Never so nervous, never in such a big spot, but ever so clutch, Max DeGraff, Lexington Catholic’s junior kicker/punter/wide receiver/defensive back (football player) boomed a 47-yard field goal, a line drive from the left hash mark, to rescue the host Knights from the brink of defeat as the clock ran out in their 38-36 win over Pulaski County at the Traditional Bank Bluegrass Bowl.
”This is definitely the biggest game I’ve had by far,” said DeGraff, who also caught a 28-yard touchdown pass in the first half. “I was pretty nervous on the sideline. I was out there getting my kicks in the net. (Both coaches) called a timeout and I went and got an extra kick in every time.
“And I went out there — and I was just money.”
But a few moments earlier, Pulaski County looked like the winning team making the clutch plays.
Holding a 35-28 lead and trying to run down the clock with under four minutes to go, Lexington Catholic quarterback Jack Gohmann scrambled and pitched an ill-advised pass up the sideline. Pulaski’s Jericho Dixon snagged the wounded duck out of the air and toe tapped in bounds for an interception that set up the Maroons on their own 37-yard line.
Twelve fast-moving plays later, Pulaski senior quarterback Drew Polston rolled out of the pocket and hit Braden Gipson at the goal line for a 7-yard touchdown to pull Pulaski within a point. After a timeout, Polston rolled out again and found Chandler Godby in the back corner of the end zone for the go-ahead two-point conversion. Pulaski led 36-35 with 57 seconds left in the game.
Cue Gohmann’s redemption.
“We did what we needed to do,” Gohmann said. “They gave me time … and you get the best field-goal kicker in the state within 50 yards, he’s going to put it through.”
Starting from the Knights’ own 27-yard line after the kickoff return, Gohmann calmly led LexCath up the field, highlighted by a 31-yard pass over the middle to Blake Busson that put the Knights at the Pulaski 33-yard line with 13 seconds left. A quick out pattern pass to Jack Monday got LexCath to the 30. Another quick out fell incomplete and left four seconds for DeGraff’s kick.
LexCath’s first drive of the second half ended when DeGraff missed a 50-yard field goal from the opposite hash mark. DeGraff knew what he had to do on the second try.
“I had to lock in more and make sure I was ready,” he said. “I went out there with confidence and nailed it.”
The win came despite the sensational performance of the Maroons and Polston. Polston threw for 339 yards and two TDs, ran for another score and overcame a first-half interception to help tie the back-and-forth matchup at 21-21 going into halftime.
“They are a well-coached team, solid competitors that play super, super hard,” LexCath Coach Nigel Smith said. “You’re going to see them late in the postseason. When you play a team like that, it takes all the things we’ve got.”
After DeGraff’s missed field goal, Lexington Catholic forced a punt to get the ball at midfield midway through the third quarter. A fumble on the first play gave the ball right back to Pulaski and it capitalized. Polston hit Brysen Dugger on a 50-yard touchdown pass two plays later to put the Maroons ahead 28-21. Dugger finished with a game-high 163 receiving yards. Running back Donovan Abbott also scored for the Maroons and had 70 yards rushing.
LexCath answered with back-to-back TDs, one on a 10-yard run by Gohmann and the other on a Gohmann pass to Tanner Pedroche from 5 yards out.
The Knights’ defense, flailing except for the first-half interception against the Maroons for much of the game, forced Pulaski into consecutive punts after just three plays each in the fourth quarter as LexCath took a 35-28 lead with 6:25 to go.
“Those two stops that we got … were as big as you could get,” Smith said. “We were able to flip the score around. They still got ahead, but we got in the position where even if that two-point conversion happens, we get the ball last, and we’ve got a chance to win.”
LexCath had originally been set to face Johnson Central on Friday night, but the Golden Eagles had to back out due to COVID-19 issues on its team. Pulaski County’s scheduled opponent for this week had the same problem, so the Maroons were free to accept the LexCath invitation midweek. The two teams played each other in 2019 with LexCath getting a comeback victory in Beau Allen’s final season for the Knights.
Gohmann completed 19 of 26 passes for 248 yards and two TDs and led the Knights in rushing with 90 yards and two more scores on the ground. Walker Hall added 85 yards rushing and a touchdown.
Next, LexCath travels to Covington Catholic, a team the Knights beat last year on another last-minute Gohmann-led drive.
“We always like the adrenaline rush,” Gohmann said. “We never seem to put (the game) away or let it get out of reach. … We have a lot of room for improvement, obviously, but for a team that, maybe, with 57 seconds left you think we’re going to lose that game and we come out with a win there. That just shows what kind of grit we have.”
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