By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Bishop Brossart is one of three local high school football teams playing its first district seeding game of the season this Friday and coach Paul Wiggins hopes to have junior quarterback Trevor Schadler running the Mustangs’ offense once again.
Schadler wasn’t able to throw the ball last week because of an injury, so the coach moved him to running back and put sophomore Jacob Leicht at quarterback for a home game against Holy Cross. The Mustangs took a 19-7 lead in the first half, but the patchwork offense struggled after that and Holy Cross rallied for a 22-19 win.
Brossart coach Paul Wiggins
Leicht completed 5 of 13 passes for 88 yards and one touchdown in the game. Schadler caught two passes for 61 yards and rushed for 27 yards on five carries. He also had a 39-yard kickoff return.
Where Schadler will play in this Friday’s first district game at the new Mustang Athletic Complex remains a mystery.
“As soon as we get word that he can get back to quarterback, that’ll be a big plus for us,” coach Wiggins said Wednesday night. “Right now, we have to go with Leicht because of his injury.”
Nicholas County has a 3-3 record and Brossart is off to a 2-3 start. Over the last four years, the Class 1A district rivals have a 2-2 record in games against each other with the home team winning each time.
“That seems to be the trend,” Wiggins said. “I hope it holds serve this year and we can bust it up next year down there.”
Holmes and Highlands are the other local teams playing their first district games of the season on Friday. Holmes (2-3) will visit Rowan County (3-3) in Class 4A and Highlands (4-2) will play a home game against Conner (5-1) in Class 5A.
Jared Hicks
Conner quarterback Jared Hicks is coming off one of his best games of the season. In a win over Boone County last week, he scored three rushing touchdowns and completed 13 of 15 passes for 190 yards and one TD.
Hicks is the top passer in Northern Kentucky with 1,265 yards in five games for a 210.8 average. But he’ll be facing a Highlands defense that’s allowing just 91.3 passing yards per game with 11 interceptions.
The University of Kentucky Marching Band will perform at the Highlands game and the school system will retire the No. 22 jersey worn by former quarterback Jared Lorenzen.
Lorenzen, who passed away on July 3 at the age of 38, was named Mr. Kentucky Football after a record-setting senior season as quarterback of the 1998 Highlands team. He went on to set passing records at the University of Kentucky and won a Super Bowl ring as a backup quarterback for the New York Giants.
The other district games on Friday are Boone County at Covington Catholic in Class 5A, Scott at Harrison County in Class 4A and Carroll County at Walton-Verona in Class 1A. District opponents will face off in all but one game on next week’s schedule.
High school football schedule
Friday’s games
Beechwood at Dixie Heights, 7 p.m.
Bellevue at Newport, 7 p.m.
Nicholas County at Brossart, 7 p.m.
Boone County at Covington Catholic, 7 p.m.
Mount Healthy (Ohio) at Campbell County, 7 p.m.
Conner at Highlands, 7 p.m.
Cooper at George Rogers Clark, 7:30 p.m.
Berea at Dayton, 7 p.m.
Holmes at Rowan County, 7:30 p.m.
Lloyd at Ludlow, 7 p.m.
Scott County at Ryle, 7:30 p.m.
Scott at Harrison County, 7:30 p.m.
Carroll County at Walton-Verona, 7:30 p.m.
