Lexington Catholic routs LCA, snapping three-game skid in rivalry, as Eagles sit Boley out
Lexington Catholic put an emphatic end to its three-game losing streak to Lexington Christian with a 42-6 win over the Eagles in front of a packed house at Joseph K. Ford Stadium on Friday night.
“We wanted it all week, we’ve been preaching this all summer, and we did our thing tonight,” said LexCath running back Walker Hall, who rushed for 67 yards and three TDs to help finally topple LCA his senior year. “It feels amazing.”
No. 14 LCA (2-3) played without sophomore quarterback sensation Cutter Boley, who dressed and had his injured left ankle wrapped and ready, but did not take a snap. Boley, who has college offers from the likes of Alabama, got hurt in last week’s game against Christian Academy-Louisville.
“I made a calculated decision with respect to Cutter. He could have played, but at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is for him to get rolled up again and now we’re talking surgery,” LCA Coach Doug Charles said. “We’re going to take our time and get him right.”
Last season in a similar situation, LCA thrived with a run-oriented offense when its regular dual-threat quarterback missed two games due to injury. The Eagles stunned both Boyle County and Christian Academy-Louisville on the road.
But No. 12 Lexington Catholic (4-1) would have none of that.
“We came into this game confident and expecting to win no matter what,” LexCath Coach Bert Bathiany said, noting his team looked at film from Boyle, but didn’t believe LCA would actually sit Boley. “We didn’t prepare for it. We prepared for Cutter Boley. We just give that much effort. We knew our effort and our attitude would overcome any scheme they had.”
Early in the second quarter, linebacker Hayden Dawahare signaled the Knights indeed were fully prepared by dropping LCA’s Evan Brown for an 11-yard loss on a fourth-down-and-3 play. LexCath scored to go up 14-0 on the ensuing drive, a Hall touchdown from 12 yards out.
“We knew coming into this game that they were going to throw everything at us. They are a very creative offense,” Dawahare told PrepSpin.com during a postgame interview. “(Defensive coordinator Dave) Nurnberg has been killing it all year with his play calls, and I think collectively as a whole defense, we’ve been really playing well.”
Running a makeshift offense with starting linebacker Will Nichols at quarterback due to injuries to their top three QBs, LCA also lined up in a number of wildcat formations in which running backs took direct snaps. LCA managed only 168 total yards of offense. Fifty of those yards came on the first play of the second half when Nichols hit Brown for a touchdown bomb to cut the LCA deficit to 21-6. But otherwise the Eagles’ offense sputtered, converting only two of 10 third downs and failing on two of four fourth-down attempts.
“Those are just gut-check kind of moments that we didn’t pass tonight,” Charles said. “We knew we were going to have a tough time manufacturing points. Catholic is a good team. They smelled blood in the water, and we knew we were in for a struggle.”
Meanwhile, Lexington Catholic’s offense hummed, scoring on its first three possessions and taking a 21-0 lead into halftime after a 44-yard end-around credited as a pass from Jackson Wasik to Max DeGraff midway through the second quarter. DeGraff stiff-armed a would-be tackler to the ground halfway toward the goal line.
Hall scored his third TD of the game to cap a five-play, 72-yard drive in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Knights tacked on a 23-yard TD pass from Wasik to Tanner Pedroche and a Max Bertrand fumble recovery for a TD for the final margin.
“To be honest, I didn’t know it was going to be that lopsided, but I knew we were going to win,” Bathiany said. “I was confident in our team to go out and execute and perform. The score would have been the same no matter what.”
Bathiany’s supreme confidence obviously spills over to his players.
“The chemistry this year is completely different,” Hall said. “I think that we can beat any team in the state. We’re really taking it to the next level right now.”
The Knights take on Tates Creek next week. Then comes their chief district rival, No. 3 Boyle County, the back-to-back defending Class 4A champions, on Oct. 7. The Rebels have beaten LexCath nine straight.
It’s safe to say this Lexington Catholic team doesn’t see the rest of its schedule in those terms.
“We expect to win every game. That’s not cocky. That’s just confident,” Bathiany said. “If you go in with a losing mentality, you’re probably going to lose. So, we just go in with a winner’s mentality. That’s just our mindset.”
