ONTARIO — Lexington was on the learning end of several lessons in 2013-14 football seasons, when the Minutemen dropped 19 of 20 games.
But those days are long gone. Now it appears the Minutemen are poised to be the tutors. The first schooling was delivered on Friday night, when coach Taylor Gerhardt’s team controlled Ontario 24-6 at Copeland Field.
“I’m proud of the boys, they played their hearts out,” the third-year coach said. “The kids were very happy to be playing. They were really geeked up.”
Maybe too fired up to start. Ontario quarterback Trevian Jordan took the season’s first snap, faked a hand-off to a crossing back, planted his foot and tore through the middle of the line for a stunning, 66-yard TD dash and a 6-0 lead.
But that was the highlight for the Warriors, who struggled offensively the remainder of the night.
“He’s got that kind of ability,” Ontario coach Chris Hawkins said. “But offensively we got handled up front (after that).”
Lexington answered back later in the first quarter when quarterback Logan Pfizenmayer tossed a short pass to senior A.J. Nickoli, who weaved his way 22 yards for a score.
In the second quarter, Nickoli took an option pitch 37 yards for another touchdown and a 12-6 Lex edge. He also intercepted a pass in the end zone to stymie a promising Ontario march.
“We have a lot of playmakers on our team and they executed great,” Gerhardt said. “We didn’t design anything to specifically highlight those guys, but they made plays tonight.”
Gerhardt’s son got into the act next, taking a hand-off in the backfield and firing a 74-yard scoring strike to sophomore Cade Stover, who flashed behind the defense for an 18-6 halftime margin.
Stover set that score up with his own end-zone interception, part of a five-turnover night caused by the Lexington defense.
“First and foremost, we can’t win a game with that many turnovers,” Hawkins said. “I’ve never coached a team that finished negative in the turnover ratio for the season … and tonight we didn’t turn them over. We just can’t do that.”
Lexington ground out the clock in the second half, controlling the ball behind a 110-yard performance from senior running back Hunter Biddle.
Pfizenmayer connected on 8 of 15 passes for 145 yards and two TDs. Stover caught two passes for 113 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the second one a 39-yarder for the only score in the second half. Nickoli caught six passes for 77 yards and the offense churned out 422 total yards, more than 200 apiece rushing and passing.
“Definitely, I’m very happy the way we moved the ball, but I’m very unhappy with how sloppy we were,” Gerhardt said.
The Minutemen had 15 penalties for 155 yards one of them wiped out a kickoff return for a touchdown.
Ontario was limited to 162 yards of total offense, with Jordan gaining 74 yards on 14 carries. He was hobbled at the end of the first half with a foot injury, and the Warriors struggled to move the ball afterward.
“There were a couple of plays he would’ve normally pulled that he couldn’t,” Hawkins said. “But I thought our defense played great in the second half.
“When we went in at halftime I saw shoulders shrugging and heads dropping down and that got me fired up. I told them there’s no shame in losing if you play hard until there’s three zeroes on the scoreboard. We came up short on the scoreboard but we made a huge stride.”
