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The Bowling Green Purple was the visiting team in the final game of the inaugural Youth Bluegrass Bowl, facing host Lexington Catholic in what would turn out to be a classic smash mouth football game at Joseph K. Ford Field this past Saturday afternoon. 

 

Lexington Catholic’s 8th grade team started off the game with the ball, but turned it over on downs after just four plays. The Purple promptly drove down field and scored to take a six to nothing lead, but were denied on the two point conversion attempt. After the ensuing kickoff, the Knights still couldn’t get much offense going. They worked their way downfield, but turned the ball back over to Bowling Green after getting all the way to the red zone. However, BG was backed up against their own end zone, and after a running play to gain a little breathing room was snuffed out, the defense decided it was time to put some points on the board for Catholic.

 

The Purple’s QB takes the snap and is quickly met and tackled in the endzone by Shelton “Sausage” Sawyer (#40) and Chris Noll (#85) for the safety. Your Knights are on the board, 6-2, and Bowling Green kicks off after the safety.  Coach Whitman’s offense finally gets things going and marches downfield, scoring a touchdown on a nice second effort run by Anthony Kersey (#23), who stretched the ball out across the goal line just before being tackled. Your score now is 10-6, but Bowling Green isn’t done by a long shot. The Purple take the kickoff and engineer a drive to score again, and kicked the extra point this time, for a 13-10 lead. Not to be outdone, the Knights also engineer a drive to score and take an 18-13 lead into halftime.

 

That would be the extent of the scoring for the day, as Bowling Green maintained possession of the ball for the entire third quarter, and a good chunk of the fourth as well. The 3rd and 4th quarters saw plenty of smash mouth football, with both teams trying to run over the other sides defenses. The Purple did attempt to go to the air a few times in the fourth quarter, and threatened to take the lead at one point. However, the Knight’s Nick Nash (#24) came up with a big interception in the end zone to negate those six points.  

 

In the fourth quarter with only a minute to go, Bowling Green is threatening to score again. On 4th & 5 at about the 15 yard line, they decide to go for the first down. The Purple Quarterback takes the snap and finds a receiver in the flat with only LB Chris Noll between him and a first down, and potentially the end zone as well. Mr. Noll closes the gap and drops the receiver well behind the first down marker, and LC takes over on downs. But that wasn’t quite Gatorade bath time for Coach Whitman.

 

LC runs through three of their four downs, and have their backs against the wall. With 11 seconds to go, 4th and 6, ball on the 24 and in dire need of a first down, Bolin takes the snap, rolls out to his right behind his offensive line, and spots Casey Nash just beyond the first down marker. The arm of Bolin delivers the ball right in the numbers as Nash is knocked out of bounds to stop the clock. But it’s enough for a first down, and the Knights keep the ball.

 

After the chains get moved, LC lines up in the coveted Victory Formation. Bolin takes the snap, drops to a knee, and seals the 18-13 victory.