Blythewood -- After last week’s come-from-behind 25-24 win over Stratford High School,
Lexington had the pleasure of knocking out a wire-to-wire 32-7 victory over Blythewood at
Blythewood’s Richland District Two Stadium on Friday.
In a game in which the Wildcats, who improved to 4-0 on the season, enjoyed great field
possession throughout, Taiden Mines was 11-for-16 in passing for 178 yards and two touchdowns
with no interceptions. Cam Morris rushed 11 times for just 54 yards but scored the game’s first two
touchdowns on short runs.
Mines’ passing and Morris’ timely rushes enabled the Wildcats to get past Blythewood’s
fearsome defensive front.
“They have some really, really good athletes over there. I was pretty nervous about this game
all week,” first year LHS head coach Dustin Curtis said. “They and West Florence (a 17-7 victory) have
tremendous defensive fronts, and Blythewood made us complete some passes and fortunately we
did."
Curtis, whose first job as head coach was at Westwood before moving on to winning a state
championship at A.C. Flora and coaching at Dorman for a year, added that Mines and wide receiver
Brandon Cromer, who had five catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns, were instrumental.
“Brandon Cromer had a heck of a game, and Taiden did as well in throwing the ball,” Curtis
said. “They (the Bengals) played a lot of cover zero and were forcing the ball in the air.
Fortunately, we were able to hold up protection-wise and were able to make some plays.”
Lexington went up 14-0 by first quarter’s end, getting the two rushing scores from Morris and a
Mines-to-Noah McClary 2-point conversion pass.
Lexington placekicker Tyler Chavis made good on a 41-yard field goal attempt at the 8:32 mark
of the second quarter. Just before the half, Mines connected with Cromer for a 17-yard TD pass, and
threw to Tyler DiRienzo for another 2-point conversion to make it 25-0.
Blythewood’s first half was more of a mess than a mission. Harrison Collins’ first pass attempt
was an interception to Lexington defender Duke Cleary, which led to Morris’ first touchdown on
a 4-yard run that capped a 55-yard drive.
The rest of the Bengals’ possessions ended with punts.
Blythewood’s best chance for an offensive score came in the second quarter. The Bengals
drove from their 15-yard line to the Lexington 27 with much of their offense coming on runs of six
to 12 yards. A holding penalty knocked out a pass play that drew them inside the 20. After that
miscue came a false start, a quarterback sack and a 10-yard loss from Jose Haro, and a second
false start.
Those errors put the Bengals back on their 41 and forced a punt. Lexington opened the
second half with a quick drive that Mines capped with another touchdown pass to Cromer, this
one for 36 yards, to make it 32-0. The Wildcats held the Bengals to 99 yards rushing on 27 attempts.
“I felt like their team speed was an advantage over us but we did feel like we could play well in
the box,” Curtis said. “It’s hard to beat somebody if you can’t run, and we did a great job
stopping the run. I’m really proud of Coach (defensive coordinator Alex) Lusk and the way he
prepared the defense. We showed some looks that we haven’t done before and that paid off big
for us.”
Blythewood avoided a shutout when Zarian Williams recovered a Lexington fumble at the
Wildcat 15-yard line and ran it in for a score at the 4:05 mark of the third quarter. From there, both
teams inched the ball along and punted six times.
“They were way better than we were,” Blythewood head coach James Martin said. “I make
no excuses. We have a lot of young kids playing right now, and they’re learning to play football.
They’re going to get there, but tonight, hat’s off to Lexington. They had a great plan.”
Lexington 14 11 7 0 – 32
Blythewood 0 0 7 0 – 7
First Quarter
L - Cam Morris 4 run (kick failed) 8:30
L - Morris 5 run (Noah McClary pass from Taiden Mines) :12
Second Quarter
L - Tyler Chavis 41-yard field goal 8:32
L -Brandon Cromer 17 pass from Mines (Tyler DiRienzo pass from Mines) :27
Third Quarter
L -Cromer 36 pass from Mines (Chavis kick) 9:26
B - Zarian Williams 15 fumble return (Ashton Davis kick) 4:05
LHS BHS
First downs 15 10
Rushes-Yards 35-116 27-99
Passing yards 178 50
Att-Com-Int 11-16-0 10-20-2
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 6-55 11-85
Punts-Avg 5-40.6 8-34.9
INDIVIDUAL
RUSHING
L-Cam Morris 11-54, Taiden Mines 7-16, Torrie Jones 6-9, Toby Sobieralski 8-34, Jonathan
Rolland 1-3, Ethan VanHouten 1-(-1), Jack Cooper 1-1. B-Chase Brown 6-27, Harrison Collins
5-8, Christopher Thomas 4-18, Zahir Jones 3-5, Kaleb Kelly 2-20, Nate Rabon 1-17, Traveze
Benefield 2-1, Aiden Winder 1-(-1), Team 2-4.
PASSING
L-Taiden Mines 10-15-0, Noah McClary 0-1-0. B-Harrison Collins 10-18-2, Traveze Benefield
0-2-0.
RECEIVING
L-Brandon Cromer 4-100, Zareth Owens 2-34, Lincoln Hill 2-23, Tyler DeRienzo 1-7, Cam
Morris 1-(-6), Garrett Gallaher 1-11. B-Nate Rabon 4-13, Kanye Reed 2-12, Aiden Winder 2-12,
Zahir Jones 1-4, Christopher Thomas 1-9.
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