Alec Brothers intercepts the ball for DeSales against Fern Creek.
As the DeSales High School football team now prepares for district play, the Colts showed just what they could achieve by dominating visiting North Hardin on both sides of the ball in a41-14 victory Friday night.
The Class 2-A Colts (5-1) gained 272 of their 345 yards on the ground against the 6-A Trojans (5-2) as eight different players ran the ball a total of 52 times. Sophomore Carlos Ordway led the DeSales with 104 yards on 14 carries, and senior Austin Tharp added 63 yards on nine carries, including two scores.
“We just played to our potential today,” said Tharp, who added another score on a 5-yard pass from Brayden Recktenwald. “We played great.”
The Colts set the tone early, using a long return from Alec Brothers on the opening kickoff to set up in Trojan territory. They needed just four plays to go 46 yards, with Tharp’s 3-yard run giving them the early lead just 1:24 into the game.
The DeSales defense rose to the occasion numerous times, especially against the pass. The Colts allowed the Trojans to complete only five of their first 17 passes, limiting them to just two yards through the air while intercepting two passes as well in that span.
Cornerback Joe Sims, who registered one of the picks, said they knew the Trojans like to throw the ball and came in prepared.
“We’re always ready to play, no matter who we play against, and we’re just trying to get better every single week,” the senior said.
While North Hardin struggled in the air early, DeSales’ Recktenwald didn’t. The senior completed six of his first eight passes for 59 yards and two scores, helping DeSales take a 23-7 halftime lead. In all, the Colts scored 27 straight points to put the game away as Recktenwald finished with 73 yards passing on 7 of 11 attempts.
North Hardin used a roughing the kicker penalty to set-up a 31-yard touchdown run by Eric Moore, which cut the DeSales lead to 14-7 with 11:02 remaining in the first half. However, the Trojans never threatened again.
The Colts held the Trojans to just five first downs before they tallied four more on their final scoring drive, which came with 3:49 left in the game.
The Colts still held North Hardin to 119 yards of total offense, including the final drive. While DeSales coach Harold Davis wasn’t happy giving up the final touchdown, he still came away impressed.
“They got a ton of athletes (on offense), so to be able to play them the way we did defensively… we played pretty well,” he said.
But DeSales also got some help from their guests. Besides getting two interceptions, the Colts also scored on a safety when the ball was snapped out of the endzone on a punt attempt. In addition, North Hardin racked up 12 penalties for 135 yards.
After winning four of five games against Class 5-A and 6-A competition this season, the Colts begin Class 2-A, District Four play next week when they host Christian Academy next Friday night.
| North Hardin | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | – | 14 |
| DeSales | 14 | 9 | 10 | 8 | – | 41 |
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
DeSales – Austin Tharp 3 run (Noah Herbert kick) 10:36
DeSales – Dustin Hollenkamp 14 pass from Brayden Recktenwald (Herbert kick) 1:19
2nd Quarter
North Hardin – Eric Moore 31 run (Analu Rugerio kick) 11:02
DeSales – Herbert 20 FG 3:35
DeSales – Tharp 5 pass from Recktenwald (kick failed) :38
3rd Quarter
DeSales – Hebert 22 FG 4:26
DeSales – Mitch Sirohman 6 run (Hebert kick)
4th Quarter
DeSales – Safety, punt snapped out of the end zone 11:19
DeSales – Tharp 22 run (kick failed) 7:25
North Hardin – Donte Blount 11 pass from Moore (Rugerio kick) 3:49
| North Hardin | DeSales | |
| Total yards | 116 | 345 |
| First downs | 9 | 20 |
| Rushes-yds. | 20-50 | 52-272 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 9-22-2 | 7-11-0 |
| Passing yards | 69 | 73 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Penalties-yds. | 12-135 | 6-60 |
| Punts-avg. | 5-32.2 | 1-34 |