Undefeated Lexington Christian football powered by chemistry and cohesion
With his hat playfully turned backward and a smile across his face, Doug Charles settled his football team down Friday night.
The moments following Lexington Christian’s 56-14 home win over Danville were met with a lighthearted atmosphere: Dance moves and handshakes were performed by LCA players, and laughter was abundant as the Eagles cooled off following a big win on Senior Night.
But soon enough Charles took control, directing his players to take a knee and taking them through a postgame speech, prayer and song, emblematic of the cohesion that has allowed for so much LCA football success this season.
“We’ve kind of flipped the switch here. Our guys expect to win each and every Friday night,” Charles said of the culture among LCA’s seniors. “They trust each other. The brotherhood is real. There’s a lot of love in our locker room ... there is in our coaching ranks, too. There’s a lot of passion for what we do, we spend a lot of time doing it and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than with these guys here.”
The Eagles are still unbeaten in 2021, with a 9-0 overall mark and a 3-0 record in Class 2A, District 4 games.
It’s the first time since 2016 that the Eagles have won their first nine games of a season, and the average margin of victory for LCA this season in its eight on-field games has been nearly 30 points.
LCA was awarded a win over Belfry in early September via a COVID-19 cancellation.
Friday’s win over the Admirals, now 6-4 overall and 2-1 in district play, saw the Eagles score 56 consecutive points after Danville took an early 7-0 lead on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Brady Morse to Corydon Crawford.
LCA led 28-7 at halftime despite fumbling the ball away three times in the first half.
“Senior Night and honoring 16 seniors and all the hoopla and all the circumstance and all that stuff around that, (it) can get you a little distracted,” Charles said. “But we made a couple adjustments and came out and kind of exerted our will there in the second half.”
Senior Xavier Brown, a Virginia football commit, had touchdown runs from 72, 52 and 39 yards out, in addition to a 37-yard touchdown catch along the sideline.
“We only have 180 boys in our entire four upper grades. For us to be able to attract and produce guys like (Brown) is a credit to them and their families and also our program,” Charles said.
The Eagles are particularly deep at running back. Brown leads the way, but players like junior Jeremiah Riffle, who had three rushing touchdowns from 15, 8 and 6 yards out, are also more than capable of shredding opposing defenses.
Charles has a 29-4 overall record as LCA’s head coach after stepping into the role ahead of the 2019 season. This includes last season’s run to the Class 2A state title game, as LCA lost by one point in overtime to Beechwood.
If the Eagles are to carry their strong regular-season form into the 2021 postseason, Charles believes depth will be one of the biggest factors that could carry them all the way back to Kroger Field.
“We’re blessed here to be recognized among all classes as one of the top five, six teams in the state,” Charles said. “I think at times we can be that.”
That depth also extends to the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles blitzed often and clogged up the running lanes for Danville, forcing turnovers as a result of this defensive intensity.
Senior Tyler Morris also had two interceptions in the win.
“If we don’t find a way to make it easy on other teams to beat us, we’re going to be a tough out,” Charles said. “I know there’s some coaches that try to convince kids there’s a wolf behind every tree. I try to identify where the real wolves are and we attack those.”
“We know there’s a couple of wolves lurking out there, there’s some dates coming in the next four to five weeks and we’ve got to be ready. We know we’re going to get peoples’ best shot.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2021 at 8:49 AM.
