‘I’m back, baby.’ Lexington Christian QB leads convincing win over city rival.
On Lexington Christian’s fourth play from scrimmage, quarterback Drew Nieves rolled out of the pocket to his left, squared his shoulders and hurled a pinpoint pass 20 yards to a sliding Mason Moore for a first down just before Moore went out of bounds.
“It felt great. I put my hand up like this, looked over at my student section and said, ‘I’m back, baby. I’m back,’” said Nieves, who had missed LCA’s last two games with an undisclosed injury.
Nieves would complete the opening drive with a screen pass to Parker Chaney, who took it in 40 yards for the Eagles’ first score.
By the time the night was over, Nieves had 217 yards passing and three touchdowns in a convincing 43-7 win over Lexington Catholic in front of a standing room only home crowd at LCA.
“It was so amazing,” Nieves said. “I was so excited to come out here and beat Catholic. Coming back for a big game like that, it was just real exciting.”
With LCA ranked No. 7 overall by the Herald-Leader’s Dave Cantrall Ratings and LexCath No. 10 on that list, Lexington’s holy war was billed as one of the best matchups in the state.
But it wasn’t long before LCA showed why it has already knocked off the then-No. 1 teams in Class 3A (Christian Academy-Louisville) and 4A (Boyle County) this season.
After Chaney’s score and an exchange of punts in the first quarter, LCA’s Jeffrey Selby picked off LexCath quarterback Jack Gohmann and gave LCA the ball at the LexCath 40. Two plays later LCA running back Jeremiah Riffle broke away for a 30-yard touchdown run.
Another LexCath punt followed. That’s when LCA went for the haymaker it had been working on this week.
And while Nieves hadn’t had much success hitting the deep post in practice, the time seemed right for taking a shot in the game.
“I went up to (Coach) Oakley (Watkins): ‘You’ve got to throw it. It’s wide-open. This will set the tone,’” Nieves said of the play. “And we did it.”
Moore, the team’s rush-happy quarterback during Nieves’ injury, showed why he became one of the best big-play receivers in the state last year, running under Nieves’ heave for a 74-yard touchdown reception on the very next play after the LexCath punt. It put LCA up 21-0 with 2:01 left in the first quarter.
“Coach Oakley looked at me and said, ‘Are you ready?’ And I was like, ‘yes, sir,’” Moore recalled of the moment the play was called. “Drew dropped back. I ran my post. Magic happened.”
And the rout was on.
“They had that look,” LCA Coach Doug Charles said. “I just knew they had that look and I let them play.”
By halftime, Nieves completed another 29-yard TD pass to Xavier Brown and Mason Moore capped a 10-play, 89-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. A Nieves to Moore two-point conversion made the score 36-0 and set the mercy-rule running clock in motion to start the second half.
It was good to have Nieves back under center, his teammates said.
“Drew’s one of the best quarterbacks in the state,” Moore said. “He’s underrated for sure. He’s got the best arm talent in the state. I’ll take him against anybody. He stayed calm this game and did his thing.”
Moore led a different type of offensive attack — running almost exclusively — when he ran the squad in Nieves’ absence. And LCA continued to run it with Nieves back in the starting lineup.
“Now, we’ve got Mason back at wide receiver and that gives us so many more chances to score,” Riffle said. “It’s hard to prepare for seven different people. It’s great.”
Riffle led the team with 109 of the Eagles’ 246 rushing yards. Moore led LCA with 138 yards receiving.
“Mason did a fantastic job (at quarterback) and still has a lot of packages, but we’re a better football team with Drew as you saw tonight,” Charles said.
Next, LCA will host Class A No. 1 Pikeville, a 29-0 winner over Belfry on Friday. Charles is a Pikeville graduate. He warned his team they would need to be prepared for a battle.
“We’ll put this one behind us and clean up some stuff and get ready for a really physical football game next week,” Charles said. “They’ve got talent, they match up well with us, and we’re going to have a very, very difficult week next week if we don’t bring it.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2021 at 8:22 AM.
