‘This year, it came our way.’ A defending state champion goes down in Lexington.
After moving to Class 2A in 2011, Lexington Christian Academy for nine straight seasons failed to get past the district championship round of the playoffs.
For a while, it looked like it would cruise to a streak-busting win on Friday night. Later, it appeared another heart-breaker was in the cards.
The Eagles buckled down and held off a rally by Somerset to leave with a 42-35 victory — as well as their first district title since 2010 — in the second round of the UK Orthopaedics/KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl.
It wasn’t merely a win in the district finals. It was a win over the team that ended its season, 28-26, in the same round last year and went on to claim the Class 2A state championship in dramatic fashion thanks to the heroics of a junior quarterback committed to the University of Kentucky.
Sure, it was just a second-round win as far as the bracket is concerned, but it was a major monkey off the program’s back. And the Eagles celebrated accordingly; there was even a Gatorade bath.
“This year, it came our way,” junior quarterback Drew Nieves, who threw three touchdowns and ran about 40 yards for what turned out to be the winning score with 8:02 to play, said.
LCA bolted to a 21-0 lead through one quarter, with touchdown throws from Nieves to Mason Moore and Xavier Brown sandwiching a TD run by Tyler Morris. Somerset finally got on the board early in the second quarter via a TD throw to Gavin Stevens from Kaiya Sheron, the UK commit.
The Eagles extended their lead on a throw from Nieves to Mattie Lebryk with 4:45 left in the first half, but they were outmatched for the remainder of the period and much of the third. Sheron scored on a rush with less than a minute to play in the first half, Chase Doan rushed for a Somerset touchdown early in the third then Sheron added another TD run with 3:24 to go in the quarter.
“We knew they were coming back,” LCA Coach Doug Charles said. “I told our kids (at halftime), ‘You think that bunch isn’t coming back? They’ve had a seat at the table and they don’t want to leave that table. We’re trying to get to the table. ... It’s zero to zero, and we’re gonna have to play our tails off to win this thing.’”
LCA answered the tying score a minute later on a 56-yard completion from Nieves to Moore. Mikey Garland punched in Somerset’s fifth TD with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter to make it 35-35.
Early during the Eagles’ next possession, Nieves and Brown nearly connected for a go-ahead score but the pass fell out of Brown’s hands. No harm done: Nieves on the next play scampered for the winning rush.
After a defensive stop they still weren’t out of the woods; a missed field goal with 2:41 left put the ball back in Sheron’s hands. The Briar Jumpers converted a first down but LCA proceeded to force four straight incomplete passes to get the ball back. Nieves converted a first down to set up a victory formation.
The last Sheron incompletion was a break-up along the sideline by a freshman, Parker Chaney, who earned a starting role after a teammate suffered an injury earlier in the year.
“He’s done that all year long. He’s a gamer,” Charles said. “You’ve gotta be a pretty good dude, if you’re a freshman, to play on this team, ‘cause we’re loaded up with upperclassmen.”
LCA will host Metcalfe County, a 34-27 winner over Edmonson County, in the third round next Friday. It’s a much shorter layoff than the one between the Eagles’ last game — an Oct. 30 win over Pikeville — and Friday’s contest, their first playoff game this year because of COVID-19 dropouts.
And for the first time in a decade, it’ll go forward as a district champ. With one hurdle overcome, a new one must be met: complacency.
“We played on big stages all year long against blue bloods that can play,” Charles said. “Our guys will be right back tomorrow morning in the film room at 9 o’clock and we’ll be right back to our normal grind.”
Highlights
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 12:05 AM.
