Published: November 06, 2009 12:07 am      

Pirates brace for showdown with top-ranked LCA

BEREA — If there was ever a time for Berea Community to have its biggest week of turnout at practice, this would be it.

Pirate coach Kenan McWhorter said he was only missing one player at each practice this week — a rarity this season for his team, which will face the No. 1 team in Class A, Lexington Christian Academy, tonight in Lexington.

Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. at LCA. Live, in-game updates will be available at twitter.com/RichmondRSports.

“Everybody is No. 1 until you lose,” McWhorter said. “This is the first week since I’ve been head coach at Berea where we only had one person missing from every practice. We’ve been able to put a game plan in, offensively and defensively. We feel like with our top 11 to 15 players, if we execute and play hard and play well, all the records are thrown out the door. It doesn’t matter who has been in the playoffs. I believe in our staff and our players.”

LCA (9-1) is unquestionably the toughest challenge Berea has faced this season. Their only loss — a 27-26 heartbreaker — came against cross-town rival, Class 4A Lexington Catholic.

The Eagles are led in rushing and scoring by Dominique Hayden, who has 1,926 yards and 29 TDs on the season. He is the second-leading rushing leader in Class A. He averages nine yards per carry and also has 319 receiving yards and four TDs.

LCA also has a very talented quarterback in Lucas Witt, who has 1,536 yards through the air for 24 TDs. Witt has not thrown one interception all season and is ranked No. 6 in the state in passing. He also has 458 yards on the ground and six rushing TDs.

“They’re so well-coached, they’re well disciplined, they don’t get any penalties,” McWhorter said. “Their quarterback can run it, their running back almost never fumbles. They’re just waiting for us to make a mistake and pounce on us. If we can play some mistake-free football, especially in the first half, we’ll be right in it.”

LCA literally annihilated every team in the fifth district, topping the other four teams 200-0. They lead the state in scoring, averaging 47.7 points per game. They also lead the state in scroing margin, topping their opponents by an average of 34.8 points. They also beat Lynn Camp, 57-14, a team which beat the Pirates (6-4) 29-28 two weeks ago. The other common opponent the two schools have had was Nicholas County, whom LCA beat 62-0 and Berea topped 36-24.

Despite the fact that this is the Pirates’ first playoff game since 2001, McWhorter said he is trying to stomp out the notion that his team is complacent with making the playoffs.

“I’m trying to avoid that mentality,” he said. “The way our district was this year, we got to the playoffs by a touchdown. There’s no guarantee that we’ll get back next year. We’re going to make the most of it this year.”