LEXINGTON, Ohio — There were two different smiles from two different football coaches for two different reasons Friday night.
Ashland coach Scott Valentine was thrilled with his team after the Arrows dominated Lexington for a 38-6 victory that clinched an Ohio Cardinal Conference tri-championship and a probable playoff spot.
“We’ve had good teams that could have, should have been league champs that couldn’t do it,” a smiling Valentine said. “We told the kids you really have to enjoy this time tonight because we haven’t had (a league title) in a while.”
Lexington football coach Taylor Gerhardt wasn’t smiling upon entering his office after the game. But when prodded to discuss the season as a whole, he spoke with pride about a squad that improved from an 0-10 campaign in 2014 to a 6-4 mark in 2015.
“We felt we could win quite a few games because we had talent, it was just young,” Gerhardt said. “We knew the kind of kids that we had, how hard they would work, and they bought into our system.”
The Minutemen finished the season 6-4 overall, 3-4 in the OCC.
“Our goal was to finish every game and outside of the Madison game we did that,” Gerhardt said. “Now we need to go back and evaluate where we are and where we can improve and go to work from there.”
Week 11: For the Arrows, this season figures to continue in the playoffs. The official pairings will be released on Sunday, but Ashland was fifth in Division III, Region 8 coming into the weekend.
A victory over a six-win foe in the regular-season finale should provide ample cushion to reach the postseason.
“You would always like to have a home game, but we’re in one of the toughest regions in the state,” Valentine said. “We just want to get in.”
Scoring Spree: Ashland ended the suspense early at Lexington. Junior Grant Denbow’s 57-yard touchdown pass to John Wolfe with 5:31 showing in the first quarter provided all the points the Arrows would need. Yet they had plenty of ammunition remaining.
In the second period, Denbow shook loose for a 43-yard touchdown run, then Lonzo Dampier added TD dashes of 2 and 11 yards. Just before the half, Denbow fired a 20-yard touchdown pass to Cole McQuate for a 32-0 bulge.
“We weren’t ready to play off the bat and it showed,” Gerhardt said.
Lexington (6-4 overall, 3-4 in the OCC) corrected that issue on its opening drive of the second half. The Minutemen marched 62 yards on 14 plays and finished it on quarterback Joey Vore’s 2-yard fourth-down sneak.
But that was it for the offense. Hunter Biddle had 22 carries for 85 yards and A.J. Nickoli added 7 catches for 30 yards, breaking the Lexington career receptions record in the process.
“We only have three seniors so we’ll have a lot coming back,” Gerhardt said.
Ashland responded in the fourth quarter with Dampier’s 6-yard TD run to provide the final score. Denbow completed 11 of 15 passes for 148 yards and Dampier had 15 carries for 78 yards.
The Arrows (9-1, 6-1) tied for a conference championship with Wooster and Mansfield Senior. Now they await Sunday’s pairings announcement and plan to be back in action on Friday night.
