ASHLAND – Just last season, Ashland coach Scott Valentine was clothed in green and white.
Friday, Valentine, who’s returned for his 17th campaign at the helm of the Arrows program, coached Ashland to a 35-7 victory over his former team of one season, the Madison Rams.
Explosive plays scorch Rams defense
“We had a lot of different distractions this week,” Valentine said. “I thought they (players) focused in on what we needed to get done and did a nice job.”
Madison engineered a promising opening drive behind QB Cameron Kuhn, but turned it over on downs. That set the Arrows up for an early advantage.
“The one thing we talked about a couple weeks ago was we haven’t had explosive or big-chunk plays,” Valentine said. “When you’re driving the field, you need some of those plays.”
Sophomore quarterback Nathan Bernhard, ranked as one of the nation’s top 100 recruits by both 247Sports and Rivals, wasted no time delivering on Valentine’s sought-after explosiveness.
Madison at Ashland Photo Gallery:
Bernhard connected with sophomore receiver Gabe Baith for the first of two 70-plus-yard touchdown passes.
Halfway through the third quarter, Bernhard found junior receiver Michael Franz striding down the sideline for a 77-yard strike.
Bernhard finished the game unblemished, hitting all eight of his pass attempts for 209 yards and three TDs. He also ran for 19 yards and a TD.
“We’ve been missing those explosive plays all year,” Bernhard said. “To come out and be as efficient as we were, and for the game plan to work out as well as it did, it was definitely a good feeling.”
Madison at Ashland Highlight Reel
Arrows click on all cylinders
The Arrows racked up 300 total yards of offense, which included big nights from the receivers, Baith (94 yards, 2 TDs) and Franz (97 yards, 1 TD).
With the Ashland County Fair running this week, along with homecoming festivities at the high school, Bernhard said the team was still able to focus on the task at hand.
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Ashland’s defense held the Rams to 142 total yards of offense, 113 yards on the ground.
Kuhn, who exited the game in the fourth quarter due to injury, was 6-of-12 passing for just 29 yards.
Full steam ahead
Madison (0-6, 0-3 OCC) remains winless this season and will host New Philadelphia (4-2, 3-1 OCC) next week.
The Arrows will travel to Arlin Field in Mansfield to face the OCC frontrunning Tygers (4-2, 3-0 OCC), who defeated Lexington 37-10 Friday night.
“We’ve got to have our best week of practice and we have to execute next Friday night,” Bernhard said. “That’s a good team, and we’re going to have to play our best game.”
Valentine said his squad will enjoy the victory against the Rams, but preparation for next week will begin Saturday.
“We always tell the kids, enjoy the wins when you get them, because they’re tough to come by,” he said.
“Then we’ll go back to work and get ready,” Valentine said. “We’ve got to get better and figure out what we can do to get it done.”
