article 2A Game of the Week: 2A #5 Lexington Christian Academy vs. 3A #6 Lexington Catholic

Lexington Catholic and Lexington Christian Academy have combined for 3 state championships and 11 regional titles in the last 12 years. Despite all the success that these two Fayette County programs have experienced over that time, this will only be the fourth meeting between the two schools on the gridiron. The Knights have won each of those three previous encounters. The battle of the Lexington privates has been dormant since a 62-0 Catholic romp in 2010.

Both teams enter this year's contest with state championship aspirations in their respective classes.

Lexington Catholic (2-1) has posted impressive wins over Madison Central and Lafayette sandwiched around a blowout loss to 5A #1 Covington Catholic. The win on Friday over Lafayette was spearheaded by seldom used RB Keith Brinkman, who rushed for 187 yards and 2 TDs. Highly regarded sophomore QB Beau Allen’s production (3 of 5 for 22 yards) was limited due to the rainy weather conditions. The Knight's defense forced three turnovers to assist in the 25-0 shutout of the Generals.

LCA (3-0) has scored 40+ points in each of its wins over Waggener, Pikeville, and Vincennes Lincoln (IN). On Friday night, the Eagles fell behind the scrappy and well coached Lincoln Alices 21-7 in the 2nd quarter before finding their footing and rallying to score the final 34 points of the game to secure a 41-21 win. LCA dominated the stat sheet, outgaining the Alices in total offense 538-194. QB Logan Nieves was very efficient, going 18 of 21 for 241 yards and 3 TDs, while adding 80 yards and a score on the ground. Star RB Dillon Wheatley had by far his best game of the young season, rushing for 157 yards and 2 TDs on 22 carries.

The Eagles 49-21 victory over Pikeville in the Pike County Bowl was certainly a good win, but a victory over Lexington Catholic would go a long way toward helping Lexington Christian Academy keep pace with the likes of Christian Academy-Louisville, Danville, DeSales, and Mayfield among 2A’s elite. LCA can't afford to make the early mistakes in this game that they made against Vincennes Lincoln. A slow start versus Lexington Catholic might be too much to overcome against an opponent the caliber of the Knights.

For Lexington Catholic, this is another in a series of challenging hurdles to clear on their 2017 schedule that includes showdowns against Highlands, DeSales, Boyle County, and Southwestern in the weeks to come. The shutout win over 2016 6A runner-up Lafayette was impressive, but no one is forgetting the 48-2 shellacking the Knights took at the hands of Covington Catholic two weeks ago. A strong showing here would help to put that loss further in the rearview mirror and strengthen LexCath's resume as one of 3A’s top teams.

On paper, these teams appear evenly matched. Both teams possess the ability to beat you running or passing. With names like Dameon Jones, Drayden Burton, and the aforementioned Allen, Nieves, and Wheatley, there will be no shortage of playmakers on the turf at LCA this Friday.

Going to be a great game and renews a rivalry that goes back to the grade school level. I'm going with LCA by a field goal.

Good luck, Eagles.

"Trample the weak, Hurdle the dead, fight to the end!"

Or, in Bluto-speak, "NO PRISONERS!!"

I see this one shaping up much like last weeks Danville/Boyle game, as far as the competitiveness goes, only difference, a lot more offense..

This will define the top team in Fayette County this year.

A little story on this series.

In 2009 the game was at LCA where lighting in the end zones is not so good. LCA was kicking an extra point while myself and another father were behind the goal post with video and SLR camera. Ball hits an upright and falls fairly straight down into end zone never crossing the crossbar. It was no good. But the officials under the goal call it good, probably because they standing directly under the posts and really could not see that it did not go through. Neither set of stands could see the result very well in the dark end zone so there was no much commotion about the incorrect call. But we made it clear as the end zone officials walked toward the other officials that it was not a good and held up our cameras to show we had it on film. So the other officials on the field called a huddle, changed the call to not good and LexCath goes on to win, after a long rain delay a bit later, 27 to 26.

I'm not making a prediction but Calpreps has it:

[2017] Lexington Christian (Lexington, KY) 26

[2017] Lexington Catholic (Lexington, KY) 24