 24-10. The Tigers improved to 3-0 with their 15th straight win and 800th overall in program history.
“This is just a barometer of where we are,” St. X head coach Kevin Wallace said after the game. “(If) we play again in November, we’re all going to be totally different. I mean, you don’t know what injuries are going to do; you don’t know how people mature (or) how well they’re playing in November, so those are the ones that you really remember, the ones that come in the playoffs. We want to keep getting better as a football team.”
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With the loss, Male dropped to 1-2 on the season and lost consecutive games for the first time since 2012. The Bulldogs are 0-2 against St. X since beating the Tigers 28-21 in Week 3 of the Regular season 2021.
“We’ve got a lot to do with nine new starters on offense and I think seven on defense,” coach Chris Wolfe said. “I wanted to see our guys fight for four quarters. I saw some of that; we struggled, we just couldn’t finish, so this is just a starting point for us.”
Both teams have byes in Week 4 and face tough road matchups when they return to the field. Male travels to Trinity on September 16, while St. X crosses the Ohio River to play Cincinnati’s Elder High School.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
St. X defense makes the difference
Friday’s state championship rematch was a defensive battle from the start, with Male’s Demetrius Dunlap intercepting St. X quarterback Trevor Havill’s second pass of the game and returning it 75 yards for a touchdown.
That was the only time the Bulldogs got to the end zone, but not for lack of trying. Bending but not breaking, the Tigers allowed Male’s offense inside their 10-yard line a couple of times, but only allowed a field goal.
“We were all locked in,” said St. X senior defensive end Micah Carter, a Purdue member who masterminded a pair of key pass deflections at the line of scrimmage. “We had the same goal, so we were all trying to get there. That motivated us to play.”
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The first of Carter’s deflections capped perhaps the most important sequence of the first half. Trailing 17-7 with less than two minutes left at halftime, Male’s offense reached the St. X 4-yard line with backup quarterback Kolter Smith under center. On third-and-goal, Carter knocked Smith’s pass to the ground, forcing the Bulldogs to settle for three points.
The Tigers scored 17 unanswered points and limited Male to just four first downs before intermission thanks in large part to his secondary.
Three different defenders – Christian Coleman, Kanon Williams and Jack Fitzgerald – took out Male’s starting quarterback Lucas Cobler during the first half. The St. X offense took over Bulldog territory and put points on the board after every serve.
“It was a beautiful feeling,” Carter said of his secondary’s big plays. “I started blocking. I was so happy. I was too tired to show it, but I was happy.”
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In the fourth quarter, Henry Murr had fun with the Tigers’ fourth interception. On one of, if not the fastest, scoring drives of the game, St. X marched down the field and extended their lead to two touchdowns on a goal-line run by senior Adam Boone.
“I’ve said all summer that it’s the fastest secondary I’ve coached at St. X,” Wallace said. “I think we did a great job breaking the ball up tonight.”
Tigers beat Bulldogs in running game, set Havill at QB
Male entered Friday’s game averaging 218.5 rushing yards per contest. Against St. X, Daniel Swinney and the Bulldogs running game were limited to just 61 yards on 23 carries.
The Tigers, on the other hand, racked up 191 rushing yards behind a three-head rotation of running backs: Davis Yates, Dontre Richardson and Michael Curry.
“We’re great up front on the offensive line,” Wallace said. “If those guys continue to get better, I like our running backs. That’s going to be our bread and butter.”
On the quarterback front, Wallace turned to Havill for the second straight start after also including Boone, who started the season-opening win against Owensboro, as a possibility on the depth chart. Boone’s only play under center Friday was a QB tie at the goal line with less than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
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“He came out last week,” Boone said of Havill, who threw for 95 yards and three touchdowns in St. X’s win over Central. “I took my role as a wide receiver and I was just trying to make plays where I am on the field.”
Havill, a junior, completed 5 of his 9 pass attempts Friday for just 62 yards, but one of those completions went to Boone for a 5-yard touchdown. With St. X dominating the field and winning the turnover battle, Wallace didn’t need much from his starting quarterback, except to get past the pick-6 he threw in the first quarter.
Another option emerges for Male at quarterback
After Cobler’s third interception of the first half, Wolfe turned on Smith under center. The junior proceeded to lead the Bulldogs in their most efficient drive of the half, which didn’t end with a touchdown, but at least helped St. X.
Smith and Cobler traded snaps, sometimes during the same ride, for the rest of the night. Combined, they completed 16 of 26 passing attempts for 105 yards.
Despite the loss, Wolfe praised both quarterbacks after the game: Smith for providing energy off the bench and Cobler for calming down after his three first-half picks.
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Cobler, a senior, played in the entirety of Male’s 12-7 loss at Ballard in Week 2, but going forward, Wolfe said he hopes to regularly add Smith to the Bulldogs’ offense.
“They’re both great guys. They both work very hard,” Wolfe said. “I think we will have a package for both of them and try to improve what they do.”
Contact sportswriter Brooks Holton about recruiting and trends at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @brooksHolton.