‘We’ll be back.’ Once again, Beechwood ends Lexington Christian Academy’s football season.
Beechwood’s reign of terror over Lexington Christian Academy in the Kentucky high school football state championships continued Friday night.
Amid frigid conditions — and some snow flurries — at Tiger Stadium in Fort Mitchell, it was once again host Beechwood that dealt LCA a late-stage playoff defeat.
The Tigers topped the Eagles, 44-24, in a Class 2A state semifinal.
The result means Beechwood — a proud program with 17 state championships — is now 5-1 against LCA over the last 20 years. Beechwood has topped LCA in the 2007 Class A state championship game, the 2020 Class 2A state championship game, the 2021 Class 2A state championship game and now in the 2024 Class 2A state semifinals.
Beechwood (13-1) produced more than 500 yards of total offense in the win, setting up a showdown for the Class 2A state title on Friday afternoon at Lexington’s Kroger Field against undefeated Owensboro Catholic (14-0). The Aces defeated Somerset in the other Class 2A semifinal.
The Tigers controlled things from start to finish in their most recent win over the Eagles. Beechwood raced to a 12-0 lead after the first quarter in front of its home crowd in Fort Mitchell, and LCA never again got within single digits.
Beechwood senior quarterback Clay Hayden threw for 258 yards and two scores in the state semifinal win, while three different Tigers logged a rushing score.
“Coming out here tonight, it felt like we over prepared. And it proved. We were ready to play, got up 18-0 in the first half and really showed our preparation for this game,” said Hayden, who has 46 passing touchdowns this season.
Star senior running back Chase Flaherty scored a touchdown on two of his three carries for Beechwood, but left the game after suffering a right knee injury during the second of his scores. That touchdown came early in the second quarter and gave Beechwood a commanding 18-0 lead.
The health of Flaherty — who has rushed for more than 1,300 yards and 26 touchdowns this season — will be crucial to Beechwood’s chances in next week’s state title game.
With Flaherty sidelined for most of Friday’s game against LCA, the Tigers got a big boost from sophomore Nathan Pabst, who ran 12 times for 110 yards and two touchdowns.
“That kid’s resilient,” Hayden said of Pabst. “All summer he’s been there for us. When guys went down, he came up, stepped up (against Covington Catholic, the only team to beat Beechwood this season). … Tonight, another guy goes down, guess who steps in? Pabst.”
Beechwood’s other rushing score came courtesy of senior James Cusick, who recorded a 48-yard TD as Beechwood’s punter. Cusick fielded a low snap on a Beechwood punt attempt and then broke loose up the left sideline for the Tigers’ second score of the game.
“I think it starts with the brotherhood,” Hayden said when asked why this year’s Beechwood team will play for a state championship. “The guys this year are just so interconnected. We’ve all known each other since at least freshman year. Most of the guys, their whole lives. … Just been waiting for this kind of moment to happen.”
Beechwood, which has won nine straight games, intercepted LCA senior quarterback Saxton Howard three times on Friday. Howard did prove effective with his legs, though, gaining 94 yards on 14 rushing attempts.
Two of LCA’s touchdowns were rushing scores from sophomore Daven Hood, who carried the ball 11 times for 106 yards. Senior Leland Edwards — who entered the contest with 19 rushing scores and more than 1,200 rushing yards — was held in check by Beechwood. Edwards gained only 50 yards on 13 rushing attempts.
“We knew our margin of error coming in was pretty thin,” LCA head coach Doug Charles said. “You get behind and you start trying to get out of some of the stuff you like to do. Credit to them, they had a good game plan and were able to negate some of the things we wanted to do early. … Just couldn’t make the timely plays when we needed to.”
LCA (11-3) was one of four Lexington schools in state semifinal action Friday night. In addition to the Eagles, Lexington Catholic (Class 3A) and Frederick Douglass (Class 6A) also lost. Sayre (Class A) won its state semifinal and will play for a state championship next week.
Simply making it to the penultimate week of the season should be viewed as a big win for LCA, which began the season 0-2 before rattling off 11 straight wins entering this week.
Last week, the Eagles won convincingly at defending Class 2A state champion Mayfield, which snapped a run of two straight years in which Mayfield ended LCA’s season.
But getting rid of the decades-long playoff torment inflicted by Beechwood proved to be too tough a task for LCA, which will graduate 11 seniors from this year’s team.
“This group was arguably one of the funnest groups that we’ve been around and highest character groups we’ve been around,” Charles said. “A lot of people had written their obituaries when we started out 0-2. ‘They’re rebuilding’ and all the other stuff. We accomplished a lot of good things this year. We can build on that. … We’ve got a group of young guys that have elite talent. We’ll be back.”
While LCA’s 2024 season may be over, a major football moment for a prominent program alumnus was set to take place Saturday.
Ex-LCA and current UK quarterback Cutter Boley was to make his first start for the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon in the Governor’s Cup rivalry showdown with Louisville.
Class 2A state championship
Beechwood vs. Owensboro Catholic
When: 4 p.m. Friday
Where: Kroger Field in Lexington
Records: Beechwood 13-1, Owensboro Catholic (14-0)
This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 9:04 AM.
