Lexington plays spoiler at White Knoll’s homecoming. Takeaways fuel Wildcats win

Lexington suffered two losses in the non-region portion of its schedule, but you couldn’t tell it by the way they started off the Region 5-5A slate Friday against White Knoll.

The Wildcats defense forced four turnovers and Cal Herndon ran for two touchdowns and passed two others to propel the Wildcats to a 42-21 victory to spoil the Timberwolves’ homecoming.

“Anytime you have two evenly matched teams, it’s going to come down to turnovers,” Lexington coach Perry Woolbright said. “We were lucky enough they committed some and we were able to take advantage of them. That’s the key.”

Lexington (4-2, 1-0) scored 28 points off four White Knoll fumbles.

“They’re a good football team and you can’t turn it over,” White Knoll coach Dean Howell said. “We showed we weren’t ready for a big stage tonight and that’s on me. We have to get better.”

The Wildcats jumped to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

White Knoll was poised to come all the way back but a sequence of four plays turned the momentum back to Lexington.

The Timberwolves scored on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Jamias Holloway to pull within a touchdown, 21-14, with over four minutes remaining in the third quarter. White Knoll (4-2, 0-1) recovered the ensuing onside kick but suffered its third lost fumble of the game to give it right back to the Wildcats on the next play.

Three plays later, Elliott Herndon used a double move and was wide open to haul in a 55-yard touchdown strike from younger brother Cal Herndon to make it 28-14 with 2:33 remaining in the third quarter.

“They get the onside kick and everything is in their favor and that turnover was kind of the spark we needed to get back into it,” Woolbright said. “That was the changing point of the game.”

Cal Herndon added a 13-yard scoring run and Taylor Mathias added a one-yard score to put things away.

THREE THINGS WE LEARNED

1. Turnovers are always a difference-maker. White Knoll came into the contest with seven lost fumbles on the season, then lost four more against the Wildcats.

2. Lexington, which played without starting running back Akeem Nicholas, has positioned itself as a contender in Region 5-5A. The Wildcats lost the final two games of the nonregion schedule but played their best game of the season against the Timberwolves. After an open week, they play top-ranked Dutch Fork on Oct. 12.

3. Smith is a force but needs help. He ran for 183 yards and a score and threw for 99 yards and two scores but his receivers dropped at least five passes, one that would have been a sure touchdown. White Knoll needs to clean things up before next week.

HOW THEY SCORED

1st Quarter

L – Ahmad Bynem-Scott 1 run (Brady Bolin kick) 3:59

2nd Quarter

L – Elliott Herndon 24 pass from Cal Herndon (Bolin kick) 11:53

L – C. Herndon 53 run (Bolin kick) 9:15

WK – Aiden Myers 10 pass from Aveon Smith (Luis Orellano kick) 0:53

3rd Quarter

WK – Jamias Holloway 9 pass from Smith (Orellano kick) 4:17

L – E. Herndon 55 pass from C. Herndon (Bolin kick) 2:33

4th Quarter

L – C. Herndon 13 run (Bolin kick) 7:45

L – Taylor Mathias 1 run (Bolin kick) 4:33

WK – Smith 8 run (Orellano kick) 2:32

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing: L: Cal Herndon 14-103, Ahmad Bynem-Scott 14-85, Taylor Mathias 9-69, Amari Mines 3-10. WK: Aveon Smith 28-183, Jamias Holloway 14-84, Donovan Johnson 2-6.

Passing: L: Herndon 8-14-0-132. WK: Smith 11-22-0-99.

Receiving: L: Elliott Herndon 2-79, William Crouch 2-18, Forest Alvarez 3-16. WK: Holloway 4-45, Kennedy Ramsey 2-17, Aiden Myers 2-16, Darius Derrick-Jones 2-21.