Spartans roll to second straight region crown
Published 8:34 am Saturday, November 22, 2025
1/4
Swipe or click to see more
South Warren’s Jake Carter (1) celebrates running the ball for a touchdown in the Spartans’ 49-21 win over the Henderson County Colonels in the State Football Class 6A quarterfinals at South Warren High School on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
GRACE McDOWELL / Bowling Green Daily News
2/4
Swipe or click to see more
South Warren’s Camden Page (7) celebrates running the ball into the end zone for a touchdown in the Spartans’ 49-21 win over the Henderson County Colonels in the State Football Class 6A quarterfinals at South Warren High School on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
GRACE McDOWELL / Bowling Green Daily News
3/4
Swipe or click to see more
South Warren’s Isaiah Bridges (8) runs the ball in the Spartans’ 49-21 win over the Henderson County Colonels in the State Football Class 6A quarterfinals at South Warren High School on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
GRACE McDOWELL / Bowling Green Daily News
4/4
Swipe or click to see more
South Warren’s Griffin Reynolds (12) runs the ball in the Spartans’ 49-21 win over the Henderson County Colonels in the State Football Class 6A quarterfinals at South Warren High School on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
GRACE McDOWELL / Bowling Green Daily News
The South Warren football team is starting to make a habit out of strong finishes.
For the second straight week in the postseason the Spartans found a potent closing kick, blowing a game open in the second half and pulling away for a 49-21 win over Henderson County in the third round of the Class 6A state playoffs on Friday at South Warren High School.
South Warren (12-0) used a potent offensive attack to pull away and move one win away from the 6A state final.
“I think they do a nice job of responding,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said. “We did that early in the year, the first couple of weeks when nobody knows what they are doing. You are just figuring things out. Either a team figures it out or not. I don’t necessarily know if it is something you can teach. They’ve responded all year when they’ve had to. They’ve made plays when they had to. It’s not the prettiest at times, but it has worked out so far.”
With the win, South Warren clinched a second straight region title and seventh in school history. The Spartans have now won region titles in 3A, 4A, 5A and 6A.
“It’s a big deal,” Smith said. “You can’t take it for granted. I think the older I have gotten the more I have realized that too. Sometimes when you have success early you think it’s easy and then you figure out this ain’t easy. We are going to enjoy it, then move on to the next one.”
South Warren marched down the field on its opening drive, going 76 yards in 11 plays — capped by a 16-yard touchdown run from Jake Carter — to take a 7-0 lead.
The margin grew to 14-0 after Camden Page scored on a keeper at the 1 early in the second quarter.
Henderson County (6-7) got on the board late in the first half with Brody Belt connecting with Hezekiah Harris for a 41-yard strike to cut the deficit to 14-7. The Spartans got the momentum right back, needing only three plays to answer with Page connecting with Justin Capps for a 39-yard touchdown to make the score 21-7 with 1:49 left in the half.
“I feel like if you score before half or get a good drive going, all the momentum is on your side,” Page said. “As a team we understand that too. We will go in at halftime and be like, ‘All right, we’ve got this. Let’s keep this going.’ I feel like that is super important for us.”
That momentum carried over to the opening drive of the second half as Page’s second touchdown run put a bow on an eight-play, 62-yard drive to extend the advantage to 28-7.
Page’s third short touchdown run on the next drive pushed the margin to 28 points. Henderson County was able to intercept the Spartans in the end zone on the next drive and parlay that into a second long touchdown from Belt to Harris, but South Warren responded by a Jamir Boards touchdown run and a 44-yard touchdown pass from Chase Bell to Carter less than a minute into the fourth to make the score 49-14 and force the KHSAA state-mandated running clock the rest of the way.
The Colonels added one more score in the final minutes, but were unable to get any closer.
“I thought we came out in the second half and started running the ball in chunk plays,” Smith said. “There was no reason to stop doing it and we kept doing it. I felt comfortable with the run game. Really, I felt comfortable all around. I thought in the first half we really stopped ourselves and then we had that turnover in the red zone in the second half. Other than that, I thought the guys executed pretty well.”
South Warren had a balanced offensive attack, finishing with 450 total yards — 236 in the air and 214 on the ground.
Kayden York ran for 102 yards, while Boards added 60 yards. The quarterback tandem of Page and Bell were nearly flawless for a second straight week. Page finished 11-for-13 passing for 165 yards, while Page was 5-for-6 for 71 yards.
“I think we’ve been playing pretty good,” Page said. “The beginning of the season was kind of slow and we’ve kind of picked it up since then. I think we realize what the stakes are right now and we are just going to keep it going.”
South Warren advances to face Ryle on Nov. 28 in the Class 6A semifinals. Ryle defeated Frederick Douglass 28-27 in overtime on Friday.
“I honestly don’t know anything about Ryle, but I know everybody is good now,” Smith said. “You’ve got to come prepared and ready to play. It’s the real deal now. It’s nothing but really good teams left.”
HCHS 0 7 7 7 – 21
SWHS 7 14 21 7 – 49
First quarter
SW – Jake Carter 16 run (Alen Alic kick), 3:35
Second quarter
SW – Camden Page 1 run (Alic kick), 9:49
HC – Hezekiah Harris 41 pass from Brody Belt (Miles Pryor kick), 2:50
SW – Justin Capps 39 pass from Page (Alic kick), 1:49
Third quarter
SW – Page 1 run (Alic kick), 9:30
SW – Page 2 run (Alic kick), 8:16
HC – Harris 49 pass from Belt (Pryor kick), 5:26
SW – Jamir Boards 14 run (Alic kick), 3:22
Fourth quarter
SW – Carter 44 pass from Chase Bell (Alic kick), 11:19
HC – Avant Baxter 6 run (Pryor kick), 3:05
About Micheal Compton
I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.
More by Micheal
