By MARTY WARREN
Contributing Writer

STANFORD -It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it was a win nonetheless.

Danville scored 14 points while running just one offensive play and having the ball for just nine seconds during the first quarter, but struggled to score the rest of the night against Garrard County’s ball control offense but held on for a 23-20 win over the Golden Lions in the PBK Bank-WPBK FM Death Valley Bowl Friday at Lincoln County.

Garrard, who played without Head Coach Jerry Perry because of illness, responded to Assistant Coach Bret Baierlein and the Lions patented ball control offense to keep the game close. The Lions ran 18 plays to Danville’s one during the first frame and had the ball for 11 minutes, 51 seconds compared to the Admirals’ one play for just nine seconds. Still, Danville scored on a 63 yard pass from Brady Morse to Keelan Story and the defense scored six of its eight points on the night when Caleb Burns scooped up a fumble and went 32 yards to score.

Keagan Wilcher tacked on both conversions after the scores for a quick 14-0 advantage.

“First of all, I wish coach Jerry Perry a speedy recovery,” Danville coach Mark Peach said. “I thought his kids played their hearts out for him tonight. We got off to a great start but I told our kids that football was a funny game. When we went up 14-0, our kids thought our work was done. I told the kids that you have to consistently earn it. Garrard wasn’t just going to sit back and give it to them. Hats off to Garrard. After getting down early they didn’t quit and made us earn everything from that point on.”

After spotting Danville a 14-0 advantage, Garrard responded with an eight play, 72 yard drive of its own and scored when Austin Adams, who led all rushers with 110 yards on 15 attempts, raced right up the middle untouched for a 39 yard touchdown run. He also ran for the two-point conversion to trim the lead to 14-8 to begin the second quarter.

“Sometimes it’s a journey for this group,” Peach added. “The preparation for this game was up and down all week, then we were able to get the two quick scores and the guys thought it would be easy the rest of the way.

We told the guys, however, that practice and preparation equals game reality.”

The Ads quick-strike offense responded again following the score when Demauriah Grey capped a 67 yard, six play drive when he scored from 36 yards on an option. Wilcher’s PAT gave the Ads a 21-8 lead.

Danville’s defense put points on the board again just before the break following a sensational 51-yard punt from Wilcher that rolleed dead at the Lions’ one-yard line. Two plays later, Quisenberry was sacked in the end zone for a safety and a 23-8 lead at the half.

”We’re going to see all kinds of styles of football as the year goes on,” Peach said. “We’re going to see smash mouth football like we did tonight and there are going to be nights where teams just spread us out and throw it all over the field. I thought our defense, with the exception of the one big run, did a nice job tonight. But, at the same time, we have to cut down on some of our silly penalties. That is something we will have to correct.’

Garrard used a 14 play, 74 yard drive to score as the fourth quarter began when Quisenberry connected with Chase Burkhart on a 12 yard scoring strike to trim the lead to 23-14, then used an impressive 96 yard, 15 play drive to score again when Quisenberry connected with Burkhart for a six yard touchdown pass. The only problem was Garrard used 7:37 off the clock during the drive and left just 53.8 seconds on the clock for a potential onsides kick, but Danville recovered to seal the win.

“I told our guys that anytime you can still find a way to win, it’s a good sign,” the Danville coach said. “We can learn from this. I like our group and feel like they will bounce back and have a really good week of practice this week to prepare for Lincoln County. If we don’t take it seriously, it won’t be much of a game. They handled Somerset (50-20) pretty well tonight.”

PBK – WPBK Death Valley Bowl
Garrard County 0     8    0    12 – 20
Danville              14    9    0      0 – 23

First Quarter
Danville – Keelan Story 63 pass from Brady Morse (Keegan Wilcher kick), 5:06.
Danville – Caleb Burns 32 fumble recovery (Wilcher kick), 4:30.

Second Quarter
Garrard – Austin Adams 39 run (Adams run), 11:12.
Danville – Demauriah Grey 36 run (Wilcher kick), 8:32.
Danville – Safety, 3:13.

Fourth Quarter
Garrard – Chase Burkhart 12 pass from Montavin Quisenberry (run failed), 11:48.
Garrard- Burkhart 6 pass from Quisenberry (pass failed), :53.8.

Head-to head – Danville – Garrard
First downs             9             17

Rushes- Yds        29-148    44-219

Passing Yds             103          83

Total Yards              251         302

Comp-Att-Int        2-6-0       7-12-0
Fumbles-Lost          0-0            3-1
Penalties-Yds           8-90         5-30
RUSHING – Danville, Caleb Burns 12-77, Demauriah Grey 4-51, Xzavion Grey 5-26, Keelan Story 1-minus 2, Brady Morse 5-minus 2, Team- minus 2. Garrard, Montavin Quisenberry 18-62, Maishawn Baker 10-50, Austin Adams 15-110, Chase Burkhart 1-minus 3.
PASSING – Danville, Morse 2-6-0-103. Garrard, Quisenberry 7-12-0-83.
RECEIVING – Danville, Story 1-63, Malachi Arnold 1-40. Garrard, Burkhart 5-74, Baker 2-9.