For a year, Lloyd Memorial’s football team had obsessed over the Juggernauts playing Russell.
Friday at Cecil Dees Stadium, Lloyd exorcised whatever memories of red devils – or Red Devils – remained. The Juggernauts advanced to next week’s Class 3A state semifinals by subduing Russell, 28-13.
Next for Lloyd: hosting Murray, a 20-14 overtime winner over Lexington Catholic, in the state semifinals at 7 p.m. next Friday.
Lloyd head coach Kyle Niederman didn’t have a lot of voice left as he celebrated with his team in the postgame huddle.
“The best players don’t make the best team, but the best team’s gonna win this game,” Niederman said, “And what we proved (Friday) is, we were the best team.”
What was more, Lloyd remained perfect at 13-0 and could forget about 2024’s 21-20 loss at Russell.
“We’ve been thinking about it all year,” Lloyd senior quarterback Kaleb Evans said. “In the offseason when we’re lifting and working out for this upcoming season, that loss was always in the back of our mind.
“That one hurt pretty bad, and we didn’t want that to happen again.”
Lloyd can thank Evans, junior Avery Conrad and sophomores Colten Barger and Izzy Turner for the season extension. Evans threw for 186 yards and touchdowns to Barger and Turner, and Conrad ran for 81 yards and two scores.
Niederman also liked his team’s balanced offense; the Juggernauts also ran for 153 yards.
Lloyd wanted to make Russell (10-3) throw the ball and contain running back Kaiden Benge, who ran for 443 yards before Friday. Through 12 games Red Devil quarterback Jayden Frasure had thrown for 1,781 yards and 21 touchdowns; on Friday, he was 27-of-39 for 158 yards.
Niederman was comfortable with the Red Devils passing attack because the defense limited Russell to 94 rushing yards.
“So we kind of felt once they started throwing it,” Niederman said. “That’s not what they want to do.”
The Juggernauts had the first two big plays, Evans’ 52-yarder to Barger and Conrad’s 29-yard run.
Frasure and Benge kept the Red Devils close at 14-13. Frasure plunged from a yard out with a minute before halftime, and Benge scored from 16 yards out midway through the third stanza.
“We got that score there before half to get it to one score, and then we came out in the second half and went down and had a chance to tie it, got the extra point blocked,” Russell coach TJ Maynard said. “… Our kids battled and battled. We just didn’t make enough plays at the end of the day, and I didn’t put them in a very good position in some situations to make plays.”
Conrad added an 8-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, followed by perhaps the evening’s prettiest pass – a double-move hitch-and-go from Evans to Turner for 35 yards.
Lloyd assistant coach David Brossart called for the play in which Turner sprinted about 10 yards and stopped with a jab step. Russell defensive back Griffin Fisher bought the fake and watched Turner run untouched the rest of the way.
“Our first attempt at it was Monday,” Evans said. “We knew that the hitch was going to be open, so we threw the hitch a couple times, got their corners to press up to try to take the hitch away, and then, when we needed it, we ran hitch-and-go, and (Turner) blew right by (Fisher).”
Niederman hugged his wife Jami after the game – and said he had plenty of voice left.
“There’s always voice left, no doubt about that,” Niederman said. “But that was an exciting game.”
JUGGERNAUTS 28, RED DEVILS 13
RUSSELL — 0-7-6-0 – 13
LLOYD MEMORIAL — 6-8-0-14 – 28
Scoring Plays
First quarter
L-Colten Barger 52 pass from Kaleb Evans (kick failed), 7:24
Second quarter
L-Avery Conrad 29 run (Lincoln Tomlinson run), 8:44
R-Jayden Frasure 1 run (Gavin Skaggs kick), 1:00
Third quarter
R-Kaiden Benge 16 run (kick blocked), 7:30
Fourth quarter
L-Conrad 8 run (Barger pass from Evans), 8:54
L-Izzy Turner 35 pass from Evans (pass failed), 2:14
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Russell 158 (Frasure 27-39-158-0 TD, 0 INT); Lloyd 186 (Evans 12-17-186-2 TD-O INT).
Rushing Yards: Russell 94 (Benge 10-63, Frasure 6-2, Hillard 1-1, Deskins 1-5, Osborne 1-3, Rowe 4-20); Lloyd 153 (Tomlinson 6-35, Conrad 13-81, Jones 2-12, Barger 3-25).
Receiving: Russell 156 (C. Pennington 4-51, J. Pennington 2-12, Mitchell 2-19, Jacobs 4-16, Haggard 1-11, Benge 3-42, Osborne 1-8); Lloyd 186 (Barger 1-52, Jones 1-12, Turner 5-76, Lewis 1-6, Conrad 2-16, Tomlinson 2-2).
First downs: Russell 13, Lloyd 12.
Turnovers: None.
Penalties: Russell 4-25, Lloyd 6-42.
Records: Russell 10-3, Lloyd Memorial 13-0.