By AARON SNYDER — The Independent
CANNONSBURG — Ashland slammed the door on Boyd County with authority and closed the book on its 9-1 regular season.
The Tomcats blasted the Lions, 46-0, Friday night at Lions Stadium.
Ashland’s defense limited Boyd County to an eye-popping seven yards of total offense.
“That’s amazing,” said Tomcats sophomore Ryan Whetzel. “(Defensive coach Tony Love) does a great job with us. We just try to play as hard as we can.”
Whetzel, Connor Swift, Trent Hardy and Dom DeMartino made big hits and key defensive plays all game long.
“They’re so fast on defense,” said Boyd County coach Lee Evans. “If you don’t have a couple of guys that have speed to match that, it’s hard to do anything.”
“We didn’t allow them to do anything,” said Ashland coach Leon Hart. “We felt like they couldn’t handle our speed.”
The Lions’ longest play from scrimmage was a 14-yard run by Tyler Arthur in the third quarter, but Colt Phelps sacked him on the next play.
Boyd County (2-8) achieved four first downs in the game, but two of them were results of two of Ashland’s 15 total penalties.
The Tomcats were penalized for 115 yards, 30 of which came on a 15-play, 96-yard drive that ate up 7:32 of the clock in the third quarter, when the offense really came to life.
“The first half we weren’t playing with enough emotion,” Whetzel said. “We were dead. Coach Hart took us into the locker room and lit us up. We came out in the second half and took care of business.”
Whetzel capped that third-quarter drive with a four-yard touchdown run, which was followed by a two-point conversion by Swift, giving Ashland a
22-0 lead. Swift and Whetzel together accounted for 26 of the Tomcats’ 46 points.
Ashland had just three possessions in the first half, one of which resulted in a turnover on downs. The other two ended with scores—one by Sam Hunter on a play action quarterback boot play in the first quarter, followed by a strong-side 15-yard run by Swift in the second quarter.
The Tomcats made up for an early second-half interception by Boyd County’s Ethan Ross by forcing three straight Lions turnovers. Ashland turned a 22-0 lead into a 46-0 lead in less than six minutes.
Three Lions’ fumbles, two of which came on back-to-back kickoffs, were capitalized upon behind Swift and Josh Alber in the fourth quarter.
Swift scored his second touchdown while Alber recorded two consecutive scores and finished with a game-high 137 yards on 18 attempts.
“The kids played with a lot more intensity in the second half,” Hart said. “We get a lot of credit for our offense being flashy and being able to score points, but our defense has really been the backbone of this football team.”
Both were on full display Friday night, and Ashland recorded its second largest margin of victory over Boyd County in the series, which it now leads 31-16.
Evans was obviously unhappy with the outcome in the rivalry game, but hopes his team realizes the urgency of forgetting the loss.
“This is not how we wanted it to go, but we’ve got to come back (for the playoffs),” Evans said. “We’ve got to recover. That’s the most important thing.”
On Senior Night, Evans said he will miss the group of 12.
“This is my fourth year. They were freshmen when I started,” he said. “They’re special to me because of that. I hate the disappointment and things not going well this season. But we’re still in a position to do something positive at the end.”
AARON SNYDER can be reached at asnyder@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2664.
