Thorell stopped by Gering defense in Lexington's Friday home loss 24-7
Lexington's Sebastian Nava (22) takes the handoff from Bryant Truax in the first quarter of the Minutemen's loss to Gering Friday.
Lexington's Toran Kjar (10) gets fired up after making a huge stop against Gering Friday in the Minutemen's home loss.
Lexington's Tyler Thorell (1) makes the catch for a first down before being tackled by Gering's Evan Strom in the Minutemen's home loss Friday.
Lexington's Vince Fago (19) returns the ball after Gering's kickoff in the third quarter Friday in the Minutemen's home loss.
Gering's gameplan going into Friday's match up against Lexington?
Stop wide receiver Tyler Thorell.
"We knew coming in — he's an unbelievable football player, and that's what I just told our guys after the game. I said, you kind of made him a non-factor'" Gering coach Danny O'Boyle said. "He's one of the best football players we're going to see, you know, for a lot of these guys, maybe in their entire careers. He's that good."
O'Boyle praised his defensive staff for their game plan on shutting Thorell down. "And our guys really bought into what we wanted to do, and took him out of the game."
Gering evened out their record Friday night, defeating the Minutemen 24-7.
The Bulldogs struck first near the end of the first quarter as Joel Brown hit a field goal.
Lexington got off a few snaps before the quarter ended, but the initial drive ended as Gering's defense had a huge sack on Bryant Truax, forcing the Minutemen to punt.
A tackle by Lexington's Drew Reynolds on Gering's third-and-2, set the Bulldogs up for a 32-yard field goal.
Brown lined up, kicking into the wind. The field goal had the distance, but went wide to the right.
Lexington dug in for a third-and-14 and Truax found Thorell down the Gering sideline for an 84-yard touchdown. The Minutemen took the lead 7-3 after Alexis Alvidrez drilled the point-after kick.
Lexington nearly extended the lead shortly after that.
Gering's Jack Judy took the snap, looked for a receiver down field and Thorell picked the pass off. He weaved through the field and into the endzone, but a defensive penalty erased the Minutemen effort.
The Minutemen held a 7-3 lead into halftime.
Gering's momentum revved up in the second half. Coming out of the break, the Bulldogs used their first possession to gain the lead back.
Rudy capped the drive with a seven-yard run.
Not only did the Bulldog offense step up, their defense looked completely different in the second half.
A Bulldog sack on Lexington's next possession put the Minutemen into fourth-and-15, forcing a punt.
"We were a little too tight on one side of the coverage," O'Boyle said, of their first half defense. "We kind of brought the pressure at selective times. And when we had them behind the sticks, we kind of floated a little bit more into coverage. We got a couple of tips, and were able to get a couple of takeaways."
Gering used their next possession to take a 17-7 lead on an Evan Strom run.
Lexington faced a difficult situation on their offense for the final quarter. Truax went out with an injury and freshman Oliver Fellers took the field.
All the momentum fell on Gering's side and the defense came up with a couple interceptions, with one turning into the game winning touchdown.
UPCOMING
Lexington faces their first away game at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 against the 1-1 McCook Bison. McCook comes off a 49-0 road loss to Waverly.
