MADISON TOWNSHIP — Ashland’s percolating offense has the Arrows headed to an Ohio Cardinal Conference title-game showdown next week vs. Lexington.
Junior quarterback Keenan Armitage accounted for four touchdowns to fuel the latest offensive onslaught in a 42-20 win at Madison on Friday night. Meanwhile, Lexington clinched at least a share of the OCC championship with a victory at Mansfield Senior.
Coach Scott Valentine’s team (6-3 overall, 4-1 in the OCC) can tie the Minutemen (7-2, 5-0) with one more win.
“It’s a championship week and a rivalry week,” Valentine said. “We’re going to celebrate this one tonight and then it’s championship week.”
Armitage fired TD passes of 52 and 59 yards, and hammered over on a pair of 1-yard plunges as the Arrows knocked off their Ohio Cardinal Conference rivals on Parents Night at Ram Field.
“We’ve got a lot of weapons and we’ve got a lot of guys we can go to” Valentine said. “It makes us tough to defend.”
Madison (2-7, 0-5) opened a quick 6-0 lead when Tresten Vail flipped a 20-yard TD pass to Tyrell Ajian. But that was the Rams’ only lead of the night.
Armitage quickly countered with a 1-yard blast to cap a 47-yard drive after Grant Denbow’s interception. That made it 7-6 heading to the second quarter.
Armitage then sandwiched a pair of TD bombs around a Tresten Vail 16-yard touchdown dash, and capped another scoring march with just 39 seconds showing in the half. The total was 28-14 at the half.
“The kids came to us and said they felt like we could run it on them (in the second half),” Valentine said.
That was the primer for running back Owen Reef, who scored on a pair of fourth-quarter dashes, of 23 and 38 yards to offset Ajian’s 15-yard TD dash.
Reef finished with 202 yards on 18 carries and a pair of scores. Armitage was 17 of 26 passing for 257 yards and a four touchdowns total.
Vail topped the Rams with 96 yards rushing and a score, and completed 19 of 32 passes for 158 yards and a TD. Ajian, bound for Kentucky next fall, had 19 total touches for 96 yards, evenly split between receiving and rushing.
Madison finishes the season on Friday night at home against arch-rival Mansfield Senior.
