Covington rolls through sixth-ranked Westview and its star quarterback with ease

Those who attended Friday night’s matchup in Martin between Westview and Covington who were hoping for a competitive game between two teams ranked in the state’s top 10 left disappointed.

Covington’s defense held highly-touted Westview quarterback Ty Simpson to just 34 passing yards and Covington’s offense ran roughshod through yet another defense en route to a 48-0 Region 7-3A win.

The Chargers (5-0 overall, 2-0 region), ranked second in Class 3A, finished with 407 yards, compared to just 51 for Westview (4-1, 1-1), which entered the game ranked sixth.

“We played them pretty much like we did last year,” Covington head coach J.R. Kirby said. “We locked down, tried to make him throw in tight windows and were really aggressive with them. We thought we were better than them up front because that tends to be the case.”

The opening possession of the game set the tone. Covington put together an 18-play drive that ended when Dalton Dickerson made an acrobatic one-handed 13-yard catch in the end zone.

“That was a big drive because the next drive they went three and out and they had to go right back out there,” Kirby said. “That was tough on them. We wore them down. They’re not a bad football team, we were just better that night in all phases. Just a complete team effort.”

Covington led 22-0 at the half before scoring twice in the third quarter to put the game completely out of reach.

The Chargers are averaging 301 rushing yards per game, which ranks first in the Shelby-Metro area, and Westview’s defense had no answers as Covington racked up 366 yards on the ground.

Marcus Hayes led the way with 134 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries. Eumorrion Flowers added 101 yards on 12 carries and Jamarion Dowell ran 11 times for 64 yards and two scores.

“It took us a minute against their defense,” Kirby said. “Every week we’ve seen something a little different from everybody trying to stop us. They try and come up with the scheme of the week.”

Simpson, who is ranked by Rivals as the third-best Class of 2022 pro-style quarterback in the country, has offers from Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson, Baylor, LSU, Oregon and Memphis. It was hard to tell, though, because Covington’s defense was in his face all night. He completed just 6 of 22 passes and threw one interception.

“Our kids were locked in and fired up to play,” Kirby said. “He’s highly-touted, has all those offers and he’s a really talented kid.”

Covington hits the road for the third straight week Friday with a trip to Ripley, which is 2-1 and coming off a win vs. Obion County Central.

A decade ago this was a big rivalry game. Now, not so much, at least from Covington’s perspective.

“I don’t know if our kids see Ripley as a big rivalry game like some of the older guys do because they haven’t been in our region for a while. For Ripley, that’s all they talk about, trying to beat us and Haywood,” Kirby said. “Its not going to be a walk in the park, though. We’re going to have to go there and play them. They’re getting better. It would be a big night for them to knock us off and they have the kids to do it.”