Airport completes season sweep of rival Brookland-Cayce
Tenth-ranked Airport closed out a 9-1 regular season Friday with a road win over archrival Brookland-Cayce.
The Eagles bounced back from a 33-28 loss to Midland Valley to secure second place in Region 4-3A and earn a home date in the first round of the state playoffs in two weeks.
Brookland-Cayce (4-6, 2-3) finished fourth in the region, but will have to qualify for the postseason as a wild card team.
TURNING POINT
Airport linebacker Zach Feaster intercepted a B-C pass at the Bearcats 26-yard line with 4:58 to go in the fourth quarter, setting up a game-clinching 22-yard field goal by Paxton Brooks.
KEY PERFORMERS
CJ Wright: Caught five passes for 90 yards, including a 22-yard scoring play in the third quarter that put Airport ahead for good, 21-14. On defense, he had the key defensive play of the game – a fumble recovery at the B-C 4-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
Josh Tucker: The Airport quarterback was 11-for-19 passing for 164 yards and one touchdown. Tucker has filled in admirably for starter Brett Burnett, who is injured and out for the season.
Kerryon Richardson: Ran for 96 yards on just five carries, including a 77-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to up Airport’s lead to 14-7. He also picked off a B-C pass on defense.
A.J. Brown: Accounted for the bulk of B-C’s offense with 85 yards rushing on 21 carries.
OBSERVATIONS
Old foes: The B-C vs. Airport rivalry is one of the most prolific in the Midlands. Friday’s game was the 72nd meeting of the Lexington 2 school district rivals since the inaugural game in 1966.
Sweeping is fun: The series is so financially rewarding that the schools have played twice in a season 20 times. There have been just four splits. Airport has pulled off 14 sweeps – a key reason why it enjoys a 46-26 series advantage.
THEY SAID IT
“I thought we played excellent defense tonight, and we overcame a lot of bad snaps on offense.” – Airport coach Kirk Burnett.
“It feels real good to have a good game against B-C, especially because I missed the first one at the beginning of the season. I was trying to make up for lost time.” – Airport’s CJ Wright.
“Josh has done an outstanding job (since taking over at quarterback). He’s been a receiver for the most part with us. He’s throwing the ball real well now; that big scoring throw was perfectly placed.” – Burnett on Tucker’s growth as a quarterback.
KEY NUMBERS
3: The number of turnovers by Brookland-Cayce.
4: Bad shotgun shaps by Airport, resulting in losses of 42 yards.
309: Airport’s balanced attack featured 164 yards passing, 145 on the ground.
HOW THEY SCORED
1st Quarter:
BC – Justice Mills 8 pass from Kozie Brown (Jonathan Edwards kick), 4:52
A – Jonathon Earl 2 run (Paxton Brooks kick), 0:53
2nd Quarter:
A – Kerryon Richardson 77 run (Brooks kick), 8:21
BC – Charles Balkcom 3 run (Edwards kick), 1:28
3rd Quarter:
A – CJ Wright 22 pass from Josh Tucker (Brooks kick), 7:50
4th Quarter:
A – FG Brooks 22, 3:23
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: A: Earl 13-81, Richardson 5-96. BC: A. Brown 21-85.
Passing: A: Tucker 11-19-0-146. BC: K. Brown 7-15-2-78.
Receiving: A: Wright 5-90. BC: Lykes 4-54.
This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 11:29 PM.