Newport Central Catholic 38, Bellevue 20

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Saturday, November 18, 2000

Newport Central Catholic 38, Bellevue 20

Everson runs for 282 yards

By John Schutte
Enquirer contributor

When Newport Central Catholic and Bellevue met Oct.20, the Tigers completed a “Hail Mary” play with no time on the clock to steal the victory. But NCC needed no such heroics in taking revenge Friday night at Bellevue's Gilligan Stadium.

Junior running back Steve Everson carried the ball 40 times for 282 yards and four touchdowns to pave the way for NewCath's a 38-20 victory in the Class A Region 3 championship game. Everson entered the game needing 240 yards to become NCC's career rushing leader.

“We wanted to play Bellevue tonight,” NCC coach Bob Schneider said. “We just beat Beechwood last week, and I knew there would be no letdown tonight after what happened in our first meeting.”

The Thoroughbreds advance to the state semifinals for the first time since 1986. NCC last won a state championship in 1984.

“We owed them something,” Everson said of Bellevue. “We felt the last game was a fluke and we should have won. I know I didn't play my best. They held me to under 60 yards. I wasn't feeling my best tonight. I've been sick all week, and tonight I got sick a couple of times on the sidelines.”

NCC built a 31-6 lead midway through the third quarter. The Thoroughbreds scored twice in a three-minute span to take a 31-6 lead with 2:36 remaining before Bellevue made a charge.

The Tigers scored with one minute remaining in the third quarter on James Delaney's 1-yard run, then gained more momentum early in the fourth quarter when Jake Ross blocked an NCC punt on the Thoroughbreds 16. On the next play, Nate Berkley completed a 16-yard pass to Mike Gullett for a touchdown that cut the lead to 31-20.

“We still felt we had a comfortable lead at that point. They still needed to score two times to beat us,” Schneider said.

The Thoroughbreds removed all doubt over who

would win on their next drive. NewCath put together a 13-play drive that took more than 6 minutes off the clock.

The drive was aided by two crucial conversions. The first was a fourth-and-11 play at Bellevue's 40, when Jeff Smith connected with Hank Bosley for 21 yards.

“After the blocked punt, we had more confidence in our pass than in punting the ball,” Schneider said.

Everson sealed the outcome when, on fourth-and-5 of the same drive, he found a hole up the middle and ran 13 yards for the touchdown.

“The offensive line was blowing Bellevue off the line tonight. In our first meeting, I was trying to run everything outside,” Everson said. “Tonight, I ran up the middle and tried to run people over.”

NCC took control in the first half behind Everson's running. Everson gained 171 yards and scored on runs of 8 and 6 yards to help the Thoroughbreds to a 21-6 lead. Bellevue's lone bright spot in the half was a 94-yard touchdown pass from Berkley to Gullett.

Newport CC ....... 6 15 10 7—38

Bellevue ....... 0 6 8 6—20

NCC—Everson 8 run (kick failed)

NCC—Fisher 8 pass from Smith (Brennenstuhl pass from Fisher)

NCC—Everson 6 run (Schumacher kick)

B—Gullett 94 pass from Berkley (kick blocked)

NCC—Schumacher 27 field goal

NCC—Everson 4 run (Schumacher kick)

B—Delaney 1 run (Gullett pass from Berkley)

B—Gullett 16 pass from Berkley (pass failed)

NCC—Everson 13 run (Schumacher kick)

Records: NCC 9-4, B 12-2.