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Western (10-3) 14 7 3 7 31
Martha Layne Collins (11-2) 0 7 0 19 26

Western – Kenneth Simmons 85 kickoff return (Miguel Fernandez kick); Western – Kenyon Young 21 run (Fernandez kick); Western – Jacorey Ritchie 4 run (Fernandez kick); Collins – Tavis Elzy 17 pass from Branden Cresap (Austin Nakatani kick); Western – Fernandez 32 FG; Collins – Elzy 10 pass from Cresap (Nakatani kick); Western – Ritchie 34 run (Fernandez kick); Collins – Darian Dugle 3 run (kick failed); Collins – Andrew Page 32 pass from Cresap (pass failed).


SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — LaVell Boyd called his Western High football squad “a team of destiny.”

Now the Warriors are destined for their first trip to the state semifinals.

Kenneth Simmons returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, Jacorey Ritchie rushed for 170 yards and two TDs and Western held off a late rally to beat Collins 31-26 on Friday in the Class 4-A, Region Two championship game.

Western (10-3) lost regional finals in 2005 and '09 but now will get to host Allen County-Scottsville next week with a trip to the state final on the line.

“One team, one dream, do it for the ring,” Boyd said. “They believe it. Now we just have to win one more to get to the state championship game.”

Boyd and several assistant coaches and players shed tears after the victory. Western lost to visiting Marion County 31-24 in last year's regional final, and many players considered Friday's win redemption.

Collins senior quarterback Branden Cresap completed 37of66 passes for 440 yards and three touchdowns and nearly brought his team all the way back from a 31-14 deficit midway through the fourth quarter.

Wide receiver Tavis Elzy battled a quadriceps injury to haul in 14 passes for 213 yards and two TDs, but it wasn't enough for Collins to overcome an early 21-0 deficit.

“I thought it was midway through the second quarter before we started looking like ourselves,” said Collins coach Jerry Lucas, whose first-year program finished 11-2.

Simmons took the opening kickoff 85 yards for a TD, setting the tone for the Warriors.

“All week long we talked about, ‘We're going to somebody else's house. We have to hit them in the mouth first,'” Boyd said. “We couldn't give them an opportunity to get momentum.”

Collins immediately drove the length of the field, but Darian Dugle fumbled into the end zone and Western's Leon Melvin recovered.


The Warriors scored on their next two possessions, getting TD runs from Kenyon Young (21 yards) and Ritchie (4 yards) to take a 21-0 lead at the 10:17 mark of the second quarter.

Ritchie's second TD run, a 34-yarder, made it 31-14 with 7:28 left in the fourth quarter and seemed to put the game away.

But Dugle's 3-yard TD run pulled Collins within 31-20 with 5:17 left, and the Titans followed with their third onside-kick recovery of the night. Cresap's third TD pass — a 26-yarder to Andrew Page — made it 31-26 with 3:46 left.

Elzy and Page (nine catches, 105 yards) were Cresap's main targets with No.2 receiver Ben Axline out with a knee injury suffered last week.

“It's hard to go 12 games and then lose a kid like Axline and then have to make the adjustment,” Lucas said. “It's one thing if it happens Week 4 … but all of a sudden you're scrambling.”

Western recovered the next onside kick but was forced to punt.

Collins took over at its 8-yard line with 2:53 left and drove to the Western 29 inside the final minute. But on third down Cresap was hit and fumbled, and Western's Jamal Harbin recovered to seal the victory.

Now Western will represent the Louisville area in next week's 4-A semifinals.

“I was scared, I was nervous,” Boyd said of Collins' late rally. “I was saying, ‘This can't be. The kids have played their hearts out.' But I knew God wouldn't forsake us. I knew we were going to win.”

http://www.highschoolsports.net/gamestat...sity/Boys/