Lexington High’s road bout with Blythewood was significantly less stressful on the Wildcat faithful. One week after a thrilling come from behind victory over Stratford, Lexington dominated all phases of the game to beat the Blythewood Bengals 32-7 on the road.

“They got some really good athletes over there. I was pretty nervous about this game all week long mainly because I felt their team speed was probably an advantage over us,” Lexington head coach Dustin Curtis admitted. “But we did feel like we could play well in the box and it’s hard to beat somebody if you can’t run and we did a great job of stopping the run.”

Blythewood struggled to get anything going offensively and those struggles started early and often. The Bengals got the first possession of the game and when quarterback Harrison Collins dropped back to pass downfield, he was hit as he threw and the pass was intercepted by Duke Cleary.

The Lexington Wildcats took the ball and immediately took advantage. Quarterback Taiden Mines connected on a 31-yard pass to Tareth Owens down the sideline that set up a nine-yard touchdown rush by Cam Morris. The extra point was no good but after one possession each, Lexington led 6-0.

Blythewood went three and out on the next possession and Lexington marched right back down the field and scored on another Cam Morris touchdown run from five yards out. A two point conversion reception from Noah McClary gave the Wildcats a 14-0 advantage at the end of the opening frame. 

Special teams played a key role in the next score when kicker Tyler Chavis drilled a 41-yard field goal to push the lead to 17-0 with 8:32 left in the second.

The Wildcats defense continued to dominate, stuffing the Bengal rushing attack and not allowing them to get any momentum going between the tackles. 

Lexington tacked on one more score before the half with a pass from Mines over to Brandon Cromer, who broke a few tackles before getting into the end zone from 16 yards out. A shovel pass to Tyler DeRienzo successfully completed the two-point conversion and the Wildcats took a 25-0 lead to the halftime break. 

In the second half, Lexington received the ball first and wasted no time pouring it on. Mines hit Cromer again with a 36-yard touchdown pass to pull away for good and give them their biggest lead of the game at 32-0 after the Chavis extra point.

Blythewood managed to finally get on the scoreboard but from the assistance of a defensive play. After a botched hand-off exchange in the Lexington backfield, Bengals defensive end Zarian Williams scooped it up at the Lexington 15 and ran it in for a score. That turned out to be the last score of the game as Lexington picked up a 32-7 win.

The Lexington defense was the highlight of the game. Their dominance up front resulted in only 94 yards of rushing offense by Blythewood on 27 rushes. Montrell Byrd in particular had a pair of drive-killing sacks that were deemed to be crucial in helping keep the Bengals offense off the scoreboard. 

Byrd, along with Christian Sexton, Matt McAulay and Daniel Bryant make up the starting core of linebackers who Curtis felt really made a difference not just in this game, but all season long. 

“In the preseason, I felt like it was the strength of the team, our defensive box,” Curtis said. “I haven’t had any four linebackers, even at Flora and we had some good ones, but this collection of four linebackers are as good as any group of four that I’ve ever coached and we need them to keep making plays and doing the right things and tackling and being aggressive because that’s when they’re at their best.”

Offensively, Mines was efficient through the air and some of those big plays in the passing game setup shorter rushing scores from Morris. He completed 12 of his 20 pass attempts for 179 yards and a pair of touchdowns. 

Cromer arguably had the offensive stat line of the night, catching four passes but turning them into 99 yards and two receiving touchdowns. 

Along with Morris’ pair of rushing touchdowns, he ended up rushing for an additional 12 rushes for 59 yards.

The offense will have to continue clicking and the defense will have to be in top form as they travel to face a fellow undefeated Chronicle Country team in Gilbert, who easily handled Pelion.

Other scores from around Lexington County

A.C. Flora 42, Brookland-Cayce 35

Airport 10, Lugoff-Elgin 7

White Knoll 54, Westwood 7

Dutch Fork 54, Stratford 7

Gray Collegiate 30, Camden 12

River Bluff 63, South Aiken 28

Chapin 27, Newberry 14

Gilbert 55, Pelion 9

Camden Military 6, Northside Christian 0