By JUSTIN HOLBROOK

Contributing Writer

BELFRY — A Lion is faster than a Pirate on most occasions.

But that wasn’t the case Friday night, as the Golden Lions of Garrard County traveled to Belfry to take on the Pirates in the opening round of the Class 3A Playoffs.

Belfry used speed and its quick-striking ability to blow past Garrard County 41-0.

“Belfry has some athletes,” Golden Lion coach Jerry Perry said. “I’m not being facetious here, but when the other team is faster going backwards than you are forward, then you’re in trouble. We just couldn’t match their speed.”

Belfry’s six touchdowns were all of the quick variety, as their longest scoring drive was three plays.

The Lions didn’t help their cause with a pair of fumbles and going down on a knee during a punt deep inside Pirate territory.

“We knew we would have to play a clean game against a team like Belfry,” Perry said.

“We made too many mistakes. But a lot of that is us trying to make up for their speed. But our kids

fought hard, this bunch always fights hard and they battle.”

Garrard County fumbled on their second play of the game and Belfry quickly turned it into points as Isaac Dixon scored on Belfry’s third play, giving Belfry an early 7-0 lead.

Then came the longest drive of the game for the Golden Lions. Garrard County put together an 18-play drive, methodically marching the ball down the field, from their own 24-yardlne, and reaching up to the Belfry 19-yardline, before the drive started going in reverse.

On the drive, Garrard County converted two fourth downs and had the ball at the 19-yard line with a first down. But the Golden Lions attempted two pass plays, which fell incomplete, followed by a holding call and a pair of delay of games to force a punt on a drive which reached the redzone.

“I made a dumb call,” Perry said. “We were running between their tackles and I passed, I should have stuck with what was working. I felt that after we failed to score, the air kind of went out of our sail.”

Belfry capitalized as fullback Brett Coleman broke a 68-yard run to push the Pirate lead to 14-0 with 11:49 to play in the first half.

After Garrard County and Belfry exchanged fumbles, Dixon scored again for Belfry, hitting paydirt from 63-yards out, giving the Pirates a 20-0 edge with 6:35 to play in the opening half.

On the ensuing possession, Garrard County punted from deep in its territory and the knee of punter Brice Burkhart went down to give the Pirates the ball inside the ten.

The Pirates took advantage of the Golden Lion mistake as Belfry scored on the next play as Ben Bentley ran the ball in from seven-yards out, giving Belfry a 27-0 lead with five minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Belfry scored one more time before the half, behind a long run and long pass from Pirate quarterback Avery Browning. It was Browning that capped off the drive from one-yard out, giving the Pirates a 34-0 halftime advantage.

The final score of the game came on the opening kickoff of the second half, as Dixon ran the kick back 75-yards untouched to make the final score 41-0.

Dixon led the way for Belfry with three scores, carrying the both two times for 90 yards and two rushing TD’s and one kick return for 75 yards.

“We have a lot of guys that can make plays, “Belfry coach Philip Haywood said. “On any given night, we have numerous guys that can take over, tonight Isaac (Dixon) had a good game. But we played well defensively. I thought we did a lot of little things better tonight. We are getting better and we still have a lot of room to improve.”

Senior’s Willie Rader and David Pennington led the offensive attack for Garrard County. Rader carried the ball 19 times for 60 yards and Pennington added 46-yards on 13 carries. Burkhart completed three of his seven pass attempts as the Lions threw for 30-yards.

Belfry (9-2) will host Lexington Catholic Friday night. Garrard County ends their season with a 2-9 record.

SCORE BY QUARTER

BELFRY….7-27-7-0—41

Garrard County…0-0-0-0—0

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter

B –  10:29: Dixon 27-yard run (Cook EP) 7-0

2nd Quarter

B – 11:49: Coleman 69-yard run (Cook EP) 14-0

B – 6:32: Dixon 63-yard run (kick failed) 20-0

B –  5:00: Bentley seven-yard run (Cook EP) 27-0

B – .17: Browning one-yard run (Coop EP) 34-0

3rd Quarter

B – 11:47: Dixon 75-yard kick return (Cook EP) 41-0

4th Quarter

No Scoring