With the second seed in 6A District 1 up for grabs on Friday at the Stadium of Champions, Henderson County rolled past hosts Christian County 49-18 to earn a home playoff game and send the southern Colonels to Barren County to open the postseason.
Henderson got on the scoreboard on its opening possession, taking advantage of a short field to score on a 25-yard pass from Brody Belt to Colton Thompson.
Neither team has hung its hat on defense this season, and it looked like the Senior Night crowd might be in for a shootout when Christian County answered just 12 seconds later on a 65-yard connection between Jaiden Williams and Josh Bridges.
However, after Henderson scored on its second drive on a 17-yard pass from Belt to Christian Haygan, Christian County couldn’t keep pace.
Anthony Burrus picked off a Williams pass and returned it 26 yards to stretch the advantage to 28-6 early in the second quarter. Burrus then found the end zone on a 20-yard run, and Henderson closed the first half when Belt found Thompson for an 18-yard score to make it 35-6 at the break.
The running clock was triggered inside the first minute of the third quarter on Burrus’ 37-yard touchdown run. Wyatt Newman’s 66-yard pick-six with 3:34 left in the third gave Henderson its last points and a 49-6 lead.
Freshman quarterback Ty Grace relieved Williams and led a scoring drive to end the third, capped by a 10-yard run by Tristan Dillard.
For the only points of the fourth quarter, Grace closed a 10-play, 96-yard drive with a TD pass to Darius Finch with just under two minutes left in the game.
Christian County finished with 333 total yards, including 214 through the air. Williams completed 13/27 passes for 137 yards with six interceptions and a touchdown. Grace finished 4/7 for 77 yards with a score.
Bridges had four catches for 89 yards and a score, and Aiden Jesse caught nine balls for 91 yards. Dillard rushed 17 times to account for all but four of Christian County’s 59 rushing yards.
For Henderson, Belt was 9/12 passing for 111 yards with three TDs and two picks. Thompson finished with 39 yards on two scoring catches, and Burris rushed 15 times for 129 yards and a touchdown.
Christian County slipped to 1-8 and will wrap up the regular season next week with a daunting trip to Mayfield.
Henderson improved to 4-5 and clinched the district’s 2nd seed ahead of a visit from Owensboro next week.
