Tomcats overpower Pikeville

By MARK MAYNARD - The Independent

ASHLAND September 06, 2008 07:27 am

— Now that was more like it.
Ashland bounced back from a season-opening loss with a vengeance, dominating Pikeville from the opening kickoff — literally — en route to a 47-0 victory at Putnam Stadium on Friday night.
Even one of Ashland’s grandest teams — the undefeated 1958 Tomcats who were on hand for a golden anniversary celebration — had to leave impressed.
The game was as much Dominic-ing as dominating. Dominic DeMartino recovered a pooch kick on the opening kickoff, ran for three touchdowns and had three tackles for losses.
DeMartino was Mr. Everywhere.
“He made plays all over the place,” marveled Ashland coach Leon Hart. “He ran well at tailback, sacked the quarterback, recovered fumbles ... I don’t know what else he could do.”
It was a night to celebrate after an emotional week for the Tomcats.
Besides the stinging loss to Raceland in last week’s opener, many of the players had to deal with grieving, much like the rest of the Ashland community, with the deaths of Chuck and Denise Leadingham. Both were active in coaching youth sports.
Then on Thursday came more tragic news with the death of Jason Nichols and Brandi Blevins in an accident on Ky. 5. Nichols was Ashland’s second all-time rusher.
“This week has been crazy,” Hart said. “It started out with Labor Day weekend and the coaches didn’t get back (from Pikeville) until 3:45 a.m. (Sunday). We’re at the office and find out about officer Leadingham and his wife. And then yesterday we hear about maybe one of our best-ever players died in a car wreck.”
But the Tomcats turned in one of their best displays in some time, piling up 337 yards rushing behind a strong offensive line.
“Our offensive line did a great job,” Hart said. “Last week was the most stickers I’ve ever given to an offensive line in a game we lost. They really played well and tonight we really controlled it up front.”
DeMartino recovered Will Skaggs’ perfectly placed pooch kick on the opening kickoff and the Tomcats marched it 35 yards for a touchdown with Blake McLeod scoring on a 1-yard run.
Hart and the coaching staff noticed a large gap in Pikeville’s kickoff return team while scouting last week.
“We noticed there was a 20-yard separation,” he said. “Will worked hard on it. I told Dom he was going to end up with the football.”
The botched opening kickoff was the first of many mistakes for Pikeville, which lost five fumbles and had two punts snapped over the punter’s head.
“Anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong,” said Pikeville coach Mike Conley. “When you do things like that against a quality opponent like Ashland, this is the outcome. Things just snowballed on us.”
Ashland took advantage of Daniel Harmon’s second turnover, this one recovered by Daniel McDavid, and drove 36 yards with DeMartino getting the first of his three TDs on an 8-yard run to make it 13-0.
Pikeville was threatening but got turned back on a goal-line stand. Then Ashland lost a fumble but the Tomcats’ defense stopped the Panthers again.
Rashard Carter’s 40-yard run ignited a 79-yard drive, again capped by a DeMartino touchdown, that made it 20-0. Carter finished with 125 yards rushing.
“You had to say our kids quit, but I feel like emotionally they got down,” Conley said.
Ashland made it 27-0 at the half when Josh Alber recovered a loose ball in the end zone after Pikeville had a bad snap out of punt formation. Alber also had a second-half touchdown.
DeMartino’s nifty 32-yard run on the opening drive of the second half put the game well out of reach.
Trey Rogers had his first Tomcat touchdown on a 4-yard run. Freshman Ryan Whetsel carried three times for 32 yards in reserve.

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