Simon Kenton pull away from Ryle

INDEPENDENCE, Ky. – After leading just 13-10 at halftime, Simon Kenton scored four second-half touchdowns to punch its ticket to the regional finals next week.

The Pioneers ran away from Ryle in the second half to win, 41-23 on Friday night at Chlorine Menefee Stadium.

They had only 116 yards of offense in the first half to go along with a huge deficit in time of possession, as their defense was on the field for 17 minutes of that half yet they held the potent Ryle (9-3) offense to just ten points.

After halftime, Simon Kenton (12-0) looked like a different team. In the first two minutes of the third quarter, the Pioneers forced two Raiders punts while getting a 4-yard touchdown run from senior running back Dillon Powell in between those punts.

“Our defense makes a huge stop to set the tone of the second half, and if you look at the way our defense has played all year, they do a great job of getting the ball back for our offense,” said head coach Jeff Marksberry.

The Pioneers flipped the script from the first half as they put up 236 yards of offense and possessed the football for 14 minutes while holding Ryle to 117 yards offensively in the second half.

Simon Kenton relied on the run game to finish off the Raiders and were led by Dillon Powell’s 129 yards rushing on 16 carries to go along with two touchdowns and an additional 21 yards receiving.

“I’m really proud of our kids and especially Dillon Powell, Dillon was injured a couple of weeks ago and he’s fought so hard to rehab to get back on the filed and what a gutty performance and he showed tremendous leadership in the locker room at halftime,” Marksberry said.

Ryle used the Wildcat formation several times throughout the game, which was something they hadn’t done in the regular season match up in an attempt to catch the Pioneers off guard.

“It surprised us a lot, we knew every time they were in Wildcat they were going to run the ball but every time we came down hard and filled the gaps,” said Pioneers senior linebacker Dalton Finnell.

Even with the new wrinkle, the Raiders couldn’t get enough going against the stout Simon Kenton defense that held Ryle to 149 yards and 15 points under the Raiders’ season average.

Through 12 games this year the Pioneers have outscored their opponents, 518-155 and have routinely dominated on both sides of the football.

Ryle will now turn its focus to next season while Simon Kenton travels to Cooper (10-2) next Friday night to play for the region championship.

The Pioneers won the regular season matchup, 26-7.

Two seasons ago Simon Kenton was undefeated going into the region championship and was upended by Butler, but this year’s senior class has learned a lesson from their sophomore season.

Simon Kenton DL Blake Powell (James Adams/TSF).

“We learned from that year, two years ago we were looking at the state championship and we weren’t worried about Butler but this week we’re going to worry about Cooper not the next round,” said senior defensive lineman Blake Powell.

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