By Aaron Snyder
LOUISA — The game plan week-by-week has hardly ever changed for Lawrence County in the last two seasons.
But the mentality sure has. And so has the execution.
The Bulldogs have erased every single loss from the infamous 0-11 season by winning its first-round playoff game over McCreary Central, 42-19, at home Friday night to improve to 11-0.
“(To go) 11-0 from 0-11 is huge,” said Lawrence County coach Luke Salmons. “Last year at this time we got beat by 60 by Bell County.”
Lawrence County did not let up on the accelerator until the fourth quarter, when McCreary Central scored 19 unanswered points against the second-team defense.
Hunter James and Shane Pack led a relentless running attack that produced 377 yards with six touchdowns.
After James’ fourth touchdown of the night, the Bulldogs took a 42-0 lead into the fourth quarter.
“This puts a statement out to other teams in the postseason,” said James, a junior. “We want to go out there and play hard. We’re coming and we’re rolling.”
James, one of the few Bulldogs who elected not to dye his hair blond before the game, followed his blockers well throughout, running a halfback stretch play most effectively, finishing with 172 yards on 13 carries. Pack rushed for 110 yards on 12 attempts.
Salmons was pleased with his team’s all-around effort, but the defense, which dominated the line of scrimmage, stood out in his eyes.
“Our defense is really playing physical,” Salmons said. “They don’t want to give up any points.”
For a while, they didn’t give up any yards, either. The Raiders brought two 1,000-yard rushers into the game in running back Zach Roark and quarterback Aaron Watts.
The Bulldogs gave up a total of 15 yards of offense in the first half before a 33-yard burst by Roark to end the half. They ultimately gave up 215 total yards, surrendering 122 of those to Roark. Watts was held to 26 yards on 22 carries thanks to a number of tackles for loss by the Dawgs’ defense.
“We contained (Watts) the whole game,” Salmons said.
Ben Preston, Cody Anderson and Wade Skaggs made several key stops on Watts, while Travis Mollette provided good coverage from the cornerback position to limit Watts’ passing.
Lawrence County’s ground game was complemented by quarterback Hayden Kiser. Three of his four completions went to senior Lucas Frasher. Frasher finished with 59 yards, including two catches for 58 yards on one scoring drive in the second quarter. He also made a sliding interception to stop a Raiders’ drive in Bulldogs’ territory.
Emotions ran high from the get-go, and quite a few penalties resulted from the physical play. The Bulldogs were penalized 13 times for 120 yards while McCreary Central had eight penalties for 80 yards. Many of the mistakes came on dead ball situations in the form of personal fouls.
“This was a tough game to coach,” Salmons said. “We came out really fired up and emotional.”
The Bulldogs host Knox Central next Friday in a game that Salmons feels his players will be ready and confident.
“They expect to win,” Salmons said of his players. “We’ve gone from a losing mentality to a winning mentality. They feel like they can beat anybody.”
AARON SNYDER can be reached at asnyder@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2664.
