Ashland's aerial assault overwhelms Mount Vernon in first round playoff matchup
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ASHLAND — After seeing the Ohio Cardinal Conference title slip away last week at Lexington, Ashland coach Scott Valentine stressed the importance of the week of practice leading up the first round of the playoffs.
“That was a big talking point on Saturday morning,” he said. “We have an opportunity to move forward now and sometimes you don’t have that opportunity. We had to come back and have a good week of practice and I thought we did.
“From here on out, we’re gonna have to make sure we’re locked in on everything we’re doing.”
That good week of practice led to a really good performance in Week 11 as the No. 7 Arrows showcased every bit of their explosive offense in a 56-21 dismantling of No. 10 Mount Vernon.
“That loss definitely left a chip on all our shoulders,” junior wideout Killian O’Brien said. “We came in all week and practiced hard, took everything serious — we don’t want to lose again.
“Nathan (Bernhard) came out hot and when your quarterback’s playing like that, it’s a winning formula. We just have to get open and he makes that throw perfectly where it needs to be every time.”
Hot might be an understatement. After the Arrows forced a fumble on Mount Vernon’s opening drive, Bernhard took a shot at the end zone on the first play and connected with O’Brien from 27 yards out.
“The biggest part of the game is always who can make the first hit to really get the momentum going first,” senior linebacker Gunner Lacey said. “With us getting that turnover right away, that was a big part of the game to keep it going for the rest of the time.”
Bernhard went on to throw four more touchdowns — three to Gabe Baith and one more to O’Brien — and rushed one in, all in the first half alone.
“We came into this week and we saw what they were trying to do,” Valentine said of Mount Vernon’s defensive schemes. “They gave us some different looks, but with his experience … he makes me look like a good coach. When he’s on the field, he just sees it and gets the ball to the people.”
Bernhard knew almost immediately he would have success against the Yellow Jackets.
“We were better, that’s it,” he said. “We had better athletes, we beat them pretty much every way. They tried to man up on us, they tried to play super far off coverage, they tried everything and nothing worked, so we were able to do whatever we wanted.”
He finished 18-of-24 for 325 yards and five touchdowns, 11 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown, and had a sack on defense. Baith had eight receptions for 163 yards and three touchdowns, O’Brien four receptions for 65 yards and two scores.
“You watch film, draw up plays and try to replicate it in practice, but you can’t,” Mount Vernon coach Mark Weber said. “How do you get better for a quarterback like him? You have to play a game like this. You have to get your butt kicked … and now the guys have seen that in real life, so next time you play a kid of that caliber — which you might not. You never know if you’ll play an All-Ohio quarterback that is gonna be right up there at the top with Mr. Football, you don’t play those kids every year.
“He’s just exceptional. It’s the type of kid you’d want your town to rally behind. We’ve seen some good runners this year, but we haven’t seen a passer like that. And lets give credit to their receivers … they were on the same page and I think that’s his leadership. They want to play hard for that quarterback. We love high school football, it was fun to watch him honestly.”
His fifth, and final, touchdown pass was to Braden Donatini early in the third quarter to bring the running clock into effect. Mount Vernon stopped it briefly with 1:06 to go in the third quarter before Baith capped off a career night with an 86-yard kickoff return as an immediate response — it was the only kick of the night Mount Vernon sent downfield.
“I was expecting them to go onside kick, so I was coming up, then I saw the kick over the top so I had to back up a little,” Baith said. “I caught it, was patient coming up, saw them all flowing this way, saw a cutback lane and went off.”
Ashland now shifts its focus to another meeting with St. Francis DeSales after the two met in this very round last year, but at Community Stadium. The Arrows will be making the trip to Columbus next week to face the two-seeded Stallions in a Division II, Region 7 quarterfinal.
“We saw each other this summer in 7-on-7 down at Bellefontaine … and with Nate going to some quarterback things, some of those guys know each other,” Valentine said. “They’re definitely a good team, so we’ll go get ready this week to go down there and try to get the job done.”
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This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: OHSAA Football: Ashland airs it out in first round win over Mt. Vernon
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