‘Let’s go do this.’ Lexington Christian outlasts Bowling Green in a slugfest.
The numbers tell a wild tale of Saturday’s game between Lexington Christian, Class 2A’s Herald-Leader preseason No. 3 team, and Bowling Green, Class 5A’s No. 1, at Western Kentucky University’s Houchens Industries L. T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green.
Let’s start with the final score: Lexington Christian 56, Bowling Green 52.
Lead changes: nine, eight of those in the second half and an astounding six in the fourth quarter.
Total offense: 1,309 yards.
LCA accounted for a school-record 800 yards of that, the fourth most offensive yards by a team in state history.
And one LCA player, senior running back Brady Hensley, racked up the bulk of it with 402 yards rushing and five touchdowns to go with 87 yards receiving and two scores.
Hensley, a transfer from Madison Central who has committed to play at Eastern Kentucky, scored the last of his seven touchdowns on an 11-yard run with 27 seconds to go in the game to help LCA retake the lead for the fifth and final time.
He scored some of the others in more spectacular fashion, including a 62-yard TD run in the first quarter that was followed almost immediately by a 71-yard TD run in the second quarter.
And then there’s the flea flicker — a double reverse that wound its way back into LCA quarterback Cutter Boley’s hands for a 48-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Hensley down the right sideline midway through the fourth quarter.
“What a game! Brady is just different. He just won’t go down,” said Boley, the Kentucky commit who had a pretty impressive performance himself with 342 yards and three TDs passing. “It sure is nice having him back in the backfield with me, and his football IQ is elite. That was probably the funnest game I’ve ever played in. We have an elite group of guys at LCA and I can’t wait to see what we can do the rest of the season.”
LCA grabbed the win despite allowing Bowling Green an interception return for a touchdown, a fumble recovery for a touchdown and a return on the opening kickoff of the game for a touchdown.
And never mind the performance of Purples quarterback Deuce Bailey, who threw for 478 yards and four scores with two 100-yard receivers in Trevy Barber and Matthew Klein.
Bailey’s 72-yard TD pass to Klein with 2:09 left to play in the game gave Bowling Green what turned out to be a completely unsafe 52-49 lead.
“The thing I was most proud about was the body language of our team,” LCA Coach Doug Charles said. “We didn’t blink. Not one time did we drop our head or shrug our shoulders. …
“When they scored with two minutes to go, and we got the ball back — two minutes to go, two timeouts — our offensive line, Cutter, Brady, they were just smiling. They said, ‘Guys, let’s go do this.’”
Bowling Green had only 27 seconds left to try to get a potential game-winning touchdown, and the Purples moved within striking distance in just a few plays. But faced with a blitz on LCA’s 24-yard line with eight seconds left, Bailey scrambled backwards out of the pocket and succumbed to the Eagles’ rush in a game-ending sack.
LCA will have to address some defensive lapses to continue to compete with some of its early-season opponents, like preseason Class 4A No. 1 Boyle County in Danville next Saturday. But Charles knows his team won’t back down from anyone.
“Our guys just block out all the noise and all the clutter and just believe in each other,” Charles said. “We’ve got a lot of veterans and we’ve faced a lot of adversity, and our guys are just hungry.”
Other Saturday games
Archbishop Hoban (Ohio) 45, Frederick Douglass 6: The Broncos had trouble dealing with their powerful Akron, Ohio, opponent from the outset Saturday afternoon at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.
The Knights, state runners-up in their class last year, saw Tylan Boykin throw a 46-yard TD to Parker Falkenstein, Caleb Jones rush for three TDs, an Anthony McMullen run for another score and Ryan Burns kick a 35-yard field goal all in the first half for a 38-0 lead that put Douglass under a rare running clock for the rest of the game.
McMullen’s 3-yard TD run on the heels of a Douglass fumble made the score 45-0 in the third quarter.
Douglass avoided the shutout by capitalizing on a Hoban fumble on its own 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Dakari Talbert scored the Broncos’ TD.
Boyle County 36, Gibson Southern (Ind.) 6: The Rebels’ Montavin Quisenberry scored three touchdowns, two via passes from Sage Dawson, who totaled 303 passing yards in this Rafferty’s Bowl rout at Western Kentucky University.
Avery Bodner opened the scoring with an 80-yard TD run. Bodner finished with 150 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Harrison County 40, Calloway County 33: Kaydon Custard threw for 324 yards and two TDs and rushed for 316 yards and four scores in the Thorobreds’ win over western Kentucky’s Lakers.
This story was originally published August 20, 2023 at 9:04 AM.
