Mayfield’s offense ‘put on a show’ as turnovers doom Lexington Christian in playoffs

Every time it looked as though Lexington Christian had gotten a handle on its game against host Mayfield at War Memorial Stadium on Friday night, the Cardinals had an answer — a game-changing, momentum-killing answer.

And when Mayfield wasn’t trading touchdowns with the Eagles, it was capitalizing on LCA turnovers.

Mayfield’s Xavier Biggers stepped in front of a Cutter Boley pass into the flat late in the fourth quarter and returned it 78 yards for the region championship-sealing score in the Cardinals’ 58-36 win.

It was the fourth of five LCA turnovers on the night that helped Mayfield advance to next week’s Class 2A state semifinals.

“We said all along we felt like we had a shot down here tonight, but we can’t help them,” LCA coach Doug Charles said. “They’re good enough by themselves to beat us.”

Despite giving up their first interception return for a touchdown on its opening drive, LCA began the fourth quarter trailing by a single point, 30-29, as two touchdown runs by Brady Hensley, another by BJ Evans, and a 27-yard TD pass from Boley to Parker Chaney kept pace with Mayfield’s 79-yard pick six by Diego Torres; Zane Cartwright TD passes to Braden Morris and Mak Hoover and a sensational 64-yard strike to Malik Kirby; and a 32-yard field goal by Lincoln Suiter.

Then Mayfield running back Jutoriaus “JuJu” Starks took over.

Twenty-five seconds into the fourth quarter and only 32 seconds after LCA had cut the Mayfield lead to one, Starks, who’s nickname is pronounced “Juhjuh,” broke loose for a 60-yard touchdown run to push Mayfield’s advantage to 37-29.

On LCA’s ensuing possession, the Eagles had a third-and-1 at Mayfield’s 35-yard line. But the turnover bug struck again as a bad snap squirted beneath Boley’s grasp under center and bounced into Mayfield’s possession at its own 40.

Cue Starks, who broke a 56-yard TD run to extend Mayfield’s advantage to 44-29 with 8:55 left in the game. Starks finished with 171 yards on 17 carries with all three of his TDs coming in the second half.

“In the second half our offensive line stepped it up and got JuJu going and when we get JuJu going, we’re pretty good,” Mayfield coach Joe Morris said. “We beat a really, really good football team right there. They have a great running back, a four-star quarterback, a defensive lineman who was just a monster, and man our kids just battled and battled.”

Hensley finished the game with 270 yards and two rushing TDs. Boley had 218 yards passing and a TD. He was sacked three times.

“We’re really proud of our kids. We had a lot of adversity tonight. We had a lot of things that didn’t go our way and Mayfield had a lot to do with that,” Charles said. “But we finished the third quarter as a one-point game. We fought back and our kids kept fighting right to the end.”

Lexington Christian (11-2) came into the game as the No. 3 team in the KHSAA’s RPI standings with Mayfield (11-1) at No. 2, but for most of the season the Eagles ranked No. 1 in both the statewide media poll and the Herald-Leader’s ratings by Dave Cantrall. This is the second year in a row LCA has had to travel to Mayfield in the playoffs. The Eagles lost last year in the state semifinals.

“We’ve been hearing everybody, even some of our own people … everybody’s talking about how they didn’t expect us to come out of this game alive,” said Cartwright, who completed 20 of 28 passes for 276 yards. “So to come out here and put on a show was awesome.”

Next up, the Cardinals will get a chance to avenge last season’s state championship loss to Beechwood when they host the Tigers next week in the state semifinals.

“It’s gonna be another war,” Morris said. “We got another chore in that we got a great football team coming in here, but our kids will be ready.”

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