BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Contained nearly all night by a stingy St. Xavier High School defense, Bowling Green star Jamale Carothers needed just one play to break loose and break the Tigers’ backs.
Carothers took a swing pass from Clark Payne for a 35-yard touchdown to break open a tight game and the Purples’ defense did the rest in a 31-10 victory over St. X on Friday in a matchup of state powers.
Carothers, a senior running back who has committed to Navy, is considered among the top early-season candidates for Kentucky’s Mr. Football award but was limited to 13 rushing yards on 16 carries.
With St. X dominating the line of scrimmage, according to Purples coach Kevin Wallace, Carothers was able to find another way to impact the game with eight receptions for 80 yards.
“We think we can do enough things to get him the ball in space,” Wallace said. “As a group, this may be the best skill kids we’ve had.”
Bowling Green (3-0) – ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 5-A – avenged its only loss from last season and improved to 72-3 over its past 75 games.
The Purples rushed for just 21 yards on 24 carries, but senior quarterback Clark Payne completed 24 of 36 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior running back Sam Taylor rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries to lead St. X (1-1), ranked No. 3 in Class 6-A.
“We were not able to execute on the offensive side of the ball,” Tigers coach Will Wolford said. “At times we did, but we were never able to put it together consistently enough to compete with a team as good as they are. And they’re really good.”
Bowling Green junior Devan Johnson blocked a pair of St. X punts in the first half to set up a pair of Purples scores.
After the first blocked punt, Payne found Luke Brown for a 12-yard touchdown pass that gave the Purples a 7-0 lead at the 8:47 mark of the first quarter. The second blocked punt set up a Lee Ramsey 31-yard field goal that made it 17-7 at the 9:53 mark of the second quarter.
“They weren’t even rushing it that hard,” Wolford said of the blocked punts. “They were only rushing two guys and were able to get a finger on two of them. It wasn’t very good on our end. We adjusted to it, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
Owen Johnson’s 28-yard field goal pulled the Tigers within 17-10 in the second quarter, and the teams swapped punts for much of the third.
But Carothers finally put his stamp on the game, taking Payne’s swing pass down the right sideline for a 24-10 lead with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.
Payne’s final TD pass – a 23-yarder to Deangelo Wilson on a fourth-down play – made it 31-10 with 3:23 remaining.
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.
ST. XAVIER 7 3 0 0 – 10
BOWLING GREEN 14 3 7 7 – 31
BG – Luke Brown 12 pass from Clark Payne (Lee Ramsey kick); SX – Sam Taylor 7 run (Owen Johnson kick); BG – Jamale Carothers 1 run (Ramsey kick); BG – Ramsey 31 FG; SX – Johnson 28 FG; BG – Carothers 35 pass from Payne (Ramsey kick); BG – Deangelo Wilson 23 pass from Payne (Ramsey kick).
SX BG
First downs 16 14
Total yards 242 279
Rushes-yards 45-169 24-21
Comp-Att-Int 8-18-1 27-39-0
Passing yards 73 258
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-0
Punts-avg 7-29 7-42
Penalties-yards 3-59 2-37