Top-rated McCook routs Lexington

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette McCook High School senior Jon Bryant (80 in red) is surrounded by three Lexington players after making a 5-yard catch in the first quarter Friday night at Weiland Field. Bryant also interecepted a pass. The Bison won 48-14.

Bison, 6-0, play

at Cozad

next week

The big scoring play was McCook's biggest weapon in Friday night's 48-14 rout against Lexington Friday night at Weiland Field.

McCook, ranked No. 1 in Nebraska Class B, improved to 6-0. Lexington dropped to 3-3.

"I thought we played a really good game," said Bison head football coach Jeff Gross. "After we got settled down, we played well defensively. I was pleased offensively."

Four of McCook's eight touchdowns were longer than 20 yards.

Josh Cherry intercepted a pass and returned it 20 yards for a TD, Craig Fritz scored on a 59-yard TD run, Matt Berry returned a punt 69 yards for a score and Dillon Goltl caught a 53-yard TD pass from Cherry.

Nate Berry scored McCook's first TD on a 5-yard run at the 9:29 mark in the first quarter.

Lexington's Blake Reynolds tied the score at 7-7 on a 10-yard TD run.

The Bison scored 20 points in the second quarter on Cherry's interception return, Fritz' 59-yarder and a 9-yarder by Fritz. McCook led at halftime 27-7.

Berry's punt return TD and Goltl's TD catch in the third quarter gave McCook a 41-7 lead.

Lexington's Kevin McCance recovered a McCook fumble in the end zone to cut McCook's lead to 41-14.

McCook senior Austin Barenberg put the finishing touches on the Bison win with a 4-yard TD run in the fourth quarter..

Cherry kicked 4-of-5 extra points and David Cappel made his one attempt -- all with Eric Rippen as the holder.

McCook rolled up 332 yards rushing and added 74 passing. The Bison limited the Minutemen to 96 yards rushing and 67 passing.

Fritz and Sam Frazier each rushed for 96 yards, followed by Barenberg with 63, Matt Berry 23, Caleb Morgan 14, Cherry 12, Frank Barnett 9 and Nate Berry 5.

Goltl caught the 53-yard TD pass. Frazier caught a 12-yard pass, Jon Bryant caught 1 pass for 6 yards and Matt Berry had 1 catch for 3 yards.

Cherry and Bryant intercepted passes.

Reynolds led Lexington is rushing with 42 yards on 19 carries. John Rodysill caught 2 passes for 32 yards.

McCook will play at Cozad next Friday in a Class B-5 district game. The Haymakers defeated Grand Island Northwest 28-17.

The Bison will likely be without junior offensive tackle/defensive tackle J.D. Stone for the Cozad game. Stone suffered a knee injury in the second half. Gross said he thinks it might be an MCL.