Red Devils take to the air to torch Panthers

FLEMINGSBURG  — It was a bounce back win, but with a little more air under it.

Needing to bounce back after their first loss of the season, quarterback Jayden Frasure and the Red Devils took to the skies, racking up 364 passing yards to torch the Fleming County Panthers 49-14 on Friday night.

Frasure completed 11 of his 16 pass attempts, with 5 of those passes being gains of 25-plus yards or more. Two of those big gains were to Jayden Pennington, as two seniors only hooked up twice in the game, but both times resulted in touchdowns of 80 and 91 yards.

Russell (5-1) wasted little time finding the end zone, as they needed just 6 plays on their opening drive to score. The final play of the drive saw Frasure step back and hit his tight end Kanean Jacobs down the middle of the field for a 36-yard touchdown toss and a 6-0 lead.

On their second possession, Fleming County moved their way into Russell territory, but back-to-back plays for losses would cut the drive short.

On third down, quarterback Jett Martin was swallowed up by Brody Smith for a loss of 2. On fourth down, the Panthers elected to roll the dice and go for it. But Martin was snowed under by Jacobs and Zach Brown for a sack.

Three plays later, Frasure called his number a designed run, followed the blocks of Anderson Haggard and Jordan Rowe and rolled 40 yards into the end zone to extend the Red Devils lead. Frasure ran in for the conversion and Russell led 14-0 with just a minute left in the opening quarter.

The second quarter scoring turned into the Frasure and Rowe show.

The first score came from 5 yards out, as Frasure threw a swing pass out to Rowe and the junior back used his momentum to spin through and tackle and stretch out over top of another defender to put the ball across the goal line.

Their second score came later in the final seconds of the half when Frasure let a pass fly while rolling to his right and Rowe made a fingertip catch while diving towards the back corner of the end zone.

In the third, the scoring slowed down for much of the quarter, until finally Fleming threatened to cut into the lead.

The Panthers put together a long, time-consuming drive that covered 67 yards over 11 plays.

A key play during the drive was when a blitzing Kanenan Jacobs appeared to have himself a sack, only for Martin to hand the ball to Kaleb McIntyre before being spun down, and McIntyre took the improvised handoff 18 yards to the Russell 12.

The Panthers couldn't take advantage of the play, as multiple penalties pushed them back to near midfield and they were forced to punt.

The very next play from Russell resulted in Frasure's 80-yard touchdown toss to Jayden Pennington, who streaked past his defender down the far sideline.

The final touchdown between Frasure and Jayden Pennington came in the later stages of the fourth, when Pennington beat his defender inside on a slant, Frasure hit him in stride, and the wideout blazed his way to pay dirt.

Running back Kaiden Benge put the exclamation point on the win in the fourth quarter, rumbling in from 3 yards out to finalize the score at 49-14.

The Panthers were led offensively by their quarterback Jett Martin, as he carried the ball 18 times for 72 yards and a second quarter rushing touchdown. Martin also completed 12-of-19 passes for 74 yards and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Blake Everidge to begin the fourth quarter.

Evan Conley finished as Martin's top target in the passing game, catching 8 passes for 45 yards.

Russell will be off next week for their bye week, then return home to face Lewis County in district play.

Russell 14 13 8 7 = 49

Fleming Co 0 7 0 7 = 14

First Quarter

Rus — Kanenan Jacobs 36 pass from Jayden Frasure (kick blocked), 7:21.

Rus — Jayden Frasure 40 run (Frasure run), 1:00.

Second Quarter

Rus — Jordan Rowe 5 pass from Jayden Frasure (kick no good), 7:44.

FC — Jett Martin 1 run (Carter Smith kick), 5:29.

Rus — Jordan Rowe 23 pass from Jayden Frasure (Sam Totten kick), 0:11.

Third Quarter

Rus — Jayden Pennington 80 pass from Jayden Frasure (Kaiden Benge run), 4:11.

Fourth Quarter

FC — Blake Everidge 19 pass from Jett Martin (Carter Smith kick), 10:32.

Rus — Jayden Pennington 91 pass from Jayden Frasure (Gavin Skaggs kick), 4:27.

Rus — Kaiden Benge 3 run (Frasure run), 1:00.

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Rus FC

First downs 14 12

Rushes-yards 20-103 27-124

Passing yards 364 74

Total yards 467 198

Cmp-Att-Int 11-15-0 12-21-0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 7-37 3-31.5

Punts-average 1-26.0 3-27.67

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Russell: Jordan Rowe 4-7, Jayden Frasure 5-46 TD, Anderson Haggard 2-12, Kaiden Benge 6-29 TD, Lane Osborne 3-9; Fleming County: Blake Everidge 4-19, Jett Martin 18-72 TD, Trevor Plank 1-9, Kaleb McIntyre 3-23, Paxton Jones 1-1,

PASSING – Russell: Jayden Frasure 11-15-0 364 5-TD; Fleming County: Jett Martin 12-19-0 74 TD, Trevor Plank 0-2-0 0.

RECEIVING – Russell: Jordan Rowe 4-84 2-TD, Caden Mitchell 1-15, Kanenan Jacobs 1-36 TD, Jayden Pennington 2-171 2-TD, Cayden Pennington 3-58; Fleming County: Blake Everidge 2-18 TD, Trevor Plank 2-11, Evan Conley 8-45.

MISSED FIELD GOALS–None.