By MARTY WARREN
Contributing Writer

LEXINGTON – Top-ranked Lexington Christian scored early and often and eliminated Danville 61-13 in the second round of the Class AA Playoffs here Friday night.

The Eagles, 12-0 and the top-ranked RPI ranking in the state, scored on their first two possessions and on an interception return to take a quick 21-0 lead and Danville could never recover.

Still, Admirals coach Mark Peach was proud of what his team was able to accomplish.

“I’m absolutely proud of all of our guys,’ the Danville mentor said. “We won eight games and that was more than the last two teams combined. They gave us everything they had each week and the future is very bright. Only one team in each class gets to end the season with a win but you have to look at it in the entire context. We lost two games (LCA) that very well could win the Class AA state title and one game to a very talented 6A school (Bullitt East). Our seniors helped us get things on the right track and I thanked them for their effort.”

“Even with the loss tonight I feel like we are in a pretty good place. Our middle school team went undefeated and won their conference championship, our 4th and 5th graders won their championship and our 2nd and 3rd graders were runner-up. The future is bright for Danville football.”

Injuries played a big part in how the season ended. There were nine players injured on the sideline at one time against Somerset last week and Peach said he counted double digits injured on Friday night.

“We relied on a lot of freshmen late in the year and they all played well,” Peach said. “Demauriah Brown and Bradin Baughman are freshmen that will help us in the backfield for years to come while Gavin Rodriquez and Paul McClure played valuable minutes in the line for us all year.”

LCA’s quick strike offense struck first after Danville (8-5) went three and out on its opening possession.
Mr. Football candidate Xavier Brown, who scored four touchdowns three week ago in the Eagles’ 56-14 regular season win, raced 50 yards to paydirt on the sixth play from scrimmage to give LCA a quick 7-0 advantage.

The Eagles would score on its next possession when Jeremiah Riffle would race around left end for a 17-yard score a,d Mason Moore would intercept a Brady Morse pass and take the theft 40 yards to paydirt for a 21-0 lead after one period of play.

Danville’s defense would come to life in the second period while stopping the Eagles on three straight possessions, and the Ads offense put points on the board late in the half when Morse found a wide open Demauriah Brown open for a 47 yard pitch and catch to trim the lead to 21-7. LCA, however, got that score back just before the half when Nieves found Moore,who had six catches for 93 yards, wide open for a 44 yard scoring toss to give the Eagles a 28-7 lead at the half.

Once again, the third quarter belonged to Xavier Brown. He had scoring runs of 77 and 50 yards and LCA put the running clock on with 2:20 to play in the third quarter after a four yard Jay Emerson run.

Danville freshman Bradin Baughman scored from 37 yards out for the Ads final tally of the season.

“We’ll regroup and come back stronger,” Peach said. “We just need to get into the weight room. They haven’t been able to have an off season. Covid hit again, then there was the coaching transition. We’ll come back stronger next season.”

At Lexington
Danville 0 7 0 6 – 13
LCA 21 7 20 13 – 61

First Quarter
LCA – Xavier Brown 50 run (Andrew Dobbs kick), 8:16.
LCA – Jeremiah Riffle 17 run (Dobbs kick), 5:21.
LCA – Mason Moore 40 int. return (Dobbs kick), 3:23.
Second Quarter
D – Demauriah Brown 47 pass from Brady Morse (Keegyn Wilcher kick), 3:15.
LCA – Moore 44 pass from Drew Nieves (Dobbs kick), 1:26.
Third Quarter
LCA – Brown 77 run (Dobbs kick), 11:10.
LCA – Brown 50 run (run failed), 5:16.
LCA – Jay Emerson 4 run (Dobbs kick), 2:20.
Fourth Quarter
D – Bradin Baughman 37 run (kick failed), 10:10.
LCA – Saxton Howard 52 run (Dobbs kick), 6:28.
LCA – Interception return (no attempt), :00.
RUSHING – Danville, Bradin Baughman 8-67, Demauriah Brown 13-61, Brady Morse 5-(minus 26). LCA,Xavier Brown 9-184, Jeremiah Riffle 3-19, Parker Chaney 2-40, JVeantae Emerson 6-44, Drew Nieves 6-14, Saxton Howard 1-52, Josh Tejerina 1-12, Frankie Knight 1-21.
PASSING – Danville, Morse 7-18-2-111. LCA, Nieves 9-16-0-123, Moore 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING – Danville, Corydon 2-35, D. Brown 2-54, Caleb Burns 1-11, Ryan Clarkson 2-11. LCA, Moore 6-93, Chaney 1-2, Jeffrey Selby 2-28.