Devils overcome ugly play, beat Panthers to advance to regional final

FLATWOODS — It wasn't pretty. But when you're faced with win-or-go-home, those ugly wins sure look a lot prettier.

Dealing with illness and sluggishness, the Russell Red Devils fought through the adversity and hammered out a 29-14 win over the Carroll County Panthers in the first round of the Kentucky Class 3A playoffs on Friday night at Henry R. Evans Stadium.

"It wasn't pretty, but the name of the game this time of the year is to win and advance, and we did that," said Russell coach TJ Maynard. "I thought we played a little flat, but credit to Carroll County. We jumped out 14-0 and they battled back."

Maynard also felt much of the sluggish play had to do with the locker room coming down with illnesses for both players and coaches the past two weeks.

"Yeah, we were dealing with a lot of kids being sick and missing some days there and it affected practices. Then this week, we had about five coaches sick, so that again affected our practice routine as well. But everyone has been able to fight through it."

But early on, it appeared the Devils might be overcoming those setbacks and begin to dominate.

Russell took their opening possession and marched 54 yards in 12 plays and Kaiden Benge plunged in from one yard out to open up the scoring. Sam Totten added the extra point to make it 7-0.

The defense would make a fourth down stop on Carroll's first possession and quickly add to their lead in just two plays.

On the first play from scrimmage, Hunter Williams would step back and let loose a strike to Griffin Fisher for a 34-yard gain. Then Benge would then rumble his way in from 16 yards out to make it 14-0.

Benge finished the night with just 65 yards on the ground as he would end up exiting the game with a lower body injury after his second carry of the second quarter, removing a huge part of the Devils' offensive firepower.

The Panthers would get a huge break during Russell's next possession, as Joshua Anderson would manage to punch the ball out during a second down play and the Panthers would recover and take over at the Russell 25.

Carroll (6-4) would capitalize on the takeaway as Karson Vaught would make a diving catch in the back of the end zone off a pass from Mason Ogden to cut the Devils lead in half with 9:51 in the second quarter.

The Devils would drive into Carroll territory two more times but come up empty on both of them. One drive would end via interception and the other on downs.

Carroll would get the ball back with 50 seconds before halftime and look to try and even the score, but the gamble would backfire.

After moving the chains once, the Panthers would be faced with a 4th down with 10 seconds left in the half and decide to air it out. Ogden's pass would get tipped over the middle and Deskins would catch it in stride and make a cut back across the field around the 50 and dash 71 yards for the interception return.

Jordan Rowe would run in for the conversion run to make it 22-7 at the break.

Maynard threw credit to both his defense for playing well, but also Carroll's offensive game plan for executing against them at times.

"Defensively, I thought we did well for the most part. (Carroll) kept really getting us on the edge, outnumbering us. We tried a couple different things, some of it we normally don't do. But give credit to (Carroll), they did some nice things in their game plan."

Carroll would threaten to get the score back at the beginning of the second half as Vaught would return the opening kickoff 36 yards to the Russell 30.

The Panthers would move into the red zone, but on their 4th down attempt from the Russell 12, Ogden would try to roll to his right but get dragged down for a sack by Kanenan Jacobs to end the drive.

Russell would make a rare special teams mistake later in the quarter, as an errant snap on a punt gave the ball to Carroll at the Russell 21 at the 6:56 mark of the third.

The miscue would prove fruitful of the Panthers, as Ogden would score on a 7-yard run. Easton Levya would added the point after to make it 22-14 with 3:59 left in the third frame.

In the fourth, the Devils made a fourth down stop and took over at their own 37 with 11:17 to go.

The drive would be time-consuming, as the Devils used a big pitch-and-catch by Williams and Deskins, and some tough runs from Rowe and Lane Osborne to get to the Panther 1.

But Rowe's fourth down run appeared to miss the goal line by inches, giving the ball back to Carroll with 5:24 remaining.

But faced with a 4th-and-2 and their season in the balance, the Panthers would go for it from their own 9. But Odgen's pass would be far out of the reach of his receiver and the Devils would take over with 2:58 remaining in the game.

Russell would in turn be faced with a 4th-and-goal at the 2 and elected to go for it to put the game away for good.

Williams would make a play fake and flip a pass to Deskins on the short side and Deskins would stretch his way over the goal line for the score. Totten would add the extra point to make it 29-14 with 1:44 to go.

On Carroll's ensuing possession, Ivan McDaniels picked off a desperation pass at midfield to seal the victory for the Devils.

"We advanced but we've got to play a lot better next week. We've played Lloyd the last two years. So we know what they've got. They've won one and we've won one," said Maynard. "We'll have to see how Benge is and how Jack is and get back to work."

Carroll County 0 7 7 0 = 14

Russell 14 8 0 7 = 29

First Quarter

Rus — Kaiden Benge 1 run (Sam Totten kick), 6:42.

Rus — Kaiden Benge 16 run (Sam Totten kick), 3:25.

Second Quarter

CC — Karson Vaught 26 pass from Mason Ogden (Easton Leyva kick), 9:51.

Rus — Shawn Deskins 71 interception return (Jordan Rowe run), 0:00.

Third Quarter

CC — Mason Ogden 6 run (Easton Leyva kick), 3:59.

Fourth Quarter

Rus — Shawn Deskins 2 pass from Hunter Williams (Sam Totten kick), 1:43.

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BC Rus

First downs 10 15

Rushes-yards 34-134 38-186

Passing yards 52 96

Total yards 186 282

Cmp-Att-Int 3-15-3 9-13-1

Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1

Penalties-yards 13-94 6-41.5

Punts-average 1-29.0 1-32.0

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Carroll County: Maverick Johnson 1-9, Mason Ogden 11-47 TD, Joshua Anderson 10-27, Jakobi Chapman-Meadows 12-51; Russell: Jordan Rowe 9-28, Hunter Williams 2-minus 3, Kaiden Benge 7-65 2-TD, Lane Osborne 20-96.

PASSING – Carroll County: Maverick Johnson 1-5-0 26, Mason Ogden 2-10-3 26 TD; Russell: Hunter Williams 9-13-1 96 TD.

RECEIVING – Carroll County: Maverick Johnson 1-23, Huner Dalton 1-3, Karson Vaught 1-26 TD; Russell: Griffin Fisher 2-36, Shawn Deskins 6-60 TD, Kaiden Benge 1-0.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.