NEWS REPORT

Danville was within striking distance of a win, but the big strike never came.

The Admirals stayed close to Leslie County but couldn’t get over the hump Friday night in a 25-19 loss in their District 2A-6 opener in Hyden.

The Admirals quickly tied the game after Leslie’s first score and were within a touchdown for about 15 minutes before the Eagles took a two-score lead with 8:01 remaining.

Braidin Baughman ran for 103 yards and two touchdowns to lead Danville (0-7, 0-1 district) on offense, and the Admirals’ defense allowed fewer points than in any game this season.

The Admirals attempted to rally after Leslie (5-2, 1-0) took a 25-13 lead on the third rushing touchdown of the night by quarterback Landry Collett.

Danville scored on fourth-and-7 from the Leslie 30-yard line when Demontrae Trumbo went airborne at the 3-yard line to haul in a pass from Enrique Gutierrez-Jacobs and slipped into the end zone with 4:14 to play.

Kicker Kaleb Wilcher had been 5 for 5 in onside kick attempts this season with four successful onside kicks in Danville’s previous two games, but the Admirals couldn’t recover his onside attempt after Trumbo’s TD and the Eagles were able to run out the clock.

Leslie had 419 yards of offense, including 226 rushing yards. Dalton Maggard led the Eagles with 135 yards and 25 carries.

Collett, who ran for 32 yards, completed 13 of 18 passes for 193 yards.

Danville’s 229 yards were almost evenly distributed between run and pass, with Gutierrez-Jacobs throwing for 118 yards – he was 9 for 14 – and the Admirals running for 111 yards.

Trumbo had three catches for 64 yards, Baughman caught three passes for 12 yards and Trinden Sellers caught two passes for 46 yards.

Sellers returned a kickoff 35 yards to the Leslie 33-yard line after the Eagles’ first score, and Baughman dived into the end zone from a yard out about a minute later to tie the game at 7-all.

The Eagles answered on their next possession with the first of Collett’s three TD runs, then used the second to take a 19-7 lead in the second quarter after the Admirals turned the ball over on downs at the Leslie 34.

Danville pulled within 19-13 on a 46-yard run by Baughman, who slid past one defender at the 40 and threw another defense aside at the 15 on his way to the end zone.

The Admirals’ Kingston Jones intercepted a pass at the Danville 1 to stop a Leslie scoring threat just before halftime, and neither team scored again until the fourth quarter.

On its first series of the second half, Danville went for a first down on fourth-and-12 from the Leslie 48, and Sellers was stopped very close to the line to gain after catching a pass. The officials ruled he had not reached the first-down marker, and Danville coach Frank Parks Jr. pleaded for a measurement but was not granted it.

Danville hits the road again this week for a game against Somerset that pits the Admirals against former coach Clay Clevenger for the first time.

Clevenger, a 1996 Danville graduate who coached the Admirals for eight seasons before he was fired after the 2020 season, is in his first year as coach at Somerset, Danville’s oldest rival. The Briar Jumpers are 5-2 after a 42-21 win over Breathitt County in their district opener two Fridays ago. They are averaging 34.6 points per game and have scored more than 40 points in wins over Knox Central, Garrard County and Breathitt.

Scoring summary

DHS 7 6 0 6 – 19

LC 13 6 0 6 – 25

First Quarter

LC – Dalton Baker 7 run (Jesse Osborne), 6:59.

DHS – Braidin Baughman 1 run (Kaleb Wilcher kick), 5:48.

LC – Landry Collett 10 run (run failed), 1:54.

Second Quarter

LC – Collett 1 run (run failed), 4:59.

DHS – Baughman 46 run (run failed), 2:32.

Fourth Quarter

LC – Collett 6 run (pass failed), 8:01.

DHS – Demontrae Trumbo 30 pass from Enrique Gutierrez-Jacobs (run failed), 4:14.