Perfect Simon Kenton tops Scott

TAYLOR MILL, Ky. – Simon Kenton finished off its second undefeated regular season with a 44-13 win over Scott at Eagles Stadium on Friday.

Not only was it the second unbeaten regular season in Pioneers history, it was also the school’s second perfect regular season in the past three years.

Although the focus is now on the postseason.

“It’s a fresh start and this is the most important part of the season, we’re happy to get out without a loss on our record and for our seniors this is the second time we’ve done it they went 10-0 as sophomores but we lost in the region finals and hopefully that leaves a bad taste in their mouth,” said head coach Jeff Marksberry.

The Pioneers (10-0) rolled to a 35-0 lead at halftime and dominated Scott (8-2) on both sides of the ball.

At the half, Simon Kenton had 259 yards while the Eagles had just 94, and the Pioneers had a balanced attack with 123 passing yards from junior quarterback Cameron Racke and 136 rushing yards from several runners at the midway point.

“We’re deep at every position and we can sub people out and not have any problem,” Racke said.

Senior running back Dillon Powell scored the game’s first two touchdowns, bringing his season total to 20 rushing scores, and then sophomore Will Parks took over with two first half scores of his own.

Racke accounted for the other two Pioneers scores, one passing and one rushing, before yielding way to sophomore Matt Shearer.

“It’s rough sometimes (not playing all four quarters) but we love going 10-0 and you can’t ask for anything else,” Racke said.

While the Simon Kenton offense has been outstanding, the defense has been just as good, as this was the eighth consecutive game in which it has held their opponents to 15 points or fewer.

“They really have fun and play with a swagger, our front three are really hard to block and they allow our linebackers to run to the football and our secondary has done a tremendous job of taking the ball away,” Marksberry said.

The Pioneers had two takeaways, including junior defensive back Trent Kincaid’s seventh interception on the year, which leads Northern Kentucky. Kincaid also had seven picks last year as a sophomore.

Simon Kenton’s Dalton Finnell (James Adams/TSF).

The linebacker duo of senior Dalton Finnell and junior Brian Carter led the way for the Simon Kenton defense once again and are now over 150 combined tackles on the season.

“Every week we come out with a new scheme, we can change it up and we knew they were a run heavy team so we brought down the linebackers and stopping the run was our priority,” Carter said.

The Eagles only managed 3.6 yards per carry while they came into the game averaging over eight yards per rush.

Scott did have one player reach a milestone in the game, as senior running back Roberto London finished the game with 51 rushing yards putting him at exactly 1,000 yards so far this year.

The Eagles also had a good night from senior Deondre Pleasant, who ran for 83 yards on 11 carries and also recorded his fifth interception of the year.

Even after this tough loss Scott still has a chance to make a deep run in the postseason and both teams came into this game having already won their respective districts, knowing that they would each host a home playoff game next week.

The Eagles will host Rowan County (5-5) next Friday in the opening round of the 4A playoffs. The teams’ only common opponent from this year is Mason County, which Scott beat 43-7, while Rowan County narrowly defeated the Royals, 22-21.

Simon Kenton will look to keep its perfect season rolling next Friday when it hosts Butler (2-8) in the 6A playoffs. The last time these two schools met was in the 2013 regional final, when Butler won 29-14.

That was the other year that the Pioneers had an unblemished regular season.

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