Estill County's Up-Tempo Attack Too Much for Garrard in Golden Lion Bowl

Garrard County landed the biggest punches Friday night. Estill County just kept throwing them.

The Engineers scored on their opening possession, answered every Golden Lion score with one of their own, and rode quarterback Brody Mainous and receiver Hunter Bingham to a 35-26 win in the nightcap of the Golden Lion Bowl at Garrard County High School.

Estill County improves to 2-0 after opening the season with a 33-8 win over Western Hills. Garrard County falls to 0-2 following last week's 35-7 loss to Madison Southern at the Death Valley Bowl in Lincoln County.

Estill won the toss, took the ball and never gave the Garrard defense a chance to catch its breath. The Engineers went 65 yards in under two minutes on their opening drive, setting up first-and-goal on a deep throw to Bingham that was hauled in near the goal line before Mainous punched it in himself. Ezekial Wiseman's extra point made it 7-0 barely two minutes into the game.

The no-huddle pace was the story all night. Estill ran roughly 79 offensive plays, snapping the ball almost as soon as the chains were reset. By the second half, players on both sidelines were cramping up, and the Golden Lions were rotating tired bodies in a game where many of them played both ways.

Garrard moved the ball on its first two possessions but came away with nothing, turning it over on downs twice inside Estill territory. A holding penalty wiped out one long run, a drop on third down killed another drive, and an overthrow on fourth-and-9 ended a third.

The Golden Lions finally broke through midway through the second quarter, and they did it in a hurry. Jacob Pendegrist took a pitch to the left side, found daylight and outran the Estill secondary for a 70-yard touchdown. The extra point was low and wide, leaving Garrard down 7-6.

Estill answered with two touchdowns before halftime, both to Bingham. The first came on a third-and-goal throw to the corner of the end zone. The second was a slant from about 12 yards out with 2:35 left, followed by a two-point conversion that pushed the lead to 21-6. 

On the first snap of the second half, quarterback Ryan Noe hit Christian Eldridge on a slant about 10 yards downfield, Eldridge made one defender miss, and the rest was a footrace for 70 yards, ending with a touchdown, and a jolt of life for the home crowd. The two-point try failed, but Garrard had cut it to 21-12.

The Golden Lions’ Keegan Sparks bulled in from two yards out in the third quarter, and a two-point conversion pass to David Moberly made it 27-20. 

But Estill had an answer every time, and the answer was almost always third down. The Engineers converted repeatedly on third-and-long, including a second-and-20 touchdown throw to Bingham from 32 yards out late in the third quarter that effectively decided the game. Mainous ran in the two-point conversion to make it 35-20.

Noe scored on a keeper from the 2 with 8:21 remaining to bring Garrard within 35-26.

Pendegrist left the game late with an ice bag on his knee and did not return. Barnes was shaken up in the fourth quarter but walked off under his own power.

Estill closed it out on the ground, leaning on running back Matthew Partin and Mainous to bleed the clock inside the final four minutes.

Bingham finished with four touchdown receptions. Mainous ran and threw for scores and repeatedly escaped pressure to extend drives.

Garrard's defense produced its share of plays. Mason Himes broke up a fourth-down pass to end an Estill drive, Jonlem Teater and Parker Barnes made stops on third down, and Samuel Routt was in on tackles all night. Barnes also came up with a tipped-ball catch on offense that set up a Garrard scoring drive. Both teams played a clean game, with few penalties and only one turnover between them.