'How about that West Holmes defense?': Knights shut down Ashland in breakthrough game

ASHLAND — In the 21st meeting of the two teams, both coaches used the ace in their deck superbly as if they were playing poker. West Holmes coach Zach Gardner and Ashland coach Scott Valentine utilized their respective quarterbacks all evening as Morgan Smith and Nathan Bernhard combined for 521 yards of total offense.

But the West Holmes defense wrote a chapter on the "bend but don’t break" mentality as it kept Ashland out of the endzone over the final three periods in a 20-6 road victory. After dropping back-to-back games to Licking Valley and Mansfield Senior earlier in the year, West Holmes has won four in a row.

“Coach Valentine had an amazing game plan to drain the clock and we really only had three possessions in that first half,” said Gardner. “What I will say is, 'How about that West Holmes defense?' We knew the stuff people say about us and our kids take that personally. But for them to come out and play the way that they did and win the football game for us is a testament to our kids.”

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The game looked to be another OCC shootout as both teams found little resistance in scoring on their opening drives.

The Knights marched 75 yards in just under five minutes that culminated in a Smith-to-Nate Fair eight-yard scoring strike. Ashland responded with a 70-yard, four-minute drive with Bernhard hitting Michael Franz with a 35-yard scoring strike. Ashland’s ensuing PAT was blocked for a 7-6 ballgame.

At the time nobody would have guessed those would be the only two scores of the first half.

“I’ve got to find a way for us to get the ball in the endzone,” said Valentine. “We have to figure out a way we can execute. Our kids did execute and move the ball down the field, but again we have to find a way to get it into the endzone.”

After the initial score Ashland had four turnovers on downs and three punts.

The Arrow offense utilized a sharp, quick passing attack in the first half as Bernhard connected on 17 of 18 passes for 141 yards at one point in the opening two quarters.

“Cayden (Spotts) ran the ball very well last week, so each week is a little different,” said Valentine. “If we had to run it, we would run it, but they had 6 guys standing in there and we only had 5 blockers, so we decided to try and spread them out. We did a good job of executing the passing game and that is what I told them this week that we had to be able to execute the passing game and thought we did that for the most part.”

“Self-inflicted wounds kept stopping our drives,” added Gardner. “Penalties (eight for 80 yards) and turnovers and that is stuff we are going to work hard to clean up. It is a scoreboard, not a yard board and our kids played with much tenacity and toughness tonight.”

Kyle Maltrich had a five-yard scoring run and Smith’s 13-yard touchdown run were the only two scores of the second half.

Smith finished 10-of-16 passing for 142 yards and ran another 27 times for 183 to yards to lead the Knights.

Bernhard was 24-for-38 for 189 yards with Spotts adding 21 yards on five carries.

“I think this shows that we can win any type of football game we need to,” said Gardner. “And that is going to serve us very well come tournament time.”

Valentine had words of praise for his team’s defensive effort as the Knights had tallied 56, 43 and 62 points in its last trio of league games.

“I think they are averaging over 40 points a game,” said Valentine. “To hold them down to even 14 there until right at the end. It was a great defensive game plan and out kids played hard. Like I said, I need to find a way to get into the endzone so we can take advantage of that.”

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Football: West Holmes shuts down Ashland in OCC win