LEXINGTON – Blythewood created four turnovers in the first half of Region V-5A game at Lexington Friday night, but the Bengals came up empty on each opportunity.
In the second half, the Wildcats defense came up with three picks of their own and closed out a 21-0 victory over the Bengals at Wildcat Hollow.
“Our guys played hard. I’m proud of them. That’s all we ask of our guys,” Blythewood head coach Bryan Smith said. “We’d love to have had a score, but Lexington’s a good team. Our guys fought extremely hard, and that says a lot about us.”
Brandon Edwards (28) attempts to squirt past the only Lexington defender in his vicinity. | Photo: Ross Burton
The banged-up Blythewood offense showed some ball movement under quarterback Quentin Singleton, but nowhere near the amount of production needed to go up against Lexington. Singleton was 12-for-30 for just 41 yards and 3 interceptions. The Bengals had just 125 rushing yards on 22 attempts.
The Blythewood defense kept the team in the game. Bengals defenders managed two interceptions and two fumble recoveries in the first half, and limited Lexington to 215 total yards in the game.
Lexington (6-3, 3-2) took a 7-0 lead early on with a 1-yard Akeem Nicholas touchdown run. But three turnovers over the next 20 minutes made the Wildcats Homecoming crowd nervous.
Blythewood (3-5, 1-4) caught a break on a muffed punt after its first possession and drove to the Lexington 11-yard line. But Miles Heitman missed on a 28-yard field goal attempt at the 3:39 mark of the first.
Bengals defender Shi’heem Watkins later came down with an interception, but Lexington blocked a Heitman 33-yard attempt that ended the Blythewood drive.
Chase Crouch gave Lexington a 14-0 lead with a 7-yard TD pass to David Cromer in second quarter.
Blythewood recovered a Wildcats fumble two minutes before halftime. But Quentin Singleton’s 15-yard pass to Chris Woodall was five yards short of the goal at the siren.
Chandler Corley came down with an interception for the Wildcats early in the second half. That pick led to Crouch’s 52-yard TD pass to Jordan Hiller with 1:56 to go in the third.
Crouch finished the night 10-for-15 for 121 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions.
“Our defense played great all night long,” Lexington head coach Perry Woolbright said. “This team doesn’t get up, doesn’t get down. They stay even keel. We had some turnovers in the first half but we didn’t panic, and the defense played great.”
Smith said he knows his team hasn’t had the best season, but he wants to see his team play hard next week against White Knoll and at Spring Valley Oct. 27 in the regular-season finale.
“They need to keep trying,” Smith said. “Keep trying. We’re extremely short-handed, we’ve got a lot of guys out with injuries, but we just need to keep trying.”
SCORING
LHS-7-7-7-0-21
BHS-0-0-0-0-0
First Quarter
L – Akeem Nicholas 1 run (Matthew Waller kick) 9:10
Second Quarter
L – David Cromer 7 pass from Chase Crouch (Waller kick) 2:36
Third Quarter
L – Jordan Hiller 52 pass from Crouch (Waller kick) 1:56
TEAM STATS BHS LHS
First Downs 12 13
Rushes-Yards 22-125 34-132
Passing Yards 41 83
Att-Com-Int 30-12-3 15-10-2
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2
Penalties-Yards 9-56 4-40
Punts-Avg. 7-34.0 6-33.0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Blythewood – Brandon Edwards 10-76, Chris Woodall 6-23, Quentin Singleton 5-29, Julian Jordan 1-(-3). Lexington – Jordan Hiller 10-46, Akeem Nicholas 16-58, Mitchell McGee 2-21, Chase Crouch 6-7.
PASSING: Blythewood – Quentin Singleton 12-30-3. Lexington – Chase Crouch 10-15-2.
RECEIVING: Blythewood – Chris Woodall 3-24, Jakob Owens 4-11, Brandon Edwards 3-27, Dalen Mickle 2-11. Lexington – Mitchell McGee 3-3, Jordan Hiller 2-56, Hayden SAbrams 2-20, Jaylen McCoy1-27, David Cromer 1-7
