LEXINGTON — It’s safe to assume Madison will be happy to see Lexington seniors Logan Pfizenmayer and Hunter Biddle earn diplomas when this school year ends.
The Rams saw quite enough of the dynamic duo Friday night as the Minutemen pounded the Rams 49-6 in an Ohio Cardinal Conference game.
Pfizenmayer, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound quarterback/linebacker, ran for four TDs, passed for a fifth and recovered a fumble.
Biddle, a 6-foot, 175-pound running back, pounded for 233 yards on 20 carries, adding two TDs of his own and two runs of 50-plus yards.
Despite the offensive explosion, it was the Lexington defense that had coach Taylor Gerhardt fired up afterward. Small wonder with Madison rushing for negative-20 yards and completing just 9 of 20 passes for 149 yards — 65 of which came on one scoring play with Lex leading 49-0.
The Lexington defense, allowing less than nine points a game this season, also came up with four Madison turnovers — two interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
“We love to play defense,” Gerhardt said. “We count on the ‘plus-one guy.’ Who is going to step up and make the big play? Our guys trust one another explicitly. When you have that kind of trust, you can just let it go.
“We did some things offensively tonight to put our defense in a bad spot. But those guys don’t care. They just wanna be on the field.”
SWEET REVENGE: The win avenged a 59-10 pounding Madison administered on Lexington last year after the Minutemen started the season 5-0.
Gerhardt empathized with Madison coach Jamie Masi, whose team fumbled the ball away inside its own 5-yard line on the game’s opening play.
“It’s hard to start like that,” he said. “We have been there before. The thing is a team like Madison is explosive. You cannot afford to take your foot off the gas against them.”
The third consecutive win for Lexington improved its record to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the suddenly wide-open Ohio Cardinal Conference. The Minutemen are tied for first in the OCC with Mansfield Senior (4-2, 2-0), slightly ahead of Wooster (5-1, 2-1) and Ashland (3-3, 2-1).
Lexington still has Wooster (next week), Mansfield Senior (week nine) and Ashland (week 10) on its schedule. All three games are on the road.
“This is still the OCC,” Gerhardt said. “Every week is a rivalry week. There are some good football teams in this league. We are happy to be where we are, but we know we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
CHANGES COMING: It was the fourth time Madison has allowed more than 40 points in a game this season, including back-to-back efforts.
The only Madison score came on the aforementioned 65-yard pass from senior QB Tresten Vail to junior Nathaniel West in the fourth quarter to avert the shutout.
“We are just not very good sometimes,” Masi said. “It’s time to do some self-evaluation, take a look at our athletes and maybe put them in different spots to succeed.
“We are just not getting it done. You can’t blame the kids … we have tremendous effort,” Masi said. “We as coaches just cannot continue to expect them to do things they have shown us they can’t do.
“We struggled to make tackles tonight and we have all year long. What can we do differently to get our kids the help they need on the field?
“It’s not a matter of just putting someone else onto the field. In the past we have had a ton of players. Our numbers this season are so low (27, including freshmen) that there just isn’t somone else to step up.”
Madison does have the luxury of playing at home for its remaining four games, starting with OCC foe Clear Fork (2-4, 0-3) next Friday.
