Quarterback mystery adds to intrigue of LCA-Lexington Catholic rivalry
Normally, if your starting quarterback is questionable, your first and second backups are unavailable and your fourth-string signal caller hasn’t regularly held the job since eighth grade, you’d be pretty concerned about your offensive performance next time out.
But Lexington Christian has been in this situation before.
“I love our game plans — plural. I absolutely love them. I’m excited. Our kids are excited,” LCA Coach Doug Charles said about Friday’s game against rival Lexington Catholic. “It’s adversity. We passed some tests the other night and some tests we didn’t do so well. So, we’ve got another chance. We’ve got a lot of football left between now and, hopefully, December.”
No. 14 Lexington Christian (2-2) suffered a stunning 49-14 home loss to No. 6 Christian Academy-Louisville last week during the debut of its new turf field. Worse, sophomore quarterback Cutter Boley left the game midway through the third quarter with an ankle injury.
Last year, LCA shocked Boyle County in Danville and beat CAL in Louisville without regular starting QB Drew Nieves by drawing up a running attack around the abilities of safety Mason Moore. Something similar might be in store for No. 12 Lexington Catholic (3-1) on Friday featuring linebacker Will Nichols or any of a number of other possibilities, according to Charles.
Boley has been cleared to play and has participated in practices, but Charles would not go so far to say his prize college prospect would definitely play. Boley has already thrown for 1,222 yards and 10 TDs in just over three-and-a-half games.
“He had a real good day of physical therapy. He was in practice in pads today and threw around a little bit,” Charles said Tuesday. “It’s day by day. Our compass, first and foremost, is to make sure we don’t do anything that would rush the process. We’ll yield to the trainers. But he wants to play, I can tell you. But we don’t want to push anything. We’ve got to make sure we’re as healthy as we can be for the games that really matter.”
With two losses already on the books, LCA’s chances of securing a top RPI seed for the playoffs, as it has the last two seasons, have already dimmed. The Eagles have yet to play any games within their district.
But make no mistake, the Lexington Catholic game still matters. LCA has won three straight in the series, which is tied 4-4 overall in its short but thrilling history. Two of the last three games were decided in the final seconds.
“It’s a rivalry game and in rivalries, anything can happen,” Charles said. “They have our full utmost respect and attention. We expect them to do what they’ve done all year. They are a fantastic team.”
In addition to Boley’s injury, five turnovers helped doom LCA against CAL.
“Well, we’ve had six losses in the last four years. And I did the research on that,” Charles said. “We had 27 turnovers in those games for an average of 4.5. And you can’t beat Our Little Sisters of the Weak with four and a half turnovers. We’ve got to focus on ball security.”
It’s a problem that also struck Lexington Catholic in its only loss.
LexCath fumbled twice, threw an interception and had some uncharacteristic kicking game miscues in a 7-6 loss to Covington Catholic at home on Sept. 2. Having standout running back Walker Hall out that week didn’t help, either.
But LexCath Coach Bert Bathiany liked how his team responded last week in a 42-19 win over Pleasure Ridge Park.
“Our offense was definitely more consistent throughout the game and were able to extend drives,” Bathiany said. “Having Walker Hall back was obviously a huge plus for us as well.”
Jackson Wasik threw for 312 yards and five TDs, Hall racked up 146 yards and three TDs rushing and wideout/kicker Max DeGraff had 146 yards receiving and three scores against PRP.
And Bathiany’s defense didn’t panic after giving up a 56-yard TD bomb on PRP’s first play from scrimmage.
“The resiliency of our defense is unbelievable,” Bathiany said. “The grit of our defense and our football team to overcome that first quarter speaks a lot to our character and our toughness.”
They’ll need that against an LCA team that has been consistently one of the state’s most potent offenses whether it has a passing quarterback or not.
“They are going to be good no matter what. They’re a good football team,” Bathiany said. “Everyone’s focus, energy and effort is going to be at an all-time high. And it really comes down to the team that kind of manages that the best and who can execute the most.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 7:57 AM.
