MILLERSBURG — From the first offensive series of the game, Lexington let it be known that this all-important Ohio Cardinal Conference game between two 5-1 teams and both undefeated in league play, wasn’t going to be a contest.
And it wasn’t.
On the fifth offensive play of their opening drive, Lexington quarterback Joe Caudill dropped back and launched a deep ball to wide receiver Brayden Fogle near the right sideline that he caught for a touchdown.
On their next offensive series, Lexington proceeded to score again on a touchdown run from running back Markale Martin ― his first of two touchdown runs in the game ― to make it 14-0. It only continued from there, as Lexington (6-1, 3-0) handed West Holmes (5-2, 3-1) a 41-7 defeat and positioned themselves right there with 7-0 Ashland as the OCC frontrunners with three weeks of regular season football to be played.
West Holmes head coach Keaton Leppla said the biggest challenge for his team coming in versus the Minutemen was dealing with all the athletes they have. That was evident throughout, as Lexington’s athleticism, length, quickness and jumping ability of wide receivers Fogle and Avery Crawford (2 TD catches) in winning those 50-50 balls in the air just outmatched West Holmes on the evening.
“All the athletes they had. All the offensive players they have across the board,” said Leppla. “Long, lanky guys on defense. Just making sure we account for all their athletes, which we didn’t do tonight.”
“I think we came out ready to play and offensively we had great balance,” said Lexington head coach Andrew Saris. “We knew we would have to play strong on the line of scrimmage. We were able to run the football and take our shots when we needed to. Running the football opens up those shots down field.”
Coming into Friday’s game, West Holmes defensively have been locked in, holding teams to 4.7 points per game on a total of 19 points in their last four wins. Against Lexington, the Knights just couldn’t get it right, especially on the communication side.
“The biggest thing defensively all night, we lacked communcation across the board,” Leppla said, who added that his team’s many dropped balls and number of false start penalties on offense plagued his group as well. “We played on our heels defensively. We were hesitant and we played opposite the way we want to play defensive football here.”
The Minutemen carried a 34-0 lead into the halftime and afterwards Saris was asked if this was the best first half of football he’s seen from his team all season.
“Yeah, I would put it up there,” he said. “I thought our execution was there from the offensive and defensive gameplan.”
West Holmes will have to put this loss in the rearview and look towards another stern test next week against last year’s OCC winners Ashland.
“It’s a reality check for us. We’re not as good as we thought we were,” said Leppla. “We’re not where we wanna be. We have to get back to work to get better.”
jamessimpson@gannett.com
Twitter/X: @JamesSimpsonII
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: West Holmes can’t overcome Lexington’s fine balance in decisive OCC league loss
Reporting by James Simpson II, Wooster Daily Record / The Daily Record
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
