LEXINGTON — Lexington coach Taylor Gerhardt has wished his football team would get off to a faster start.
Some wishes do come true.
The Minutemen scored twice in the first couple of minutes against Mount Vernon on Friday night, setting the tone for a 34-15 victory.
“We have been preaching all year about the need to get off to a faster start offensively,” Gerhardt said. “We took a step last week (in a 21-0 win at Clear Fork) and continued that this week.”
Senior QB Logan Pfizenmayer, who had three rushing TDs last week, again got Lex off to a good start when he raced 66 yards for a TD just 56 seconds into the game. After a quick stop on defense, Lex gained the ball in great field position and quickly scored on a 17-yard run by senior Hunter Biddle.
With 9:44 still showing on the first quarter clock, Lexington led 14-0.
The win was the second in a row for the Minutemen, now 3-2 overall and still 1-0 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference. Mount Vernon, which joins the OCC next season, fell to 1-4.
BIDDLE IS BACK: Biddle, a 6-0, 175-pound running back, rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, but he has been slowed by injuries in 2016.
But Biddle was back against Mount Vernon, rushing for 184 yards on 19 carries and scoring two TDs, the second coming in the final period. As a team, Lex had 303 yards on 34 carries.
Pfizenmayer, who rushed for 86 yards on four tries, completed 11 of 18 passes for 110 yards. Senior A.J. Nickoli led the receivers with 65 yards on six receptions, including a 15-yard TD pass late in the first quarter as Lex built a 21-8 lead.
Yellow Jackets coach Mike Kerr, whose team only has seven seniors, came away impressed. Coming into the game, MVHS had lost three games to teams with a combined 11-1 record.
“I think Lexington is a good football team,” Kerr said. “They are solid at every position. I would rank them up with any other team we have seen. They run hard, they block hard and they execute.
“We had some miscues early that put us into a hole,” Kerr said. “But there is no quit in this team. We only have those seven seniors, but they show a lot of leadership every week.”
One of those seniors was running back Freddie Hart, who carried the ball 21 times for 56 yards against the usually rugged Lexington defense.
“(Hart) is a doggone hard runner,” Gerhardt said. “Mount Vernon is a tough football team. They are well-coached and they don’t make mistakes. A couple of plays that could have gone differently this season and they would have a very different record.”
DEFENSE SOLID AGAIN: Lexington entered the game allowing just one TD per game. MVHS ended with two, but earned every point.
The Yellow Jackets gained just 61 yards on 30 rushes, averaging two yards per attempt. Junior QB Jaxon Gregory passed for 156 yards, but completed just 14 of 31 attempts.
“We are disappointed we gave up those two scores, but give Mount Vernon a lot of credit. I thought we played well defensively, but not great,” Gerhardt said. “We had some sloppy penalties on defense, some outside of the play, that allowed drives to continue. We can’t have that. We have to shore that up.”
The Lexington defense got on the board in the second quarter. Senior defensive back Cory Swartzmiller picked off a pass tipped by a Mount Vernon receiver and took it 22 yards for a TD, giving Lex a 28-8 halftime edge.
UP NEXT: Mount Vernon hosts Hilliard Darby next Friday night. It still has games left against OCC opponents Ashland and Clear Fork.
“We think it’s going to be great to be in the OCC next season,” Kerr said. “We think it’s a great conference. We look forward to doing our part to make it competitive.”
Lexington hosts Madison (2-3) next Friday night.
“Are we back yet as a team?” Gerhardt asked. “We feel OK right now. But Madison is coming to town next week. We will find out next Friday at 7 p.m. if we’re back.”
