Raceland Rams’ battering too much for Sayre in Class A football playoffs

Raceland’s football players embraced the spirit of their mascot Friday night at Sayre.

A pulverizing run game put the Rams one step closer to a repeat trip to the Class A championship game. They defeated the Spartans 42-27 to set up a showdown with Kentucky Country Day next week in the semifinals.

Of the Rams’ 69 snaps, 63 stayed on the ground and most netted ample yardage. The visitors finished with a season-high 437 yards rushing — 180 more than their previous best — and were 12 of 12 on third-down tries.

Noah Wallace paced Raceland (10-3) with 25 carries for 209 yards, pushing him past 1,000 for the season. Jaxson Heighton had nine carries for 93 yards, the bulk of it coming on a single 72-yard scoring touch.

Quarterback Logan Lundy, who’s committed to play for Eastern Kentucky University, threw only six passes for 11 yards but ran for 139 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries.

“Believe it or not, the plan was to dominate the A gap tonight,” Lundy said with a laugh. “We talked all week about that. That was our goal, and it seemed to work out.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Sayre, in its first region championship appearance, took the game’s first lead on a 30-yard strike from Luke Pennington to Brock Coffman with a little more than three minutes off the clock. The Spartans’ defense twice threatened to snuff Raceland’s first drive — a penalty turned an iffy third-down try into a short one, and a fumble on the next set of downs was recovered for a Raceland first down at midfield — before Lundy scored his first TD with 1:34 to play in the first quarter.

Sayre (12-1) quickly retook the lead — a 46-yard throw from Pennington to Coffman gave way to a short TD pass to Charlie Slabaugh as the second period got started — but Raceland responded with a long march. Lundy capped a seven-minute drive with a short TD run, followed soon after by a two-point run by Isaac Browning.

Then a steady rain started to fall in Lexington. It slowed down Sayre enough to stifle its airstrike, then led to a botched punt that afforded Raceland a short field; Lundy scored his third TD with 38.9 seconds left in the first half.

Heighton’s 72-yard rush happened quickly out of the break, and was followed up by a successful squib kick recovery. Lundy closed that drive with one of his only two completions, a jumping TD pass to Brayden Webb to push the Raceland lead to 35-14.

“It was a (Tim) Tebow pass, they thought I was gonna run it and they jammed the box,” Lundy said. “The safety came up and I had big Brayden Webb over there, so I just dumped it off.”

A minute and a half later, Sayre was back within two scores after Coffman hauled in a 52-yard TD from Pennington. The Spartans showed resolve in the final quarter — they recovered a fumble and Coffman returned a rare Lundy pass for a pick six — but couldn’t get closer than the final margin.

Raceland wouldn’t relent.

“In November, there’s two things that don’t survive: dogs that try to cross the road in rush hour, and teams that can’t run the football,” Rams coach Michael Salmons said. “You gotta be able to run the football and stop the run. That’s what playoff football’s about, and our guys have really bought into that.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Raceland, ranked fifth in the final regular season RPI, will have to travel next week to KCD but will be a popular pick to reach the Class A finals scheduled for Dec. 1 at Kroger Field.

The Rams ended last season with a 41-9 loss to Pikeville. They won a road game against the Panthers — who will travel next week to Campbellsville — earlier this season, 7-6.

“If we keep working together and do everything we’re doing, and proving what we can do, I think we’ll be perfectly fine,” Rams lineman Evan Burroughs said.

Sayre delivered the young program’s best season to date and will return many of the skill players from this edition, including Pennington, who finished the season with 50 TD passes and zero interceptions, and Coffman, a Division I prospect. If they can build up some depth along the offensive and defensive lines — the bulk of their snaps on both sides were taken by five seniors — the Spartans can again be a challenger in Class A next fall.

“It’s been a year-long journey, and I’m just so proud of them,” Sayre coach Chad Pennington said. “I really am.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2023 at 8:40 AM.