Raceland Wins Region
Rams in State Final Four
James Collier
For the Ashland Beacon
Few words come to mind when describing Raceland’s performance Friday night when the Rams traveled to Sayre in the Class A Quarterfinals.
Dominant and overpowering would be the two that would best fit the Rams outing in their 42-27 win that clinched their third consecutive regional championship on a rainy night south of Lexington. Raceland imposed its will at the line of scrimmage to the tune of 437 rushing yards on 63 totes while converting on all 12 of the Rams’ third-down conversion attempts in the win.
“Credit to our kids tonight,” Raceland coach Mike Salmons said. “We are two hours from home, but you just have to pull that chin strap a little bit tighter and go right at them and I think we did that tonight.”
Raceland leaned on its rushing attack in all but six of their 69 total snaps from scrimmage in a manner that a message could have been posted on a billboard down I-75 stating stop us if you can, but the Spartans simply could not find that stop when they needed it most. Noah Wallace turned in his best rushing performance of his career with a 209-yard outburst on 25 carries that soared the senior over 1,000 yards on the season. Quarterback Logan Lundy countered with 128 yards on 26 totes while visiting the endzone four times in the thwarting of the unbeaten Spartans on their home turf.
“We came in with the mindset that we wanted to run the ball and that’s what we did,” Wallace said. “When you can just sit and run the ball on a team over and over and over, and they can’t stop it, it builds so much team confidence for us. When you can’t stop the run, you can’t win playoff games.”
Coach Salmons nearly echoed the words of his senior tailback.
“You have to be able to run the ball in November to survive,” Salmons said. “There are two things that don’t survive in the month of November; dogs trying to cross the road in rush hour traffic and teams that can’t stop or run the ball. I felt like in large we ran the ball. Over 400 yards is phenomenal and (Sayre) only ran for three.”
Raceland found itself playing catchup early in the contest after Sayre took the opening drive 82 yards in eight plays with Luke Pennington tossing his first of three touchdowns and a 7-0 lead.
“We talked about getting a fast start and trying to put the pressure on them early,” Sayre coach Chad Pennington said. “We didn’t want them to be too comfortable. Our guys did that and they executed really well on the first two drives. The start of the game was exactly what we wanted.”
But the Rams dominant offensive showing began on their first play from scrimmage behind a 15-play, 89-yard drive that ate up 7:09 of the quarter capped off by a Lundy 6-yard plunge that evened the affair at 7-7.
“We took nearly the whole first quarter, especially after they went 82 yards on the first drive,” Salmons said. “I was really proud of our defense. I see they had just around 200 yards of offense. At times, it seemed like a little more than that. They had two possessions that they got two touchdowns and the rest of the game they had one offensive touchdown. I thought our defense adjusted well. When you can control the A-gap, you typically win the football game.”
Sayre regained the lead only five seconds into the second stanza, but the Rams countered with an equalizer with 4:51 to go in the half on Lundy’s second score of the night. As the Rams lined up to kick the PAT, an opportunity on the field presented itself and the Rams rolled the dice for a two-point conversion and a 15-14 lead that they never gave up the remainder of the night.
After the Rams forced the first failed third-down by either team late in the second quarter, a Sayre punt attempt was muffed and the Rams needed to cover only 43 yards with just over two minutes remaining to find paydirt. Lundy’s third score of the night did just that while leaving only 38 ticks on the first half clock while extending the Rams lead to 22-14 at the break.
Raceland wasted little time getting back after Sayre’s defense as the Rams shortest drive of the night of 1:29 resulted in a Jaxon Heighton 72-yard scamper to the house and a 29-14 edge. With all the momentum leaning toward the Rams, they rolled the dice with an onside kick and made a successful recovery which led to a 35-14 lead on a Lundy to Brayden Webb touchdown pass with 5:29 to play.
“We always talk about the first four minutes of the third quarter,” Salmons said. “It was total domination. (Sayre) muffs a punt, we score and get a one score separation before the half. We get the ball to start the second half and bam, we go down and score and then get the onside kickoff and go score again. So, that run by Jaxon gave us a little bit of a comfort level there. Our guys came out of the locker room really ready to go and they bought into the game plan from the word go. The game plan was we were going to play as physical as we could play tonight and the game would be won on the line of scrimmage.”
Heighton finished with 98 yards on 11 carries with the 72-yard scamper being his career long. The duo of Wallace and Lundy surpassing the century mark was the first for the Rams since Isaac Browning and Wallace did so last year in the state semifinals against Louisville Holy Cross. Lundy’s mark was the first 100+ rushing performance since tallying 137 at Paintsville in 2021. Wallace becomes the first back to surpass the 200+ yard mark since Bailey Walker ran for 208 in a 2016 playoff win over Nicholas County.
“Super proud of those guys,” Salmons said of Wallace and Lundy. “They are seniors who have really put their bodies in position to do this. You can’t just show up and make something like this happen. Between the two of them, they carried the ball over 50 times. That’s astronomical. When you can line up and snap the ball to your quarterback or snap it to No. 2 (Wallace) and get nearly seven yards a carry, that’s pretty satisfactory.”
Lundy said the recipe for the game was simple. Run, rinse and repeat.
“Throughout the week, Coach Salmons said the gameplan was to make that A-gap ours,” Lundy said.
The Rams signal caller was also quick to praise the big bodies at the point of contact that allowed the Rams to feast in the running game.
“Coming from the Ashland game, the line was a little rough, but we were all a little rough, honestly,” Lundy said. “I think playing those powerhouse schools—and I’m super proud of them for hanging in there—but the powerful schedule has made the game slow way down for them. I can’t say enough about the line tonight and I’m super proud of them.”
But the offensive line was not the only line making noise throughout the game as the defense stepped up big in the second half. After the Spartans converted all four third down conversions to start the game, they would finish with only one over their next five while turning the ball over on downs on their final two possessions highlighted by a combo sack by Linden Sammons and Chase Correll that all but sealed the Rams ticket to the semis while handing the Spartans their first and only blemish on their resume this season.
The Rams added a new chapter to their record books while making another step toward a return trip to Kroger Field on Dec. 1 and a berth in the State Championship.
“This is the first time we have won a regional championship three times in a row and seven in the past 11 years,” Salmons said. “Sometimes you just pinch yourself and be grateful and humble to be in this position. It's about our players. We pour our heart and soul into them and in return they give it back. We saw that tonight. We are excited to eat a little breakfast on Thursday morning, practice a little football, eat a little turkey and get on the road and head to Louisville.”
Raceland will visit Kentucky County Day on Black Friday in Louisville. The Bearcats earned the top overall seed in the playoffs with the highest RPI over the regular season. It will be the first ever meeting between the two programs.