WILLARD — Even as he hugged individual players, Lexington coach Taylor Gerhardt was putting a playoff loss to Sandusky out of his mind on Friday night.
The sting of a 56-12 second-round defeat to the Blue Streaks at Willard High School is not how the veteran coach will remember the 2018 season.
“These kids,” Gerhardt said. “I tell them every Friday night there is nowhere I would rather be than with them. They make me a better and richer person. I told them just before (they) left the field. I don’t care what the score is, there is nowhere else I would rather be.”
The regional semifinal loss ended Lexington’s six-game winning streak and ended the Minutemen season at 7-5, a considerable improvement from a 1-4 start to the year.
Sandusky, which lost to Lexington in the 2016 playoffs, improved to 8-4. The Blue Streaks get a shot at revenge next Friday in the regional title game against Norwalk (9-3). The Truckers, who blasted Rocky River, 56-7, on Friday night, won at Sandusky (52-35) back on Oct. 5.
BAD START: Lexington picked a bad night for its worst start of the season, spotting Sandusky a 14-0 less than two minutes into the game.
Sandusky senior Tevin Stewart returned the opening kickoff 75 yards for a TD. The Blue Streaks scored just over a minute later when 285-pound senior defensive lineman Kendrick Scott picked up a Lexington fumble and returned it 16 yards for a score.
“It was about the worst way you could start the game,” Gerhardt said. “They were up 14 and didn’t even have (to run a play).
“When they did, they did everything right and we didn’t do anything how we normally play. This group of kids is a heckuva group with big hearts and to end like this is disappointing. But they need to keep their chins up. As bad as it was tonight, those kids have high character and they play to the very end.”
TOO MUCH TERION: When Sandusky did run a play, it was usually a hand off to junior running back Terion Stewart, a powerful mixture of balance, size (5-7, 205) and speed.
Stewart, who entered the game with 2,441 rushing yards this season, powered for 212 against the Minutemen on 12 carries, including more than 170 in the first half. He also scored four TDs on runs of 59, 27 and 26 yards, mixing in a 3-yard scoring reception.
Lexington trailed 42-0 at halftime, leading to a running clock for the entire second half.
The Minutemen did get on the board in the final 24 minutes. Senior quarterback Jake Depperschmidt connected near the sideline to senior Josh Aiello, who pitched it to speedy junior Alex Green on a 53-yard, hook-and-ladder TD with 1:36 left in the third quarter.
Lexington got its final score when OSU-bound senior Cade Stover scored on a 6-yard run with 2:29 left to play.
Depperschmidt completed 10 of 16 passes for 167 yards and a TD. Green caught three passes for 63 yards. Stover had 65 yards on 20 carries and a TD.
“We didn’t get on track all night,” Gerhardt said. “Our scores came on trick plays, but the kids kept fighting even though we didn’t do anything that we wanted to do.”
Lexington will lose 16 seniors from this year’s team, including the 6-5, 230-pound Stover, a four-year starter on offense and defense who will next play for the Buckeyes in Columbus.
Gerhardt knows Stover will be hard to replace.
“He leaves a tremendous imprint and we are going to miss the heck out of him,” Gerhardt said.
“We will miss everything about him, from his leadership to his character. He is going to be a very successful young man.”
