The Pioneer football team headed to Lincoln County High School to take on the Casey County Rebels in the Death Valley Bowl. Casey County is a 3A school that dresses only 32 players on the roster; 7 of which play both offense and defense. Have to admit, Casey County leaves a bad taste in my mouth; it was their girls basketball team that kept SK from making the semifinals of the Sweet 16 in 2009. I know, different sport ancient history.
Back to football, on paper, it looked like SK had a good chance for a season opening win. Unfortunately for SK, Alex Bolin would get the Rebels on the board first with a 79 yard run for the touchdown. The extra point was good.
SK would get good field position after Trey Pinkleton took the ball to midfield. SK sophomore quarterback Brennan Kuntz would get SK on the scoreboard with a 6 yard touch down. The extra point attempt failed.
Kuntz would direct the Pioneer offense to a lead with a 31 yard toss to Jared Swanson. The two point conversion would be good as SK would take 14-7 lead into half-time.
Half-time notes: The downside for SK at half-time was the offense from Alex Bolin who racked up over 100 yards of rushing the first half. Kuntz started off 3-3 but went 1-6 for his next 7 attempts. Nate Powell had 3 first half carries for 29 yards. The Neers moved the ball pretty well but had some penalties that stalled a couple of drives off. SK got some decent punts from Tyler Smith who helped win the field position game for SK.
On the opening drive of the second half, SK got a nice return for some strong field position. Unfortunately on the first play from scrimmage, Nate Powell got popped after reaching the first down yard marker and coughed up the pig. Worst than the fumble was the fact that Powell was banged up on the play after just returning to regular action this week. Powell would return but you hate seeing him get banged up again after just returning to the field this eek. The Rebels best starting field position of the game was short lived as SK recovered a fumble on the Casey County 46. The Pioneers would stretch their lead to 21-7 after a Trey Pinkleton touchdown of 5 yards with just under 8 minutes to go in the third quarter. After Casey County started moving the ball late in the third, they would turn the ball over on a botched handoff. Prosperity would be short lived as Kuntz would throw his first interception of the season on the first play after the turnover. SK would extend their lead after another Kuntz to Swanson connection of 21 yards. The extra point would fail once again and SK leads 27-7. Casey would turn the ball over on a fumble with 6:46 left in the game for their third turnover of the half. SK would keep the ball on the ground as Casey County had burned all of their timeouts. After failing to move the ball, a high snap would travel into the endzone for a Casey County safety. The Rebels would make their 4th miscue of the half as they gave away the free kick after the safety. Nate Powell would finish off the Rebels with a 13 yard touchdown with under two minutes to go. The extra point would be good this time as SK extends the lead to 34-9. Unbelievably, Casey County would fumble the ball the fifth time of the half with under 30 seconds to go. Kuntz came out to run one play by taking a knee as the final horn sounded.
While certainly not a pretty game, it was a nice way to start the season for a young team with so many new personnel in key positions. SK will need to get some things cleaned up as they take on state “A” power in Beechwood next week in the Crosstown Showdown next Friday night at Dixie Heights.
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