ASHLAND – During a season in which the Ashland offense has been shooting down records like clay pigeons, the Arrow defense is trying its best to steal the spotlight.
For the second week in row Friday, the AHS starting defense didn’t allow a point, as West Holmes left Community Stadium with a 40-7 thumping.
The outcome stretched the Arrows’ regular-season win streak to 18 games and their winning streak at home to 13.
Ashland (8-0, 4-0 Ohio Cardinal Conference) stayed locked in a first-place tie with Lexington (7-1, 4-0) in the OCC – a Week 10 road game still looming against the Minutemen.
With the Knights (5-3, 3-2) visiting Friday, the Arrows had a 14-0 lead less than halfway through the first quarter, then watched their defense bury the dagger.
Returning All-Ohio linebacker Gunner Lacey zipped around some West Holmes blockers for a strip-sack of quarterback Brayden Parsons late in the first quarter. Ashland’s Grayson Baith recovered it, snuffing an 11-play Knights drive with a turnover that led to another AHS touchdown.
“We knew they were gonna want to try to run it down our throats,” Lacey said. “They like to run it, but I like when teams like to run it, too.
“Our defense overall is just so well-balanced. … It’s hard to run anything against us.”
Lacey entered the game leading the team in tackles and just 20 short of the Ashland record for career tackles (376 through Week 7), and he was one of the many Arrows making plays on defense.
Ashland forced a fumble on the next West Holmes drive as well. Trent Summers recovered it to set up a 27-yard field goal from Carson O’Brien, and the Arrows were in full control, eventually hitting halftime up 27-0 after a 37-yard boot from O’Brien.
Amazingly, Ashland now has a 21-2 advantage on its opponents in turnovers forced this season. It’s a big reason the AHS starting unit hasn’t allowed more than a touchdown in any game since Week 3.
“Our defense has been getting those turnovers and any time you get those, you’ve got to take advantage,” AHS head coach Scott Valentine said.
“If you can get turnovers, those are big game-changers,” Lacey added, “so we’re always hungry for those types of plays.”
Ironically, the Arrows nearly lost a fumble on the game’s opening kickoff, but the Knights couldn’t quite come up with it.
Ashland senior quarterback Nathan Bernhard led the hosts’ 76-yard march from there in less than two minutes, punching in a five-yard run for the game’s first points.
That touchdown was set up by a 31-yard Bernhard-to-Gabe Baith connection, and the pass game was clicking on the Arrows’ second drive as well, with Bernhard finding Dakota Kruty down the middle for a score.
Kruty also caught a 4-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter and finished with 64 receiving yards on five catches. It was the second straight week he found paydirt.
“In the last couple weeks, we’ve had a lot of favorable matchups with (Kruty) and we’ve been able to hit some,” Bernhard said. “… He’s had a good couple games.”
The 6-foot-6 senior QB had a historic outing against West Holmes last season, accounting for eight touchdowns (four passing, four rushing) and more than 500 yards in a 56-28 bludgeoning.
While the numbers weren’t quite as jaw-dropping on Friday, Bernhard did post his first 300-yard passing game of the season (21-of-27 for 332 yards), ran in a pair of scores and finished his 14th consecutive game without an interception (more than 280 passes).
“With a quarterback like that, if you let him sit back in the pocket, he’s gonna pick you apart,” Knights head coach Keaton Leppla said.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t play disciplined,” the coach said. “We played timid, we weren’t focused and we didn’t take care of the football – that’s the story right there.”
Ashland’s Braden Donatini also caught four passes for 72 yards and Grayson Baith notched a 10-yard rushing touchdown to finish his 60-yard game on the ground.
But the biggest numbers came from Gabe Baith, who stacked up 180 receiving yards on nine catches. The senior unfortunately didn’t find the end zone in the game, missing out on a 65-yard punt return due to an AHS penalty, then later a 44-yard receiving score by narrowly stepping out of bounds.
But it was still a monster night for Baith, who cleared 2,000 yards of offense for his career with the receiving explosion.
“They bracketed (Ashland leading receiver Killian O’Brien) all game and never adjusted, so that left 3-on-3 to the field (side) and we exploited that,” Bernhard said. “We have three guys over there that I think are very capable receivers and we just had answers for everything they threw at us.”
In the first half alone, Bernhard had two rushing touchdowns and was 16-of-22 for 234 yards and a touchdown passing, throwing for 10 first downs as well.
That production far exceeded anything West Holmes could get going.
The Knights were outscored by Ashland’s kicker, Carson O’Brien, who ended the game with 10 total points after clearing 150 for his career last week.
Parsons finished just 12-of-21 for 70 yards passing, hitting Lynn Cline for a touchdown late in the fourth.
Senior running back Brody Bowman came into Week 8 with more than 800 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground, but Lacey, Brandon Briggs and Grayson Baith helped limit him to just 59 yards on 13 carries Friday.
From Weeks 3 through 6, West Holmes had four wins by a combined score of 147-19 and looked like it could be an OCC contender a year after making the regional semifinals.
But the Knights ran into a Lexington buzzsaw in a 41-7 loss in Week 7, and Ashland would have beaten them by an identical score if not for a bad PAT snap.
“They’re both really good football teams,” Leppla said of the OCC front-runners. “… It should make for an exciting Week 10 matchup for those guys.”
Friday’s outcome marked the seventh time in their eight games that the Arrows have won by at least four touchdowns.
Despite that, Valentine feels Ashland has had its challenging moments.
“Early in the year we had a couple times where we got down early and our kids adapted to that,” he said. “You just hope that carries through (to the end of the season). … I don’t mind big leads, but when games get closer we’re going to have to be ready for the challenge.”
“Obviously, we’ve got to take care of business (against Wooster),” Bernhard added, “but Week 10 and on, the expectation is we’re gonna have to play the second half of some games, and I think we’ll be ready when the time comes.”
The Arrows are back home next week for their final regular-season game at Community Stadium, where they will take on Wooster (0-7, 0-5). The winless Generals are in the basement of the OCC after a 34-21 loss Friday to previously winless Mansfield Senior (1-7, 1-4).
West Holmes, meanwhile, travels to New Philadelphia (4-4, 3-2), which dropped a 44-20 outcome to Lexington.
The Minutemen, who travel to Madison (2-6, 1-3) next week, have won six straight since losing 37-13 in Week 2 at Shelby, the No. 1-ranked team in Division IV.
