CROSSTOWN BLOWOUT: Christian Larkey scores three TDs as North Laurel hands Cardinals their 20th consecutive loss
Sep. 24—LONDON — It's a tale of two teams in Laurel County these days, and the North Laurel Jaguars proved to be the stronger of the pair when they rolled through their crosstown rival, South Laurel, in a 61-8 win on Thursday night.
The 53-point win was the most dominant performance of a Chris Larkey-led team over the Cardinals since Larkey first began coaching at North Laurel in 2009. Larkey has built a winning tradition based on hard work and physicality, which led his team to the huge win on Thursday.
Larkey said, as in most seasons, the Cardinals had a roster full of athletes, but his kids showed up ready to work hard for the win and that is what they did.
"If you watch them on film, they have talented kids over there. Fast kids with a roster full of athletes. They've always had more skilled players than we have. We've been out-talented, by far," said Larkey. "But my kids work hard. They play hard. Even when we were up big, they didn't want to stop playing hard. They wouldn't let up because it was South Laurel and they wanted to play their best."
Play their best, they did. The Jaguars scored four touchdowns in the first quarter, essentially putting the game away early. Tucker Warren found Gavin Hurts for a 30-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring, and never slowed down from there.
Warren threw his second touchdown pass of the night just four minutes later, again finding Hurst from 29 yards out, putting the Jaguars up 14-0 midway through the first. A five-yard touchdown run from Warren moved the score to 21-0, before a 60-yard punt return from Christian Larkey extended the lead to 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Those five scoring plays magnified the differences in the two teams, with the Jaguars scoring three different ways — passing, rushing, and a punt return — including a big special teams touchdown.
The Cardinals saw their record fall to 0-6 while dropping their 20th consecutive game in the process.
"Hats off to North Laurel. They're probably the best team in our district and they are almost playing a different game from us right now. They're faster, more physical, and play with more confidence. You can tell those kids have been together for several years," said South Laurel coach Jep Irwin. "A lot of their best players are sophomores, but they all played last year. They're just bigger, stronger, and a better football team. It is what it is. We're just in a different place than they are right now."
North Laurel continued to fire on all cylinders throughout the game. Warren kicked the second quarter off with another rushing touchdown, followed up with a 50-yard interception returned by Larkey for a score, to put the Jaguars up 42-0 as they headed into the half.
After scoring on a punt return and an interception return, Larkey completed the hat trick, rushing for a 30-yard touchdown to start the third quarter and extend his team's lead to 48-0. Coach Larkey began playing his second string in the fourth quarter and they got in on the action, as well.
Freshman quarterback Hunter Morgan found Eli Sizemore for a 27-yard touchdown pass at the beginning of the fourth quarter, followed by a 21-yard run by sophomore Logan Hall to round out the scoring for the Jaguars on the night, putting them up 61-0 with 6:13 left in the game.
The Cardinals finally got on the scoreboard near the end of the game, when freshman quarterback Landry Collett found Caden Jones for a 36-yard touchdown. South Laurel converted on the two-point conversion to make the score 61-8.
Irwin said despite the big loss, he was proud of his players and coaching staff for the way they approached the game and handled themselves during the defeat.
"We're a tight-knit group. We didn't have any finger-pointing and there hasn't been all season. Our players didn't quit. Our coaches continued to coach. We showed a lot of toughness," said Irwin. "We have a freshman quarterback who has never even played football before. We have 42 kids on the roster and 26 of them have played very little football. It took a few years for the roster to get in this bad of shape and it will take a few offseasons to fix it. This is where we are now, but it won't always be this way."
With the win, the Jaguars improved to 5-0 on the year and 1-0 in district play. They will face their toughest challenge next week when they take on the Southwestern Pulaski Warriors.
"This was a rivalry game tonight. They gave us their best shot early and we knew that would happen, but we withstood it and we got off to a strong start and capitalized on it. The game got out of control," said Larkey. "It's good to get this game out of the way and to be 1-0 in the district because now we have a chance at making the playoffs. We play a really good team next week in Southwestern. They're probably the best team on our schedule and we have to start getting ready for them. It's going to be a very physical and very tough game."
